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Ask HN: Why the disparity between SciFi UI's and what we have in use?

2 points by psion ↗ HN
Watching science fiction shows/movies/games/comics/etc, the user interfaces are rather magnificent. But they rarely use elements from what people actually use. And in actual user interfaces, there isn't much that get's used in SciFi. Why is there such a large gap in these designs?

6 comments

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laumars
Because of ergonomics. When you watch something on TV and movies you want your actors to do exaggerated movements to really capture the attention of the audience. But when you operate a computer you want your movements to be as little as possible or else you quickly get RSI.

Edit:

It’s also worth adding that SciFi operating systems are not general purpose ones. They’re designed around a specific function, a function that’s typically integral to the plot.

PaulHoule
Like that scene in the minority report.

If you hold your arms in front of you and make big sweeping motions you will get tired and sore.

Touchscreen monitors for desktop PCs are technically practical but haven't really caught on because they are tiring to use.

usrbinbash
>Why is there such a large gap in these designs?

Because user interfaces in movies are designed to look cool in movies, not to be practical in real life.

Imagine if an application actually displayed a giant glowing green box with PASSWORD: in fontsize 200 right in the middle of the screen, hiding all other applications while doing so. How well would using a password-manager work in that scenario?

5bolts
could there be a licensing issue at play as well? same/similar reason why the brands of computers, phones, monitors are rarely real world versions?

The plus side, kids watching those and growing up to be developers will skew UI's more towards those futuristic versions... same as the kids that watched star trek helped us get the handheld computers we have now.

Dracophoenix
I don't think it's a licensing issue, so much as there really isn't anything more you can do with desktop OS frontend's that hasn't already been done. "The future" in those movies from the 80s and 90s involved AI OSs, touchless UIs, interactive holograms, VR, and neurochips/neurolinks as mediums for interacting with the digital world.

So far, we're still at the "fumbling about" stage of VR frontends since VR as we know it today became commercially available to the general public. I doubt we'll to get see the UI for those other technologies mature - if they're done at all - during your lifetime or mine.