This week I initially decided to write about interactions that I find particularly frustrating. My inspiration for this post was my relatively new phone. Its hateful - using it is a truly horrendous experience. But, whatever technical problems it may have (and it has a lot), what really annoys me is that despite being a mini computer I can't really make it do anything. It's like it has deliberately chosen to so limit its capabilities.
I was suddenly quite aware that I may be a geek - Apple's iphone sells phenomenally well despite similar issues. Its seems that the mass market will accept potential short comings if what is actually offered works well. Architectural practice and its relationship with technology struggles similarly - CAD software has to predict how architects will try to use it in order to be a useable, worthwhile tool.
SketchUP came out of nowhere and revolutionised the way architects and students work, because @Last came up with something instantly accessible - “3D for everyone” indeed. 10 years later it still doesn’t do everything I would want to do with it, but that doesn’t matter. I could use Rhino/Grasshopper, but I don’t because its interface is not stimulating to me, I don’t script designs.
The most important thing @Last achieved, as the patent application stated, was to create “a three-dimensional design and modelling environment allows users to draw the outlines, or perimeters, of objects in a two dimensional manner, similar to pencil and paper, already familiar to them...” Whatever shortcomings SketchUP may have, this instant familiarity, immediacy and tactility is a triumph of HCI.
Quite how this revelation is going to help me, I'm not sure, but we discuss similar issues in buildings, talking about legibility of space etc.
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