Usability Post, who I should point are a great blog that I enjoy reading, have a new article on the future of the user interface, especially as how it applies to operating systems. They suggest the “zoomable” interfaces (where all content is viewed on a single plane, and the user simply enlarges specific areas to complete certain tasks, will become the adopted method of managing the large amounts of content that we now have sitting on our computer desktops at any one time. This is a theory that I find hard to agree with, for quite a number of reasons:
- Zooming is not immediate. At work, I am not blessed with the multi monitor set up I have at home. This means that when I need to work on multiple documents at once I am at the mercy of ALT-TAB. Whilst not ideal, I am at least able to hold my concentration whilst flicking between documents. Having to zoom out, locate another document and then zoom in would be an unbearable break in my work-flow.
- Zooming is not accurate. Next time you are using Google Maps, zoom out as far as you can on whatever country you live in, then zoom back on again the house four doors up from yours. It’s tricky isn’t it? It requires you to stop and realign the frame, not an action you want to complete when swapping between applications on your computer.
- No application alerts. Whilst viewing the demonstration zoomable interface linked to from the article, I started playing the embedded Youtube clip. After zooming out I decided I wanted to pause it as the sound was annoying me. Returning to the clip though required me to first locate it on a large page, and then orient myself so that I could zoom in enough to pause the clip. Imagine if this is how Windows of Max OS operated instead of their current notification systems, you would never know when an application was trying to get your attention.
Whilst I think zoomable interfaces definitely have their place, they are not a practical replacement for traditional interface conventions. Zooming on Google Maps is great, but if you were viewing Melbourne and wanted to look at New York, you wouldn’t scroll across the world, you would simply use the text field to move the focus. Likewise with the iPhone; zooming on sites is great but really only a workaround for non mobile optimised sites. If you were looking at the newspaper on your iPhone, you wouldn’t want to have to zoom in and out on every article on on pane, you would want them linked from the homepage instead.
The next few years will definitely show us some revolutions in interface conventions, especially from operating systems, however zoomable interfaces are unlikely to be the sole solution.