...or from the sublime to the ridiculous. Two interesting videos in juxtaposition:
Scott Berkun of the Harvard Business Review discusses the 40th anniversary of the "The Greatest Product Demo Ever" - computer pioneer Douglas Englebart's presentation that introduced the world to the computer mouse, email, hyperlinking, and other innovative human-computer interaction solutions. The video, above, is a little hard to hear, so turn up your volume. Bekrun uses the demo as a jumping point for a discussion on why it takes so long for great products to reach the mainstream:
One might ask "Why are we so stupid that we can't adopt good ideas faster?" But the problem isn't about being smart or stupid. New ideas travel through cultures at much slower rates that we realize, especially if the idea requires 1) throwing something away and replacing it with something else 2) re-learning skills or 3) co-ordination by large independent organizations.
Fast forward to the present. The satirical Onion has created a convincing demo of the "Macbook Wheel", a keyboard-less laptop that uses an iPod navigation wheel and button for all functions - including typing. It's simplicity that violates usability. I especially enjoyed the automatically suggested sentence completion choices. One wonders whether Englebart's demo received similar disbelief and laughter at the time.
