• 1968: Douglas Engelbart demonstrated the oN-Line System (NLS), the source of many computer firsts like video conferencing, collaborative text editing, etc. This event is known as "The Mother of All Demos".
• Recently: Amelia Wattenberger published an article about possible future user interfaces, asking for more tactile "friction", multi-modality and variations in input and feedback.
• Xerox Alto (1976): An actual product inspired by Engelbart. It led to the Smalltalk programming language and its GUI environment, which inspired Steve Jobs. The commercial for the Alto shows a man in a spacious office using it to read and send email, produce printouts and view images.
• Sun Starfire (1994): A commercial for an imaginary future computer with concepts like tablet computers, video conferencing, touch screens, etc. that are now commonplace. The protagonist works on a presentation and engages in strange activities.
• Tactile computing: Wattenberger touches on the prevalence of touchscreens and their lack of tactile feedback. Computers are successful for reducing friction, not introducing it. There are also discussions about infinite canvases, voice control and their limitations.
• Design and Reality: Infinite canvases often lead to unstructured information and don't appeal to most computer users. Touch technology works best on small surfaces. Voice control has limitations and multi-sensory interfaces can be annoying. Most computer users perform tasks that don't lend themselves to these interfaces.
• The Actual Future: The desktop user interface has been around for almost half a century and we haven't found a better alternative. Blundering around with existing paradigms doesn't lead to improvement. New paradigms like the smartphone appear out of necessity. UI designers should consider consistency and familiarity more often.