Rachel Plotnick
Appearances
The Changelog: Software Development, Open Source
The power of the button (Interview)
And I think what you're saying, you know, that kind of gets into the fact that I always tell people that buttons seem simple, but actually they're really complex, right? Because when you think about knowing which button to push at the right moment, who should be pushing it, especially, you know, imagine going into a DJ booth or the cockpit of an airplane or something.
The Changelog: Software Development, Open Source
The power of the button (Interview)
It's not going to be super intuitive to you if you're not really familiar with that system, how to operate any of those things. So I think the button's almost kind of seductive in that it seems really simplistic, but in a lot of situations, it's actually pretty complicated.
The Changelog: Software Development, Open Source
The power of the button (Interview)
Yeah, you're absolutely right that, you know, there was a lot of kind of consumer culture around push buttons initially. They were really a way to sell products. So you had Kodak with their amateur cameras. Their slogan was you press the button, we do the rest. It was very much about, hey, anyone can be a photographer. Now you don't need to worry about how to develop your film or anything.
The Changelog: Software Development, Open Source
The power of the button (Interview)
you know, very much at all, which was very threatening to professional photographers who were used to kind of people not having the skills to be able to access that profession. Other things like vending machines and elevators were some of the earliest button usages as well. And all of that, really, the rhetoric was around this idea of anyone can do it. Button pushing is so easy.
The Changelog: Software Development, Open Source
The power of the button (Interview)
And I think, you know, Jared, to your point, there was the flip side of that then that was the panic of, oh, my gosh, if anyone can push a button, what does that mean for our society? Because then you do have that question of skill. We've kind of opened up the ranks of these technologies to everybody. But also what happens if this button falls into the wrong hand?
The Changelog: Software Development, Open Source
The power of the button (Interview)
And now whose finger is on the button? And do we need to worry about that? So you have kind of this pleasure and panic at work at the same time.
The Changelog: Software Development, Open Source
The power of the button (Interview)
Yeah, it was it was kind of amazing to me that people were complaining about this even in 1905. You know, you had kids who were running up to people's doorbells and just ringing them when they weren't supposed to or they get behind the wheel of the car and honk the horn. So I guess, you know, this has always been a problem. And I have kids and find myself in the same situation, too.
The Changelog: Software Development, Open Source
The power of the button (Interview)
And it's an issue of control, really. Like my son used to get up at four in the morning just to go turn on the TV. So then we started hiding all the television remotes. Right. And then we forget where we put them. We're opening drawers. So who's got the button? You know, it's all about power in the house.
The Changelog: Software Development, Open Source
The power of the button (Interview)
I think I must have always been a bit of a skeptic because I guess I could have gone the other way and researched touchscreens and been like, this is the future. Let's look at this. But something instinctually, I guess, told me, hey, let's look at buttons. And I think that certainly bore out. And maybe part of it is nostalgia now. Part of it is...
The Changelog: Software Development, Open Source
The power of the button (Interview)
you know, a society that's become a little bit burnt out on screens and is tired of having to look at screens all the time. But I think even then I had the sense in 2009 of anytime people say the death of something is coming, I'm always a little bit skeptical because that seems so dramatic. And we've seen with many technologies that, you know, they tend to come back over time.
The Changelog: Software Development, Open Source
The power of the button (Interview)
Like, look at all the people into vinyl records now. So I'm not convinced that a lot of things, you know, really ever die out.
The Changelog: Software Development, Open Source
The power of the button (Interview)
I think that you're right. You know, there are a lot more kind of affordances to what a digital button can do now. And, you know, thinking about sound and feel and all of that. But at the end of the day, it's still a visual technology. And, you know, that's what I always remind people is that we call it a touchscreen, but it's a screen it's meant for looking at.
The Changelog: Software Development, Open Source
The power of the button (Interview)
And if you think about trying to operate your phone or your car touchscreen with your eyes closed, you're not going to get that far. And if you're blind, you're definitely not going to get that far.
The Changelog: Software Development, Open Source
The power of the button (Interview)
And so I think there's a real accessibility issue around there, you know, questions of safety and the fact that at the end of the day, those buttons are really only going to make sense if you're staring at them.
