The designs I've been playing around with lately have all put navigation controls at the bottom of the screen (like the Mac Dock).
I was wondering why. A hypothesis: As I've become more comfortable with computers (I'm a late convert), I've started using keyboard shortcuts extensively, so in placing controls at the bottom of the screen, I am in essence putting them within "hand's reach," as if the proximity of the pixel-created buttons to my flesh-and-blood hands mattered.
Before, when I was less comfortable with the keyboard, it might have made more sense to put navigation up high…perhaps because the controls would meet a horizontal eyebeam..or users start reading at the top. (A web page being a "page," after all).
I think, however, that even inexpert users long to touch computers directly, rather than have their interactions mediated via the mouse.
Last year I bought a Cintiq. Given that I was scraping by, it was a huge expense, and totally unjustified except in the sense that I know I'll be doing Flash or something Flash-like for the rest of my life.
I've used this device to help me learn to draw…and, BTW, to impress anyone who happens to come by my apartment.
Here is the inevitable result: Peeps are fascinated by their ability to touch screens directly…and WITHIN ONE MINUTE, they will make this mistake: with the Wacom pen in one hand, they will press the screen WITH A FINGER of their other hand, as if it were an ATM screen.
Clearly, touching is primordial.
When I was considering a Cintiq, I asked an illustrator at an ad agency where I was working what he thought. He was against Cintiqs for 2 reasons: 1) your hand gets in the way (it's like actual drawing this way…your hand blocks the picture you're working on), and 2) your hand gets tired (again, like actual drawing…it's quicker to jerk a mouse with your wrist).
I love my Cintiq and you'll have to pry it from my cold, dead hands, as Moses used to say, but I found out that the illustrator was spot-on…and think touchable interfaces will always be limited.
Still, as a designer, I'll design with the urge to touch in mind; it matters even when there is no touching.
