This is too cool...

[sarahmichelef]

BumpTop prototype "aims to enrich the desktop metaphor with expressive, lightweight techniques found in the real world."

Comments

[greyhame.livejournal.com]

Hm.

Intriguing, but I don't think it's the right direction. It's an attempt to improve the implementation of the decades-old "desktop" metaphor for user interfaces, when what I think is needed is a whole new concept for the interface; computers are fundamentally different from the collection of documents that a desk represents, and I think we're unduly constrained by trying to make them act like desks. On the other hand, I don't really know what would be better.

On the other other hand, I totally don't buy the "placement of documents on a physical desktop conveys subtle information to the owner" thesis. Most of the time, the only information the piles of papers on my desks (and tables) conveys to me is that my shit's all disorganized.

[alphasarah.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I think it's a cool concept but I wouldn't want to actually *use* it. There's a couple of places in Revolution in the Valley that talks about how the idea of folders versus files developed, and how the Mac's developers were confused about which was which for quite some tiem.

My computer desktop/filesystem is FAR more organized than my acutal desk. Which is to say, there's rarely anything on it - everything's in highly-nested folders.

[greyhame.livejournal.com]

On the other hand, I really like the way they use the mouse gestures. For some applications, I could see that being super useful, but not as the overall, general interface to the computer.

[blazing-sun16.livejournal.com]

I agree. I saw the video a month or so ago and actually watched the whole thing. In addition to being unnecessarily complicated (I really don't need to be able to rotate piles of stuff!), it just reminds me of clutter. I like my virtual desktop because it is way, way tidier than my real desktop -- I don't need it to look MORE real!