99% Invisible: 149- Of Mice And Men

January 20, 2015 9:40 PM

If you are looking at a computer screen, your right hand is probably resting on a mouse. To the left of that mouse (or above, if you’re on a laptop) is your keyboard. As you work on the computer, your right hand moves back and forth from keyboard to mouse. You can’t do everything you need to do on a computer without constantly moving between input devices. There is another way.
posted by radioamy (7 comments total)

I had no idea that the mouse wasn't developed at Xerox PARC. I've heard the story about Steve Jobs touring the facility and bringing the idea back to Apple, but I always assumed they'd come up with it there.
posted by radioamy at 9:41 PM on January 20, 2015

Also if you saw my mom trying to use my iPad you might disagree that they are designed to be easy to use.
posted by radioamy at 9:42 PM on January 20, 2015 [1 favorite]

What's the other way?
posted by Ik ben afgesneden at 10:05 PM on January 20, 2015

Telepathy of course. I've been telling you for ages.
posted by happyroach at 12:43 AM on January 21, 2015

YOU NEED TO USE YOUR WORDS OUT LOUD, HAPPYROACH. I CAN SEE YOU THINKING AT US BUT HAVE NEVER GOTTEN THE MESSAGE.
posted by maxsparber at 6:29 AM on January 22, 2015

This was the first time in a long time that a interviewee on 99% Invisible made me mad. That five-key typing sounded insanely difficult and I hate the idea of someone thinking it would be better than touch screens or keyboards for computing.

Douglas Engelbart's daughter talking about how interfaces shouldn't be easy and tools should evolve to make communication faster even if more difficult really rubbed me the wrong way. It was almost like saying iPads shouldn't be used by infants and computer workstations should be more complicated, but if you look at other professions like say, wood working, people with decades of experience still use simple tools like a saw and a hammer and sandpaper. They might graduated to automated machines that do specialized things but they always go back to basics.

That viewpoint came off as elitist, that not everyone should be able to use a simple computer and it was ok to drive people to spend loads of time just getting used to their devices. Ugh, I really disliked all of that.
posted by mathowie at 2:24 PM on January 26, 2015

This episode frustrated me too, but more for reasons better articulated by Bret Victor on the day of Engelbert's death:

"This is as if you found the person who invented writing, and credited them for inventing the pencil."

posted by seikleja at 3:19 PM on February 4, 2015 [1 favorite]