Pet Theory

I’ve been wireframing an online mp3 player, and pondering this trivial detail: whether to use a toggle button for play/pause, or two permanent, free-standing buttons, with only their selection state being toggled.

Considerations of space militate for the first option. Why use two buttons when one will do? And the toggling nicely encapsulate the either-or logic of the button: if the player is playing, you can pause…or it is paused, you can play.

Yet I’m resisting this conclusion. Even when I had cheap Panasonic cassette player in the early 80s, the toggle button always felt awkward.

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My brother invited me to watch the U.S. v. Ghana this morning.

I went for his sake, knowing he is a soccer nut. (I'm a nothing nut, and can't pass for a regular dude even momentarily).

I noticed that the soccer fields where striped along the width (mowed differently in about 10 yard increments)…when I asked my brother why, he told me it helps the refs discern if a player is offsides.

Alternating stripes are helpful in comprehending grids and rows…and soccer games.

This spring I went to Rome for my honeymoon (first time to Rome, first time getting married).

There I met an old acquaintance, the Ugly American…and this time, it was me!

Perhaps you’ve met him: he doesn’t bother adapting himself to the locale, he expects everyone to speak English, and when they decline, he thinks increasing his already-loud volume will smooth things over.

He surprised me in Vatican City. We went without a guide, on a lark–a bad idea, as it turned out. We were confused. For instance, in the morning, people line up outside the walled city. There are two lines, one for individuals, one for groups, but it’s not clear which is which. There are no placards, maps, concierges, etc. Inside, the same total lack of hinting holds. There is no way to know that you have go through the Sistine Chapel to get to Saint Peter’s church–unless you already know, of course.

Now, who am I to suggest that the Pope nail up placards on these marble walls? Who am I to expect that I can amble into a 15-centuries-old holy place without any guide and get my bearings?

I must be the Ugly American. I was fuming.

That experience made me re-evaluate the Ugly American. The Ugly American is presumptuous and rude, of course…but anyone truly interested in interface design is in a real sense catering to the Ugly American in all of us.

Why shouldn’t everyone just understand me? Why shouldn’t things just work? Why can’t a single person become a publishing phenomenon? Why not do your banking from the comfort of your den?

“Why not?” A rude question–and sometimes a useful one, too.

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.