Interface Seams: Leaving the Desktop Behind

GUIs aren’t the end.

GUIs (graphical user interfaces) were amazing on a 1MIPS Macintosh. Now that clock speeds are several hundred times that speed, are GUI interfaces several hundred times better?

We need a new interface that’s tantalizing at 500 MHz, great at 5 GHz, and a little boring at 500 GHz. Some possibilities:

  • 3D and VR (virtual reality)
  • Audio
  • Speech (interpreting the spoken word)
  • Ubiquity
  • Appliances
  • Agents
  • Wearable computers
  • Mobile/wireless computers
  • Location-sensitive

We also need to go the other way – what are we missing on the low end?

  • Appliances
  • Focused applications (eg electronic rolodex)
  • Smart badges
  • Text-oriented applications (no fonts etc.)

[Written 9-1-1998.]