Zooming user interface

Zooming user interface(en.wikipedia.org)

7 points by varl 12 years ago | 6 comments

varl 12 years ago |

Every now and again I come back to this, and think that this is the future in user interfaces. It would unite tablets, pc and mobile platforms around a single ui concept. I could use my PC to write something and then grab my tablet and connect to the same canvas and proof-read it.

We can have different viewports connected to the same infinite canvas at the same time and visualise them.

Much of our lives, even at home, is spent in this virtual space, so why not share it with one another?

If I was sharing my home computer with my partner over remote viewports, I can pan over to the place at the canvas she was currently using as her viewport and get a visual connection with what she was doing and interact a bit.

Of course you could have a "redacted session" in which case the area used as viewport would be blacked out, if you need secrecy for e.g. work.

I really enjoy the concept of sharing one computer and at the same time, like virtual space in addition to apartment space. This is, pretty much, a user interface extension of finger[1].

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finger_protocol

andrewflnr 12 years ago | |

I think I upvoted you (darn tablet). Anyway, I completely agree. It's too bad it seems to have been passed over in the rush to "innovate on mobile" and whatnot

varl 12 years ago | | |

It's common that good ideas exist for a very long time before technology enables them, yet I feel that we are at that point /now/ and have been for a while, yet there is little-to-no activity in this area.

_mhr_ 12 years ago |

I've always thought that ZUIs would be confusing for users. It's a completely modal interface. If you can zoom in infinitely or zoom out infinitely, it would probably be hard to determine where you are conceptually. Can anyone address this?

varl 12 years ago | |

I imagine that a minimap could help with that, or showing nearest neighbors at the edges of the viewport, and perhaps being able to alt-tab between applications as well as groups would help.

You can use space to have a visual organisation of things, but you don't have to navigate the space since it's virtual. You should be able to navigate suitable to your platform running the viewport.

Pinch-to-zoom, drag to move, two-finger tap to bring up list of applications to move to instantly on a tablet.

Keyboard based navigation and manipulation of the canvas if you prefer to not use a mouse on your workstation.

Click to drag and scroll-to-zoom to navigate with a mouse, when that is more appropriate, for example.

andrewflnr 12 years ago | |

You tell by looking. This will utilize people's very well-developed pattern matching and spatial memory abilities. That said, it's not too hard to imagine a quick "show me where I am now" overlay, or a breadcrumb type header/footer/sidebar that shows what regions of the desktop your view is zoomed into. This is the opposite of modality: everything relevant is right in front of your face.

If an argument from authority means anything, Jef Raskin, one of the creators of the Archy system mentioned, is a large part of the reason modal UIs are Considered Harmful. If he thought ZUIs were an answer, well, you might have something mixed up.