The Xerox Star was a fascinating intro to user interfaces. The use of icons to create familiarity and the ability to control and organize your electronic space is huge to the field of personal computers. I also thought the keys with specific functions were a notable aspect of the Xerox Star experience. More commonly now we are using key-strokes as a means for copy/ pasting or even menus with right-clicking. However, the function bar at the top of the keyboard made me raise an eyebrow since it resembles the touch-bar seen in modern Apple Macbook Pro laptops. It would seem the Xerox star was mainly used for word processing so it makes sense to create quick access to the functions the users are bound to need. The modern version of this “touch-bar” changes as you switch applications, offering a variety of commonly used functions.
Apple’s 1984 Macintosh computer had the capability to use widgets that could be used, as an overlaid entity, while other applications were running. For its time this was a technical accomplishment for Apple. The list of widgets wasn’t huge but it covered a bit of what everyone needs; a calculator, notepad, timer, and… a puzzle? Now, this last one threw me off a little but then I realized how important this game could be to its users. I imagined a person in their office after a long day playing with the little puzzle widget to pass the time. The use of widgets for the old Macintosh reminded me that the latest operating system for Apple’s Phones includes the use of widgets as well. It’s like Apple is returning to its roots and investing time into these older features but making them new again by doing it in devices we never could have imagined would be possible back in 1984.
I think the future will be filled with computers and systems that utilize AR and VR. In the 80’s they imagined a voice-powered interface that you could use to communicate with the world and we have that with Siri, and Alexa. But as technology advances exponentially it’s getting harder and harder to predict where we will be in 20, 10– even 5 years. I hope we are still using physical interfaces in the future but altogether I’ll adapt to the technology as I have been doing my whole life.
