Gates and the New User Interface
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Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates sees a future where the hand and voice will be more natural user interfaces than keyboards and mice. He's absolutely right. |
This evening, Bill Gates spoke about changing UIs at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Theme of this year's CES is the convergence of entertainment technologies and business.
The keynote was his last, since Gates is officially leaving Microsoft at the end of June. "This is the first time since I was 17" that Gates won't work at Microsoft, he said of his last day. Gates has appeared at CES 11 times—10 keynotes, eight of them consecutively. "My first keynote was in 1994," he said.
By the way, Gates was unusually relaxed and even funny. His exit keynote was perhaps his best for CES.
Gates referred to his past key keynote predictions about telematics, or auto computing, PDAs and interactive TVs, like Windows Media Center. These predictions all are examples of evolving computing user interfaces.
Gates predicted three trends that would drive technology innovation over the next decade: "High-definition experience everywhere"; "all of these rich devices will be services connected"; and "the power of natural user interface." The last two trends both are mechanisms for evolving user interfaces.
"People are interested in a more natural way to navigate the information," Gates said.
Gates' vision of the future resembles the original Star Trek, where voice commands and touch—manipulation by fingers—will replace mouse and keyboard.
Anthropologically, the mouse and keyboard are, used together, an unnatural user interface. Human beings are tool users that experience and manipulate the world through five senses. There is little in human biological or cultural experience that equates to either device. Most tools are really extensions of the hands; the mouse and keyboard UI is neither. The keyboard is a particularly unnatural construct, by the way fingers are used or by key's alphabetical organization, which is based on the number of times letters are likely to be used.
Microsoft's Surface and Apple's iPhone and iTouch are excellent examples of touch as user interface. Windows Vista has pretty good voice controls, and through the Tellme acquisition Microsoft will seek to make voice the primary UI for telephony devices. Microsoft plans to offer touch screen capabilities with Vista successor Windows "Seven."
On the Web, search is the most successful UI, in part for its simplicity. Search is like the command line for the Internet. All these examples suggest dramatic PC user-interface changes are well underway.
Microsoft is no stranger to pioneering new user interfaces. The much-maligned Microsoft Bob and Clippy are examples of Microsoft attempts to simplify how end users interact with computers. Years ago—and for several of them—Gates stood on the CES stage, and also that of Comdex, touting Tablet PC.
Gates is a big Tablet PC supporter, but Microsoft's execution is too complex. A stylus is supposed to be like a pen or pencil, and so a more natural and familiar user interface than the keyboard and mouse. But the process of using a stylus on a Windows Tablet PC is more complicated than using a pencil or even keyboard and mouse.
Touch is the extension of the stylus, and it's a much more natural user interface. For the human tool user, hands, fingers and touch are especially important for experiencing and manipulating objects or surroundings. The shopping mall is a great laboratory for understanding how people interact with things. First buyers look, and then they touch. For retailers it's an irritating experience, all that touching. People examine as much with their hands as their eyes.
Good user interfaces build on the familiar—and there is nothing more familiar than me, myself and I. See, say, hear and touch. Gates' vision is sensible. But vision doesn't always become reality, and Microsoft's co-founder has before talked about future products or technologies that the company couldn't deliver.
The underlying biological mechanisms of hand movement are complex, but the complexity is largely hidden from people. By contrast, complexity too often defines technology and the accompanying user interfaces. Ear, eye, hand and touch and voice are extensions of "me" that technology must embrace, like iPhone, iPod or Touch.
During Gates' keynote, Robbie Bach, president of Microsoft's Entertainment and Devices division, demonstrated several new user interfaces, "Sync" auto information system and Tellme's "Say and See." Bach predicted that mobile search would be the most important application for the cell phone market. There, voice command would be an important user interface, he said.
But Microsoft also is taking an autonomic nervous system approach to user interfaces. Gates spoke about the "connected experience" with respect to Web services and information following people around. There, Microsoft continues to advance information and services integration around Windows Live.
Gates demonstrated a visual recognition system for mobile phones. The visual recognition system uses the phone's camera to bring up information on people or places. The system also uses Live services, such as Virtual Earth.
Related Posts:
- Lessons iPhone Should Teach Microsoft, Microsoft Watch, June 25, 2006
- Microsoft Surfaces, Microsoft Watch, June 18, 2007
- Microsoft Scratches the Surface, Microsoft Watch, May 30, 2007
- Surface Signals a Sea Change, Microsoft Watch, May 30, 2007
- Microsoft Skims the Marketing Surface, Microsoft Watch, May 30, 2007
- New Q1 Arrives in Q2 and Q3, Microsoft Watch, May 7, 2007
- Tell Me About Dial Tone 2.0, Microsoft Watch, March 15, 2007
- Where's the 'You' in iPhone?, Microsoft Watch, Jan. 10, 2007
Comments (8)
Anything but Speechless: 100 Things People Are Really Saying About Windows Vista
http://www.microsplot.com/news/2007/12/anything_speechless_100_things_people_are_really_saying_about_windows_vista
13. "Microsoft's most loyal fans can't praise Vista!"