The Changelog: Software Development, Open Source
The power of the button (Interview)
And when we think about, you know, the various kinds of mechanical buttons that we use in our daily lives, a lot of those can be operated just by knowing where they are, feeling around, you know, and finding where the button is. And that lends itself to a certain kind of, you know, experience that's quite different than the touchscreen.
The Changelog: Software Development, Open Source
The power of the button (Interview)
And the other thing too, I think is just the limited sort of tactile experience you have with digital buttons. You know, like if I'm looking at clothes, I want to touch them and feel what the fabric feels like. But at the end of the day, you're always just going to be touching glass. Buttons I think can give us a little bit more nuance in terms of their textures and their qualities.
The Changelog: Software Development, Open Source
The power of the button (Interview)
Yeah, it's so situation specific, I think. You know, if we think about driving and having to keep our eyes on the road or we think about being in a darkened room, you know, those are times when we just need things at hand and we don't want to have to be moving back and forth between these different systems.
The Changelog: Software Development, Open Source
The power of the button (Interview)
But in other cases, obviously, you know, you're on your iPad or you're looking right at the thing and you can manipulate it in a way with your finger that might feel really pleasurable and way better than having to push buttons. So I do think it's very context specific.
The Changelog: Software Development, Open Source
The power of the button (Interview)
Gaming to me is one of the most interesting ones that despite all the different systems that have come out, it seems like gamers still just really want to push buttons. They want physical controls, you know, and you can see someone who plays with a video game controller, how well they know those buttons and they're not looking down at them. They're just, you know, expert mashers.
The Changelog: Software Development, Open Source
The power of the button (Interview)
I do think something interesting about that, too, is what you're describing is this kind of muscle memory. And all of that, too, just does take time with a system. Because as you were talking, I was thinking of all the places where I feel like an alien or I feel like a totally incompetent user. You get into a rental car, you've never used any of the mirrors or the dash before.
The Changelog: Software Development, Open Source
The power of the button (Interview)
Or you're a Mac user, you start using a PC or vice versa. Right. You've never used a particular game system. I mean, in all those situations, you can just be totally clumsy and just, you know, futzing about when, on the other hand, you become this kind of expert user when you've built that muscle memory and you know exactly where it is.
The Changelog: Software Development, Open Source
The power of the button (Interview)
That's a good question. You know, as you were talking, it was making me think that it's almost like we had to take the buttons away to figure out where we should put them back.
The Changelog: Software Development, Open Source
The power of the button (Interview)
You know, I think that I know there were some experiments with elevators of taking buttons out of elevators and you just have this kind of central, you know, nervous system of the elevator where you just walk up to a kiosk and press your floor and then it would queue up the elevator for all the different people. And so you get in and you just be in this steel box with absolutely nothing inside.
The Changelog: Software Development, Open Source
The power of the button (Interview)
And you can probably guess what happened. People really started to freak out about that.
The Changelog: Software Development, Open Source
The power of the button (Interview)
Yeah. Well, that's the placebo button. You know, we all want to feel like we're in control and there's that, that quality of agency that buttons have. Like I control this machine, not the other way around. So when you take away the buttons, people get really upset.
The Changelog: Software Development, Open Source
The power of the button (Interview)
The majority of the time, the elevator is controlled by a computer that has a timer. And no matter what you do, it's going to, you know, go at that particular time. So most of the time, it's not going to do very much of anything.
The Changelog: Software Development, Open Source
The power of the button (Interview)
But people get angry when you take those away too. They just want to press that button.
The Changelog: Software Development, Open Source
The power of the button (Interview)
I wish I knew. Maybe Adam knows. But I do think, you know, that gets at this issue of, like, we could make most things automatic now if we want to. We don't really need to push buttons to do anything. You know, everything can be sensors and automatic, you know, timer this, timer that. We could live in a world where everything's just kind of auto-controlled for us. But, yeah, I don't know, Adam.
The Changelog: Software Development, Open Source
The power of the button (Interview)
Maybe you've got a better answer on that.
The Changelog: Software Development, Open Source
The power of the button (Interview)
Thank you so much for having me.
