Lesson Six Button, Button by Richard Matheson Lesson Six Button, Button by Richard Matheson.
History of the Button
-
Upload
bill-derouchey -
Category
Design
-
view
66.057 -
download
0
Transcript of History of the Button
Hello.
This incarnation of the History of the Button was presented at SXSW on March 12, 2010.
This slide deck is slightly different from the live presentation. The main difference is that the videos that were in the presentation have been translated here to stills as best as possible.
Enjoy.
Bill DeRouchey
[email protected]@billder
Also, narration boxes like this are extra notes to help fill in context where necessary and point out where this version differed from the live presentation.
About the audio.
If you’re listening to the audio, sorry about the bad quality for the first 12 minutes. SXSW somehow cut off the first 12 minutes.
To make up for it, I had to slice in the audio from my FlipCam recording, which was better than nothing.
If you’re not listening to the audio, then it doesn’t matter at all. Carry on.
This is a story
that spans over 100 years...
As a contrast to SXSW which focuses so much on the Now and the Future.
MoviesProducts
ScreensAdvertisements
We’ll take almost an anthropological approach by looking at these items to examine the history of the button.
We’re in a transition....a transition to Surface.
This was a movie in the original presentation (from Apple.com).
Generations of Interaction
1 Lever2 Button3 Surface4 Fluid
now
We are currently in a transition from a button era to a surface era.
Generations of Interaction
1 Lever2 Button3 Surface4 Fluid
1900
We should look to the previous transition to understand today.
We love our tools.
We are a bunch of smart monkeys. We figured out how to use the objects in the world around us to augment our human motion. Bones into shovels. Sticks into rakes. Iron into gears.
For example, a gun can simply be understood as throwing a rock, a tiny rock, much faster and with greater accuracy.
You can see the Action.
In the mechanical era, you can see action happen, see how one motion affects another. You can follow the results from action to result.
Compressed
Time
Major advances in technology actually change how we perceive the world.
For example, train travel compressed our sense of time between faraway places.
Compressed Distance
The telegraph changed our sense of connection over distance. Instant communication across hundreds of miles for the first time.
Abstracted
Motion
But the button meant for the first time, the result of a human motion could be completely different from the motion itself.
The motion Push does not scale to
the result Light.
This abstracted interaction with technology represented a new way to comprehend the world.
What was the
first button?
1898
The flashlight was the first simple everyday button. It revolutionized our sense of light.
1890s
Eastman used the phrase “You Press the Button, We Do the Rest” to show how simple cameras can be.
Button = easy.
1910s
As the electricity grid expanded, homes installed lights and simple pushbuttons to turn the lights on and off.
1911
Sidenote: An editorial cartoon from 1911 depicting a dark vision of the future.
Surrounded by technology, lazy, pushing buttons.
For a similar dystopian view, read the 1910 short story “The Machine Stops” from E.M. Forster.
“The Opera Delivered to Your Door” = Pandora“The Observascope” = webcamsOf course, all with a robot servant!
1920sThe radio.
The next major tech innovation was the radio, sending live audio from a distance.
The opera really now was delivered to you.
Radio presets.
1938
But tuning to your favorite stations almost required a scientist mentality.
Until 1938 when radio presets (buttons) exchanged the emphasis on “tuning” for “returning.”
Radio presets.First notion of Save.
1938
Essentially, radio presets were the first notion of “saving” in technology. Save your favorite station.
New York World’s Fair
1939
During the Great Depression, people looked to a better future, capped by the World’s Fair in 1939.
MonsantoHouse ofthe Future
1958
Visions of the future continued, including this Monsanto home, promoting both the wonders of plastics and pushbuttons.
In the 1950s, the promise of pushbutton technology became available to a wide variety of consumer items, providing a new luxury for the middle class.
1956
And in nearly every case, the phrase “pushbutton” became an adjective communicating modern, luxury, advanced, new, easy.
So easy...
even a woman can do it.
And also in nearly every case, women were used in ads to add the subtle message of, this new technology is so easy to use, even a woman can use it.
Buttons cross the chasm.
Picture the classic Crossing the Chasm diagram of early adopters vs. late adopters.
“Pushbutton” meant that the product was simple enough for late adopters to now buy.
This practice of using “pushbutton” continues today, but only in the seamier parts of the web.
Get rich quick!
1959
Returning to the living room, the remote control has become the classic example of this pushbutton era.
1956
First control from a distance
Because for the first time, regular people could control an object from a distance. No wires!
Who has their finger on the button?
After WWII, we had automated war machinery so much that global nuclear annihilation was perceived to be as easy as pushing a button.
And it may have been.
At the same time, engineers were building complex machines controlled by rows and rows of switches and buttons. We were learning to automate.
At the same time, engineers were building complex machines controlled by rows and rows of switches and buttons. We were learning to automate.
Only a select few could understand these machines, could use these buttons, using a highly specialized language.
Only a select few could understand these machines, could use these buttons, using a highly specialized language.
First game interaction?
1947
First mechanical game where you can interact with the ball in play to keep it in play. Beginning of a new era in gaming.
Before this, buttons were physical things. The Macintosh in 1984 introduced to the general public the idea that buttons could be virtual.
1984Education through Advertising
This concept was so new that Apple needed to educate people simply how to use a mouse.
They took out 39 pages of advertising in Newsweek to essentially publish a user’s manual.
Education through Advertising 1984
Notice the incredible detail to communicate the basics of something we take for granted.
1996
With the web, “buttons” could become anything. They didn’t need a specific shape that said “I’m a button.” They could be blue text and underlined.
Images, text, anything is now actionable. As an example, the next page shows everything that can be acted upon. Compare it to this page.
Nearly everything can be acted upon. This has changed how we perceive the world around us. All items can have deeper connection.
2010
We even understand that simple gray text is actionable, simply from its location to its neighbors. We assume that “Work” is a link.
Generations of Interaction
1 Lever2 Button3 Surface4 Fluid
soon
The next generation will feature dynamic surfaces.
Research on dynamic tactile surfaces from Chris Harrison and Scott Hudson at Carnegie Mellon University.
When buttons can essentially have a disposable physical form, we can build interfaces into any surface.
Meaning our entire surroundings can be interactable. Imagine the generation that grows up with that.
Imagine growing up in a world where touchscreens and interactive gestures are a given. How does that affect your brain processing?
Imagine growing up in a world where touchscreens and interactive gestures are a given. How does that affect your brain processing?
Imagine growing up in a world where touchscreens and interactive gestures are a given. How does that affect your brain processing?
The button has been a
100 year transition technology from the mechanical age to the truly electronic age.
And that’s why the button
is the most influential yet least appreciated
innovation of the 20th Century.