Push it, click it, tap it…, think it

Press of a button: the idea is clear, the term not so much: interaction that takes place on an interface to facilitate communication between the human and the machine; enables

Finger-to-computer interaction; action on an interface as a one-way communication between the human and the machine.

Push it

When we interacted physically with object we used physical buttons and we “pressed” them: elevators, dispensing machines, telephones, remotes, keyboards.

Click it

When computers evolved their UI and the mouse was introduced we also invented the “click”, first as a sound, but also as a name and as a verb. With a light press on a mouse and we were clicking our souls away in the garden of the unaearly delights of the internet.

Tap it

Welcome the touch interfaces and welcome the “tap”, the latest onomatopoeia to make it into the vernacular of the computer world. Another noun. Another verb.

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The trend is clear. As we leave the physical world behind and move into the virtual universe, we also leave behind the heavy weight of our actions and our movements become more and more ethereal. How long until we think in order to act? Some say it’s already here. Some devices read your movements, others read your mind.

August 13, 2010 ☼ thoughts