The Changelog: Software Development, Open Source
The power of the button (Interview)
Well, you know, I think because we don't know how so many machines work and they are so impenetrable to us, we have to come up with this folklore and all this, you know, this local wisdom because we can't really see how the machine works or what makes it do what it does. And so it leads people to do a lot of wild and crazy things to try to figure out how to game the system.
The Changelog: Software Development, Open Source
The power of the button (Interview)
That's a great question. I think a lot of people are interested in that and wanting, you know, some kind of standardization or some kind of system for deciding when to put these things in which situations. And, you know, I'm not a UX expert, and I'm not an HCI expert. So I don't do much in the way of kind of saying this is right or wrong.
The Changelog: Software Development, Open Source
The power of the button (Interview)
I know there are regulators that are starting to do this kind of work. I just saw in the EU that they're actually requiring cars go back to having physical buttons instead of touchscreens for things like turn signals and windshield wipers. And so I think we're going to see more legislation like that, maybe more standardization of things, especially in safety situations.
The Changelog: Software Development, Open Source
The power of the button (Interview)
Um, I've also talked to people about things like defibrillators and CT scanners and x-rays, you know, medical situations when you have to push a button. And it seems like anytime life or death is involved or people's wellbeing is at stake, probably a touchscreen is not going to be the right way to go because it's going to involve a lot more, you know, machinations to do that.
The Changelog: Software Development, Open Source
The power of the button (Interview)
And I do know that studies have shown that it just takes longer to push buttons on touchscreens, you know, even simple things takes more time than when you're reaching for a physical button. So I wish I had a list of best practices. I do think a lot of it is situation specific.
The Changelog: Software Development, Open Source
The power of the button (Interview)
Yeah, I think there's kind of these interesting pendulum swings that happen with these different interfaces where something becomes really en vogue for a while, then not so much, then again. And the button is really a very old and enduring technology. Touchscreen is obviously much newer. For the last couple of decades, I think there became this kind of
The Changelog: Software Development, Open Source
The power of the button (Interview)
There's a decision tree for you. It's just could James Bond do it or not? And then, you know.
The Changelog: Software Development, Open Source
The power of the button (Interview)
You just figured it out.
The Changelog: Software Development, Open Source
The power of the button (Interview)
And so, yeah, it's almost like it has to be made more complex in certain situations and simpler in other ones, like the defibrillator case. A lot of people, these are automatic defibrillators that are installed in places, AEDs, like in shopping malls or in a city that
The Changelog: Software Development, Open Source
The power of the button (Interview)
So that, you know, you could administer for a state if someone's having a heart attack right in front of you and they want average citizens to do it. But they found that a lot of people are just too anxious to push the button because they're so worried, you know, hey, what's going to happen if I, you know, electrify this person? I don't want to push the button.
The Changelog: Software Development, Open Source
The power of the button (Interview)
So, you know, they were trying to figure out how do we make this simplistic enough that people won't be afraid to actually use it. In other cases, it's like, all right, let's put 15 layers of security around this thing so that people will be dissuaded from using it.
The Changelog: Software Development, Open Source
The power of the button (Interview)
what I call touchscreen mania, where it was like, all right, everything's got to be a touchscreen now. And people got really hyped around that. But over time, I think we've begun to see some of the cracks and flaws and problems with doing everything that way.
The Changelog: Software Development, Open Source
The power of the button (Interview)
You know, I like to keep people guessing a little bit, I guess, but they're actually not as far afield as they seem. You know, I've always been interested in interfaces and just thinking about how people... interface more, you know, metaphorically with their devices. And I guess maybe this project emerged out of the pandemic and also having children.
The Changelog: Software Development, Open Source
The power of the button (Interview)
But I got really fascinated by kind of messiness and care and how we have to negotiate our devices in all these situations. Like what happens when you spill coffee on your laptop keyboard? What happens if you drop your phone in the toilet? What about wanting to take your smartwatch in the shower? Or, you know, if you start sweating with your Fitbit, things like that.
The Changelog: Software Development, Open Source
The power of the button (Interview)
And I realize there's just a lot of interesting things happening around our environments and our bodies and our devices. And maintenance and care is kind of a real problem. So I looked at issues of waterproofing and how that's kind of evolved over time from everything from wristwatches to current smartphones. And
The Changelog: Software Development, Open Source
The power of the button (Interview)
thinking about what we do to kind of keep our devices alive in all of these situations. It's actually pretty tricky.
