Notes on The Best Interface is No Interface

As I noted earlier, the ideal instrumental interface for any task or problem is a magic button that can (1) read the user’s mind perfectly to understand the desired task, and (2) perform it instantly and completely to the desired specifications.

In absence of such a perfect button, you, the designer, must conceive of the closest possible approximati... See more

All this is to suggest only one thing: that new ways to experience something, especially something that already exists, can be the most transformational. The interface can be the message when something old is presented in a new way.

This “undulant interface” was made by John Underkoffler. The heresy implicit within is the premise that the user, not the system, gets to define what is most important at any given moment; where to place the jeweler’s loupes for more detail, and where to show only a simple overview, within one consistent interface.