The UX of Lego Interface Panels
I wish this article actually ditched Legos and used actual examples from existing UIs. There is something to be said about fighter jet cockpits, avionics controls, understanding of haptics in older cars, power plant control boards and subway control rooms, crane operator interface, bulldozer UI, CNC machine HMI and a whole bunch of UI systems that exist out side of consumer space.<p>For some reason (I blame sci-fi authors and their vision of future), consumer space is eroding rapidly with touch screens. Consumers will eat up marketing bullshit when it is wrapped in a scifi wrapper, with "Now a touchscreen interface!". This is sadly eroding into things like professional oscilloscopes, and even cockpits!<p>They're cheap, easily reconfigurable (this is a bug, not a feature) and it makes the bean counters happy - "Oh you mean the $48 BOM can be reduced to $7.50 with one touch screen and 1 UI software contractor for 4 months! <i>And</i> we can market it as a cool thing without users noticing? Holyshit, you're promoted."<p>That said, iPhone is nice. It is rare exception, I don't know how Steve Jobs saw this, but this is perhaps his genius. iPhone + touchscreen interface totally makes sense. Blackberry folks flaunted their physical keyboards and yet, iPhone won. This frankly surprises me. If it was year 2005, I would have bet on Blackberry over iPhone. Everybody did.