The Changelog: Software Development, Open Source
The power of the button (Interview)
It was really not easy, actually. Just like buttons, it was like, all right, well, which buttons should I study and which liquids should I study and which devices? But I kind of take this long historical approach. I actually start out with looking at babies who were teething on telephone cords in the 1900s.
The Changelog: Software Development, Open Source
The power of the button (Interview)
And people are starting to maybe dial back a little bit and think about when's the right situation for a touchscreen and when's the right situation for a physical button.
The Changelog: Software Development, Open Source
The power of the button (Interview)
They kept getting saliva on the cord, and then people would lose their phone service, which was pretty fascinating. I look at things like vinyl records and how smudges on the disc would create problems with being able to play music. And then I move all the way into things like the Sony Walkman and early PCs and keyboards and all the problems around liquids and dust and things like that.
The Changelog: Software Development, Open Source
The power of the button (Interview)
And then moving more into the present with, you know, wearables and smartphones and things like that. So I kind of took this long range approach of thinking about, hey. You know, this kind of messiness, this what I call media hygiene, how we kind of protect our devices from ourselves has been a problem for a really long time. But we kind of negotiate it in different ways at different moments.
The Changelog: Software Development, Open Source
The power of the button (Interview)
So even the buttons, you know, they get wet, they get dirty. You're going to have problems.
The Changelog: Software Development, Open Source
The power of the button (Interview)
I looked at that a little bit. Yeah. I mean, there was a lot of talk, especially during the pandemic, about, you know, what's appropriate for cleaning your phone? What are you allowed to put on it? What are you not? What happens if you take it in the bathroom? And I think that there's, you know, obviously there's contamination issues and health issues around that.
The Changelog: Software Development, Open Source
The power of the button (Interview)
But it's also like, where do we want our media? Like, is it socially acceptable to live stream from your bathtub? Do you put a TV, you know, in your shower? Yeah. Is it good to disconnect in certain situations? Where do we actually want our devices to go? And some people actually say, hey, it's better that this thing isn't waterproof because that way I have to take a break. Right.
The Changelog: Software Development, Open Source
The power of the button (Interview)
So there's an interesting kind of dialogue there.
The Changelog: Software Development, Open Source
The power of the button (Interview)
Yeah, there were a lot of terrible stories about that, especially in the 20s and 30s, people dropping their radios in the bathtub, even children, you know, horrible deaths from electrocution. And obviously now we don't have to worry about that as much as we used to. But I think there's still kind of a stigma around liquids and electronics. Like people immediately are like, Put that drink away.
The Changelog: Software Development, Open Source
The power of the button (Interview)
Don't take that there. We still kind of tiptoe around these issues. We haven't kind of overcome those thresholds to some degree, the taboo of it.
The Changelog: Software Development, Open Source
The power of the button (Interview)
I'm hoping it'll be interesting for academics and lay people. I think it speaks to a story that all of us kind of navigate on a daily basis. We often don't realize just how much we're thinking about, should I put this in a case or not? Do I take this to the beach with me or do I leave it behind? Oh, crap, I poured this entire mug of coffee on my computer. What do I do now?
The Changelog: Software Development, Open Source
The power of the button (Interview)
So I'm hoping that the stories will kind of resonate with people who live through that, but also from an academic perspective, trying to help people understand what media hygiene is and how it's kind of been this pervasive problem for the maintenance and care of technology.
The Changelog: Software Development, Open Source
The power of the button (Interview)
No, that was definitely a part of my study. I think right to repair is really important to think about. And obviously, over time, our devices have gotten harder and harder to repair. So if you do have an accident, the consequences for that are much greater than they used to be. And a lot of what I focus on is how there's this disparity between advertising, like, oh, it's so sexy and pretty.
The Changelog: Software Development, Open Source
The power of the button (Interview)
You can take your watch underwater. You can go diving with it. And don't worry. A spill is just an oops. It's no big deal. But then watching how people have navigated horrible warranty plans and liquid contact indicators, oh, it got tripped. Therefore, now your whole warranty is invalidated. And we can't repair this thing. You have to get a new one.
