There is an interesting sentence in Wikipedia’s entry for mouse
“The Xerox PARC group also settled on the modern technique of using both hands to type on a full-size keyboard and grabbing the mouse when required.”
The use of the mouse/keyboard is therefore fully optimized for three-handed beings and all the applications that have been built on this input paradigm, including the vast majority of applications running on personal computers (Mac and Windows), most gaming systems (with the notable exception of the Wii) and all browser-based applications have like-wise been optimized for three-handedness.
This three-handedness is why I think web applications translate so badly into the mobile domain. Mobile apps require one-handed or better yet no-handed operation. The mobile app designer is forced to come up with new input methods (flicking, shaking, rotating, speaking, stretching, pressing.) And this is why WAP applications usually give such a bad user experience. They carry their three-handed legacy into the mobile world, and this makes them awkward and ungainly.
“But wait,” you are saying, “I don’t have three hands. I like the way my iPhone works, and I want that for my desktop experience and home entertainment experience. I am tired of using applications designed for three-handed beings. I am mad, and I am not going to take it any more.”
I feel your pain. That is why I think that the entire three-handed ecosystem is headed for a mass extinction event.
So for all of you who have your fortunes tied to the web, desktop apps, the gaming console as we know them. Here is a visual for you: you are like dinosaurs, lounging in the Yucatan 65 million years ago. Yes, you dominate your ecosystem. But the end is near. That faint light getting brighter in the night sky, it’s a harbinger of massive change.
As if to punctuate this point, last week the inventor of the modern personal computer, H Edward Roberts, died. (Great article in the NYT). Truly, the end of an era.
