Despite being all the rage, touchscreens have never impressed me. I did not put my finger (metaphor chosen deliberately) on the reasons why until reading Edward Tufte’s criticism: they have no hand! They lack tactility, and of all the many possible diverse, sophisticated, subtle, and complex motions that our hands and fingers are capable of, touchscreens seem designed to accommodate just two very simple motions: tapping and sliding. Not something to write home about when you wake up each morning eager to digitally percuss, or have hands able to think. Bret Victor has a nice graphically-supported argument about the lack of embodiment of touchscreens in the world of those of us with opposable thumbs, here. As Victor says:
Are we really going to accept an Interface Of The Future that is less expressive than a sandwich?
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