The Changelog: Software Development, Open Source
The power of the button (Interview)
So I think there are a lot of kind of real world consequences for this, where we as consumers get penalized for our quote unquote bad hygiene. We're treated like bad users. And these companies continue to kind of profit off of all of our mistakes, if you will.
The Changelog: Software Development, Open Source
The power of the button (Interview)
Yeah, it took a few years. I started probably about 2019 working on this. I didn't know exactly what it was going to turn into at that time. Initially, I kind of started with the tactile stuff. I was looking at smudges on our smartphones and just kind of thinking about screens and tactility and handling, since that kind of goes along with buttons, just touching stuff, right? Mm-hmm.
The Changelog: Software Development, Open Source
The power of the button (Interview)
It kind of morphed over time into thinking about liquids. And so it's been about four years that I was working on the project. And I went into some archives, looked at Rolex's archives and kind of the history of waterproofing wristwatches in the military and kind of went down a lot of paths as I was developing this.
The Changelog: Software Development, Open Source
The power of the button (Interview)
But the hope was always that it was going to turn into this kind of bigger book project.
The Changelog: Software Development, Open Source
The power of the button (Interview)
One-handed? One-handed?
The Changelog: Software Development, Open Source
The power of the button (Interview)
Yeah, there's a good section of the book that looks at torture testing and all of the kind of bizarre trials we put our devices to to see what will they stand up to. And in fact, I look at programmers and think about, you know, all night coding and kind of the desire to have food and drinks near the device and how people have had to navigate that.
The Changelog: Software Development, Open Source
The power of the button (Interview)
Now I'm doing something on energy drinks and gamers. So I think the mixing of food and drinks and snacks with computers is super interesting.
The Changelog: Software Development, Open Source
The power of the button (Interview)
Whether that's to our benefit, I don't know.
The Changelog: Software Development, Open Source
The power of the button (Interview)
Yeah, I think, well, the way that things get made obsolete when they break, you know, and that it's so easy to break things now. Oh, I spilled this tiny bit of liquid on it. Therefore, now the whole thing is broken. Go out and buy a new one. You know, it's pretty painful.
The Changelog: Software Development, Open Source
The power of the button (Interview)
Yeah, those are membranes, membrane keys.
The Changelog: Software Development, Open Source
The power of the button (Interview)
I'm going to dial that history down to just, you know, 60 seconds.
The Changelog: Software Development, Open Source
The power of the button (Interview)
It's that single point of failure, you know? The fact that one button could ruin the whole device, I think, is so problematic. And you're so right. I mean, most people, you take it to any repair person. They say, oh, we don't want to fix it. It would be cheaper to just get you a new one, you know?
The Changelog: Software Development, Open Source
The power of the button (Interview)
Condense that history. You know, I think it's a pretty fascinating story. You're right that it dates back to electrification and industrialization in the late 1800s, early 1900s. And at that moment, people were starting to deliberate, how are we going to control our machines in a way that's more effortless, that's more automatic?
The Changelog: Software Development, Open Source
The power of the button (Interview)
Not yet. Actually, I'm doing a talk on Twitch on January 31st. I guess I'll plug that. Nice. For Rom Chip, it's a game history journal. So we're doing a talk on Twitch. And yeah, I'm kind of thinking, again, sort of bringing the past and present into conversation. I'm looking at things like pilots and fatigue and...
The Changelog: Software Development, Open Source
The power of the button (Interview)
you know, different uses of caffeine and chemicals to try to keep people awake to do their jobs. And I was just really interested in this question of how energy drinks have become so pervasive in gaming, the idea of the all night gamer. And what do we kind of put our bodies through to get them to consume more media? So it's kind of like the equivalent of binge watching, but for gaming.
The Changelog: Software Development, Open Source
The power of the button (Interview)
And that's been a part of gaming culture for a long time. So I try to think about, you know, building some kind of timeline or historical narrative around how we got to be this way and why. And Now energy drinks are super interesting. They've got all these nootropics and vitamins and supplements in them. They're kind of being pitched as healthy, whereas they used to be pitched as junk food.
The Changelog: Software Development, Open Source
The power of the button (Interview)
And even that's been a really fascinating kind of shift.
