Human-Computer Interactions
Hello everyone...
I'm sort of bored, so I figured that I'd get your opinions on a topic that I've been thinking about a bit recently. The topic is human-computer interaction, and to be specific I'm talking about the desktop metaphor that is currently used today, and ways to improve or replace it with something better.
The way I see it, the next step in computers could go one of two ways: Either computers can "come out of the box," so to speak and become integrated into everyday objects, or computers can become part of us as human beings.
By "come out of the box," I mean that we would no longer be able to stereotype a computer as a beige (or whatever style happens to be trendy) box and a monitor, but instead see computers as augmentations of the objects we use everyday. For instance, instead of using Photoshop running on your PC using today's desktop metaphore, maybe Photoshop would be integrated into a multi-purpose easel that would allow you to paint, or draw as people do today, but with the added features of digital photo editing (don't knitpick this; I don't know how it'd be done, I'm just trying to give an example of morphing computers and everyday objects).
So, do we merely improve on the desktop metaphor, which Microsoft is attempting to do by shoving everything possible into that little beige (or other colored) box, or do we start to integrate computers into everyday products in a natural way so that we can almost forget what "computers" are. Or, do we go so far as to forego combining computers with everyday products, and just combine them with ourselves, losing the "computer" (and maybe ourselves). Either way, I definitely see a change in the computer as we know it. No longer will we think in terms of boxes that compute, or play games, but instead we will think of a "computer" as merely an augmentation to our environment, or ourselves.
What do you prefer, or what other ideas do you have for the future of computer interaction?
-Wizeman
Note: I put computer in quotes in the final paragraph because in the context that I speak of it in, it isn't what we'd imagine a computer to be any longer.