User Input: Analog Vs Digital

My thoughts are still circling around the general user interface issues, and especially around the input methods people use to interact with computers. "Computers" here has a very broad meaning. Today anything is a computer. Be it a car A/C control or a house thermostat or a video recorder (referred today as a PVR - personal Video Recorder, as if the former ones weren't personal...).

Humans are analog by design. Computers are digital. Back in 1970's when the first digital systems were emerging there was a huge drive and demand for everything digital, especially as an input and output. The first digital, LED based watches. The first VCR's. The first massive failures. The VCR era, that lasted during the 80's and the 90's can be very accurately identified by any time traveler by blinking [12:00] clocks in the living rooms. Guess why... The users simply did not know how to use the digital remotes to set up their digital clocks. Even if they managed to do this once, the first power failure reset the clocks back to the blinking [12:00] and they were never able to reproduce the setup procedure again, especially when the manuals were long gone.

I was always dreaming of having a VCR with just a three knobs. The first one would be used to dial the starting time of a recording to be made. The second to dial the ending time and the third to dial the channel number. All of them turning back and forth, with a built-in acceleration - the faster you turn, the faster it cycles through the numbers. I should have had guts at that time to patent this design and sell it later to Sony, Philips and RCA.

In 2000 I was driving a Volvo V40. One thing I particularly liked about this care were three large analog knobs on the center console. One to select the airflow ducts (windscreen / face / feet), the second to select a fan speed and the third for temperature control. I could reach for them easily, and WITHOUT LOOKING at any display I was able to select a desired setup. Then in 2005 I moved to a Subaru Legacy, where the same setup was incredibly complicated, comprising a digital menu system with up/down buttons and a fluorescent display showing the selected values. There were two main problems with this system. First, there was no mechanical feedback. I could press up/down buttons, but I never had an idea what selection I was at. To actually see what I was selecting, I had to look down to the display, taking my eyes from the road. I had this car for three years and never learned the system by heart, always having to look down at the display to adjust the A/C settings. Then in 2008 I moved to my current Subaru Forester that is considered a far less advanced model, compared to the Legacy (I was warned about that at the dealership ;)). But the Forester brought me back the three analog knobs I love and I am very happy with them.

Back in 2004 (I think it was 2004) I had what I consider the first smartphone - the SonyEricsson P800. It had a wonderful knob on the left side. The knob was very easily operated with a thumb or an index finger, while holding it in hand. It was scrolling the focus / selection up and down and when top / bottom of a page has been reached, the entire page started scrolling. Depressing the knob was used to confirm a selection and pushing it upwards was a sign of cancel / go back. It was probably the only smartphone ever made that could be entirely operated with just one hand. And very intuitively and quickly. You may argue you can do this with an iPhone too. But this is only partially true. What I find most frustrating when operating an iPhone or iPad with my fingers is very often activating the selection mode - I start highlighting parts of the screen, when I only wanted to scroll it up or down.

Which brings me to another point - multifunctional versus dedicated controls. I cannot understand why Apple, and then the entire crowd of Apple wannabees, uses just a one generic input touch panel. Would it really cost that much to implement SEPARATE touch strips on the sides or close to the edges of the devices? They could be used for scrolling, screen brightness and volume control. I am certain users would memorize them much easier. And a SonyEricsson P800 - style knob on the left side of an iPhone would not hurt. Steve could even call it magical and revolutionary...May be in version 5?