The Changelog: Software Development, Open Source
The power of the button (Interview)
Yeah, I'm still kind of working through that. But I think you're right. Most public health studies have shown that there are a lot of problems with these drinks. I think some of them have tried to cut out sugar and things like that and replaced it with other things. But the health implications are certainly concerning and worrisome in many ways.
The Changelog: Software Development, Open Source
The power of the button (Interview)
And what's fascinating is how these industries have embedded themselves so deeply in media, whether it's promotions or going to conventions or in-game kind of features and things. So it's almost like the drink has become media in and of itself. And it's another thing to be consumed. You know, they pull influencers in to promote them.
The Changelog: Software Development, Open Source
The power of the button (Interview)
So it's a massive industry that I think hasn't been studied quite enough. So I'm excited to kind of explore a little more and see where that goes.
The Changelog: Software Development, Open Source
The power of the button (Interview)
How do we initiate a circuit, turn it on and off, you know, open and close that circuit? And there were a variety of answers to that problem, various kinds of switches and pulls and throws and toggles. But the button kind of emerged as one of the standard ways of doing those kinds of activities.
The Changelog: Software Development, Open Source
The power of the button (Interview)
Yeah, and I think it's very interesting, too, that, you know, in some ways, these drinks are becoming more akin to Gatorade or kind of sports drinks, or they're pitched that way, at least. And I think as we see the rise of esports and things like that, you know, it becomes associated with the idea of endurance and performance, and you'll get that kind of edge.
The Changelog: Software Development, Open Source
The power of the button (Interview)
So that's really implicit in the marketing, too, or explicit, I guess.
The Changelog: Software Development, Open Source
The power of the button (Interview)
And a lot of that had to do with reducing the effort that it took because, you know, you'd have to pull a heavy cord or pull a lever, you know, do something that was pretty effortful. But also, I think there was this idea around accessibility that buttons were supposedly easier to use. And
The Changelog: Software Development, Open Source
The power of the button (Interview)
But it is still extreme. You know, it's hardcore to stay up all night and press those buttons.
The Changelog: Software Development, Open Source
The power of the button (Interview)
Oh no. Tell me about that.
The Changelog: Software Development, Open Source
The power of the button (Interview)
How have I not seen that?
The Changelog: Software Development, Open Source
The power of the button (Interview)
That's in my near future.
The Changelog: Software Development, Open Source
The power of the button (Interview)
See selling the button still works.
The Changelog: Software Development, Open Source
The power of the button (Interview)
I want to do demonstrations where I just dunk the book in a big vat of water and then just watch how people react. I think that's going to really play it up.
The Changelog: Software Development, Open Source
The power of the button (Interview)
And then sign it. Exactly.
The Changelog: Software Development, Open Source
The power of the button (Interview)
One of the most fascinating things was how they were advertised to women and children because they supposedly were either not smart enough or strong enough to operate machines otherwise. So there was kind of this talk of the lowest common denominator. So easy a child could do it. Anyone can push a button.
The Changelog: Software Development, Open Source
The power of the button (Interview)
I feel like we covered a ton of stuff. No, I feel good.
The Changelog: Software Development, Open Source
The power of the button (Interview)
Yeah, you can go to rachelplotnick.com, P-L-O-T-N-I-C-K, or you can find me at Indiana University. Either place, you'll get to something to do with buttons, liquids, all the things.
The Changelog: Software Development, Open Source
The power of the button (Interview)
January 31st. It's at 2 p.m. Eastern. If you just search for Rachel Plotnick and Energy Drinks, it should come up and you can find registration. It's free, but would love to have some people join.
The Changelog: Software Development, Open Source
The power of the button (Interview)
So at this point, anybody, anybody can attend. Yeah, it's meant to be kind of academic light. So I'll be talking about academic things, but meant for a general audience. So if you're interested in energy drinks, come on by.
The Changelog: Software Development, Open Source
The power of the button (Interview)
Thank you so much. This is great.
The Changelog: Software Development, Open Source
The power of the button (Interview)
Yeah, I think it's a really interesting tension between the flexibility of software, which is versatile, and hey, you can update that button, and today that button does one thing, tomorrow it can do another thing, and the physical button's always going to do that one thing. But on the other hand, there is kind of that simplicity factor of, I can always go to this button.
