The touch screen has changed the way we think of interacting with ui’s (its also changed how we drive – admit it, it is WAY harder to text while driving and I am convinced that it has brought about or at least sped up texting while driving laws). So how will our computer and device interactions change next? Or will they. Here are a few interesting sites. Feel free to share more!

I recently retired my trusty dual G5 Mac aka “Old Ironsides” in favor of a brand spanking new 27 inch iMac. As I bask and possibly self tan off the glow of this incredible monitor and remind myself to blink as to not burn out my retinas, I can’t believe I’m actually about to type this, but the display isn’t actually my favorite part, I actually expected the display to be cool. I wasn’t expecting the new Magic Mouse to be all that magical, as I have a natural distaste for wizards, magicians, and that other magic spelled with a K.

Before I continue, I feel inclined to mention that according to one of the deleted comments in my last post, I “might possibly be on crack” but I assure you that the Magic Mouse is totally awesome, almost as awesome as crack.

The Magic Mouse looks slick and futuristic like everything else from Apple (unlike crack) and has a nice weight that makes it feel almost natural in your hand or as natural as something manufactured out of metal and shiny plastic can possibly be (unlike a crack pipe). Interacting with the Magic Mouse is more like using a touch screen iPod touch or iPhone, you can click or even right-click without any actual buttons (not sure how that is even possible) zoom the entire screen, effortlessly scroll up/down/left/right and you can even go forward and back in Safari or iPhoto with the swipe of two fingers. Using the Magic Mouse is what I assume being on crack is like, you get to do things that make perfect sense to you but is completely illogical to everyone else, you know the rest of the squares with their normal mice.

And now just like crack, using the Magic Mouse has become addictive to me. Unfortunately the monkey is on my back I can’t get it off and I’m going to be stuck using my old optical mouse when I get to work on Monday with it’s annoying red glow and clunky wheel. But when I get off of work, trust me, I’m going to run right back to my Magic Mouse and like the saying goes “you ain’t catching no crackhead!”

This may be another case of the web world catching up with the desktop world, in terms of interaction, but Drag and Drop interfaces are another UI trend that’s starting to popup in a lot of places.  While it can be useful for customization, the interaction can sometimes feel a little clunky.  There’s also the problem of calling out the interaction… i.e. letting the user know that they can drag an item, and where it can be dropped.  There’s good patterns and bad patterns.

We recently spoke with rapper and blogger Lil Wayne on the subject of Drag and Drop interfaces, and here’s what he had to say:

UITrends.com: “Lil Wayne, what is your view on Drag and Drop?”

Lil Wayne: “Word, call me Weezy.  You got to Drag before you Drop.  And after you’re through, you better drop it like it’s hot!!!!”

UITrends.com: “So Weezy, you would say that as a UI trend, Drag and Drop Interfaces supply an interaction that is both useful and intuitive to the user?”

Lil Wayne: “…”

UITrends.com: “Weezy?”

Lil Wayne: <hangs up phone>

So obviously, Lil Wayne loves Drag and Drop Interfaces… how do you feel about ‘em?

References:
Disambiguity
Yahoo UI Library

note: I did not actually talk to Lil Wayne… but I did find a Lil Wayne look-a-like who loved this post… ok, not really, I made that up too.