Blastyle

Yesterday I stumbled upon this interesting project aiming at enhancing interaction with desktop computers. It was developed by Clayton Miller. It is called 10/GUI and the main idea behind it is as follows:

• replace a mouse (a single pointing device) with a multitouch pad which would be placed on the desk.
• the fingers of both hands could lie on the pad in a relaxed position.
• Input would be triggered by pressing harder on the pad
• The multitouch combinations of two, three and four fingers would trigger different actions to the windows
• Windows would be organized in a different way than they are now- instead of windows tiled one on another they would be placed linearly next to each other.

I found it really inspiring and I kept thinking about this concept long after viewing the video. Such innovative solutions have got potential which might be an inspiration for the future projects which can be a commercial success. This project indeed has got some value and I already tried “mimmicking” the multi-finger moves. Here are some of my conclusions (and doubts) after watching the video:

• the learning curve of how to navigate using 10 fingers might be too steep for most of the users. Some of the people already find it a challenge handling efficiently keyboard and mouse at the same time. Accessibility is not the strongest point of this concept.
• Talking about the keyboard: having a keyboard and this big pad on the table at the same time would mean a lot of space needed on the desk. Switching from keyboard to pad and vice versa might also be problematic.
• The multi touch input devide might a good alternative for the professional graphic designers who use graphics tablets. The tablets could have this kind of multi touch capabilities.
• Idea of having windows tiled horizontally is quite limiting in my opinion. But maybe it’s just me and the habit of having loads of windows crammed on my desktop?

Overall, the concept has got its strong sides and it would be interesting to see what the future would bring in regards to the user interaction. Clayton Miller has definitely added to this development his inputs with this project.