Saturday, December 6th, 2008, 642 days ago

VISTA is making mistake

Ubiquitous computing and VISTA(R)

This afternoon in informatic research group office, while i was reading Marker Weiser’s paper of ‘computers in the 21th century’, an idea suddenlly flashed into my head-the pitfall of VISTA’s interaction design. I believe that I found the reason why VISTA attracting so much attention of users from work task to interface.
I cite Marker Weiser’s explaination below:

The idea of integrating computers seamlessly into the world at large runs counter to a number of
present-day trends. “Ubiquitous computing” in this context does not just mean computers that can be
carried to the beach, jungle or airport. Even the most powerful notebook computer, with access to a
worldwide information network, still focuses attention on a single box. By analogy to writing, carrying a
super-laptop is like owning just one very important book. Customizing this book, even writing millions of
other books, does not begin to capture the real power of literacy.

Furthermore, although ubiquitous computers may employ sound and video in addition to text and
graphics, that does not make them “multimedia computers.” Today’s multimedia machine makes thecomputer screen into a demanding focus of attention rather than allowing it to fade into the background.

So, as it indicats, VISTA is making a big mistake.