Although aimed at pre-release Longhorn, the following rant was noteworthy not only for its venom but also for its source: columnist Paul Thurrott, recognized as one of Microsoft's most ardent cheerleaders. "Microsoft has yet to ship Windows Vista, and it won't actually ship this system in volume until 2007. Since the euphoria of PDC 2003, Microsoft's handling of Windows Vista has been abysmal. Promises have been made and forgotten, again and again. Features have come and gone. Heck, the entire project was literally restarted from scratch after it became obvious that the initial code base was a teetering, technological house of cards. Windows Vista, in other words, has been an utter disaster. And it's not even out yet. What the heck went wrong?... If blame is to be assessed, we must start with Gates. He has guided--or, through lack of leadership--failed to guide the development of Microsoft's most prized asset. He has driven it into the ground... Promises were made. Excitement was generated. None of it, as it turns out, was worth a damn. From a technical standpoint, the version of Windows Vista we will receive is a sad shell of its former self, a shadow... [W]e do not and should not expect to be promised the world, only to be given a warmed over copy of Mac OS X Tiger in return. Windows Vista is a disappointment."
http://www.winsupersite.com/reviews/winvista_5308_05.asp
Jump ahead to the post-launch era. Improvements are certainly evident, and Thurrott is mollified in part; I won't purport to speak for him. But from elsewhere: "Even some of Windows' most loyal users are finding that its poor performance, lousy software support and pathetic driver support is too much to stomach."
Posted by The Hand | January 6, 2008 10:26 PM
Anything but Speechless: 100 Things People Are Really Saying About Windows Vista
http://www.microsplot.com/news/2007/12/anything_speechless_100_things_people_are_really_saying_about_windows_vista
13. "Microsoft's most loyal fans can't praise Vista!"
Although aimed at pre-release Longhorn, the following rant was noteworthy not only for its venom but also for its source: columnist Paul Thurrott, recognized as one of Microsoft's most ardent cheerleaders. "Microsoft has yet to ship Windows Vista, and it won't actually ship this system in volume until 2007. Since the euphoria of PDC 2003, Microsoft's handling of Windows Vista has been abysmal. Promises have been made and forgotten, again and again. Features have come and gone. Heck, the entire project was literally restarted from scratch after it became obvious that the initial code base was a teetering, technological house of cards. Windows Vista, in other words, has been an utter disaster. And it's not even out yet. What the heck went wrong?... If blame is to be assessed, we must start with Gates. He has guided--or, through lack of leadership--failed to guide the development of Microsoft's most prized asset. He has driven it into the ground... Promises were made. Excitement was generated. None of it, as it turns out, was worth a damn. From a technical standpoint, the version of Windows Vista we will receive is a sad shell of its former self, a shadow... [W]e do not and should not expect to be promised the world, only to be given a warmed over copy of Mac OS X Tiger in return. Windows Vista is a disappointment."
winsupersite.com/reviews/winvista_5308_05.asp
Jump ahead to the post-launch era. Improvements are certainly evident, and Thurrott is mollified in part; I won't purport to speak for him. But from elsewhere: "Even some of Windows' most loyal users are finding that its poor performance, lousy software support and pathetic driver support is too much to stomach."
Posted by The Hand | January 6, 2008 10:27 PM
Bill Gates forgot to mention how they stole XML technology from VSCY and some such and so one and blah blah blah... which is more boring... the inevitable I-man comments rant or BillG's speech?
Posted by I-Man | January 6, 2008 11:20 PM
"Microsoft's Surface and Apple's iPhone and iTouch are excellent examples of touch as user interface."
I don't know how you can say this with a strait face. Trying to equate Microsoft's Surface with Multi-Touch is laughable for several reasons, not the least of which the former is in demo form only (no one really knows it can do) whereas the latter is now in use by probably three million people or more by now.
And then there's the fact that there's nothing new about Surface, as this projector-based "touch" technology has been around a while anyway. Generally speaking, it's too big and expensive to be practical for most applications.
I wrote this article six months ago, and every bit of it still applies:
http://thesmallwave.com/2007/06/03/apples-iphone-to-microsofts-surface-cant-touch-this/
Posted by Tom | January 6, 2008 11:32 PM
Joe - why do you think a stylus on a PC is more complicated than a pencil or a mouse? What are you trying to do - sketch, annotate, write music, manipulate or map? Or just using your PC as a typewriter?
Posted by Mike | January 6, 2008 11:40 PM
Bill says this sort of thing every 5 years or so - he has been going on about voice activated computers since his 'The Road Ahead' where he famously forgot about the internet.
Stop dreaming Bill, you are not an innovator, just wait for someone else to do the clever stuff and you can just copy it.
Posted by Billy Bob | January 7, 2008 5:34 AM
Billy Bob said: Stop dreaming Bill, you are not an innovator, just wait for someone else to do the clever stuff and you can just copy it.
Touche'! You've just described the way of Bill Gates! The sooner he disappears from the IT industry (and the sooner he stops calling the shots), the better off consumers will all be.
Posted by Maddog | January 8, 2008 3:20 AM
"Anthropologically, the mouse and keyboard are, used together, an unnatural user interface. Human beings are tool users that experience and manipulate the world through five senses. There is little in human biological or cultural experience that equates to either device. Most tools are really extensions of the hands; the mouse and keyboard UI is neither. The keyboard is a particularly unnatural construct, by the way fingers are used or by key's alphabetical organization, which is based on the number of times letters are likely to be used."
I wish columnists would stop making up "facts" out of thin air. In terms of speed and accuracy, keyboards are an excellent input method. The arrangement of keys works well, demonstrably better, in fact, than more "natural" arrangements like alphabetic.
Right now, it looks like speech input may never compete with keyboards for serious writing, no matter how good speech input gets. If it does compete, it's probably not because it's easier to use, but because people don't want to invest the time necessary to learn how to type.
I don't even know what "anthropologically supported" is supposed to mean, but almost everything humans do is "unnatural": smashing rocks, cutting trees, weaving baskets, slicing bread, buttoning shirts, combing hair, etc.
Posted by Mike | January 28, 2008 2:50 AM