The Changelog: Software Development, Open Source
The power of the button (Interview)
I know that it has a discrete task that it's meant to operate. And so I do think it becomes a question of when is the right interface for the right kind of activity.
The Changelog: Software Development, Open Source
The power of the button (Interview)
And as you said, driving in particular, I think is one of those cases where we don't want a lot of cognitive overload and we don't want to have to be looking around trying to figure out what am I supposed to press or push or tap when we're also trying to do the act of driving.
The Changelog: Software Development, Open Source
The power of the button (Interview)
You're doing my job.
The Changelog: Software Development, Open Source
The power of the button (Interview)
I can just sit here.
The Changelog: Software Development, Open Source
The power of the button (Interview)
No, I think that that's probably right. You know, I think that minimalist aesthetic took hold where it was like, all right, everything's going to be smooth and flat and glass. And I think the iPhone was really a big factor in that.
The Changelog: Software Development, Open Source
The power of the button (Interview)
Probably we were seeing this a little bit earlier in popular culture, even like I often point to the movie Minority Report in 2001, where Tom Cruise was gesturing with his hands. And I think people were starting to get excited about the idea of how do we manipulate our data in a way that either minimally involves touching it or doesn't involve touching it at all.
The Changelog: Software Development, Open Source
The power of the button (Interview)
And of course, we've seen that around VR as well, you know, people getting interested in the idea of kind of just waving our hands around in the air. So that concept's been around for a long time. But I do think you're right, you know, between 2007 and 2009, that's when this kind of minimalist touchscreen interface took hold and
The Changelog: Software Development, Open Source
The power of the button (Interview)
That's, in fact, when I started working on the topic, everyone was saying it's the death of the button. You know, we're not even going to push buttons anymore in the next, you know, 10, 20 years. And I was really fascinated by, you know, is society being gripped by this wholesale shift in the way that we interact with technology? That seemed like such an interesting question.
The Changelog: Software Development, Open Source
The power of the button (Interview)
Yeah, it kind of took a while. I mean, it wasn't like I went to graduate school and said, you know, I'm going to research push buttons. That's not really my origin story. But I thought that, you know, buttons were just that death of the button was kind of what sparked it.
The Changelog: Software Development, Open Source
The power of the button (Interview)
And then I thought, all right, as I'm starting to think about pushing buttons, I realized that everywhere we turn, we see people doing this activity, whether it's your coffee maker or going up and down an elevator, driving your car, social media buttons. What are we doing all day but just pushing buttons? That seemed like such an interesting way to talk about how people...
The Changelog: Software Development, Open Source
The power of the button (Interview)
you know, interact on a daily basis with their machines. And as I started digging into it, I just kind of became gripped with this question of how did we get to be this way? You know, where did this technology come from? What were some of the cultural issues around pushing buttons?
The Changelog: Software Development, Open Source
The power of the button (Interview)
And that led me to kind of this historical approach to say, okay, I want to understand some of the earliest buttons and societal fantasies and fears around that. And next thing I knew, I was down this crazy wormhole trying to figure out all these things about buttons. And it was pretty interesting.
The Changelog: Software Development, Open Source
The power of the button (Interview)
Yeah, someone just actually emailed me to tell me about an experience at Universal Studios in Hollywood that involves The Simpsons. And I guess there is a nuclear reactor button there. And they've got like a countdown clock. How long has it been since someone's pushed the button? You're totally right, Adam, that I think there's that psychology around button pushing that's so fascinating.
The Changelog: Software Development, Open Source
The power of the button (Interview)
As soon as you tell someone you can't push the button, all they want to do is push it. Right. And of course, that gets back to these kind of grand fears of nuclear warfare, you know, the big red button. And but I think it's also just in our nature that, you know, we want to do things that we're told not to do.
The Changelog: Software Development, Open Source
The power of the button (Interview)
You know, the whole lever, key, button, switch distinction is very gray. That was a big problem for me. As soon as I started to research buttons, I was like, well, what really is a button? You know, we could get pretty philosophical about that.
The Changelog: Software Development, Open Source
The power of the button (Interview)
I decided to just say, okay, if someone calls it a button, I'm calling it a button. If they call it something else, then I'm not calling it a button.