Designing Computers in Any Way Shape or Form

Опубликовано 17 августа 2016, 20:42

Over the past few years, there has been a quiet revolution in display manufacturing technology. One that is only comparable in scope to that of the invention of the first LCD, one that directly resulted in Kay's DynaBook and the modern laptop. The e-ink electro-chemical pixel, combined with advances in organic thin-film circuit boards have resulted in displays that are so thin and flexible, they are beginning to resemble paper. Soon displays will completely mimick the high contrast, low power consumption and flexibility of real ink. This will cause a revolution in computer user interface design. This revolution marks a final frontier for Human-Computer Interaction: one in which interactive computer displays can have any organic form or shape, rather than the rigid technological surfaces of DynaBook. One where the shape of the computer is the input device. One where any object, no matter how complex, dynamic or flexible its structure, can display information. This new paradigm of Organic User Interface (OUI) requires a new set of design guidelines. I'll examine the historical perspective of the organic architectures of Frank Lloyd Wright discussing implications for user interface design of computer systems that have any shape or form. I will give an overview of technologies such as Tangible User Interfaces that led to Organic User Interfaces, and discuss some example OUIs, such as Gummi, developed at SONY Computer Science Laboratories and PaperWindows, one of the first truly 3D thin-film paper computers developed at HML, both in 2004. If in the near future, we can manufacture thin-film displays with user interfaces that can take on any shape or form, rigid or flexible, we can look forward to a time in which computer interfaces are designed, like a product, through user-centric and form-centric industrial design techniques rather than through mathematical, engineering or software design methodologies.