Star Trek. It has been instilling hope in millions of people for generations. And that's not an easy thing to do. It is the inspiration of many doctors and scientists.
Yep. Because who doesn’t want to explore all the possibilities of space and technology. :) all the ways it can go right, and serve as warnings for all the ways it can be misused.
Hi from France. Love your job! To answer your question: I'm a big fan of scifi. I love Foundation form Azimov but Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis have a special place in my heart.
I've worked on The Flash, Arrow, Legends of Tomorrow, Supergirl, Siren, Snowpiercer and more as an FUI designer, so this was super fun and interesting to watch. The reason we've been seeing blue interfaces since Minority Report and keep seeing them still today isn't actually the fault of us designers, it's the directors who keep asking for it. Because at the end of the day, FUIs are storytelling tools before anything else. That's also the reason you see so many incredibly cluttered FUIs - it conveys that the user is smart and extremely knowledgeable, that what they're doing is important and/or highly technical at just a glance. We don't want the audience to be able to make sense of the UI at a glance, we just want them to get the idea of what's happening, or to tell a story point (The Martian: "The MAV is tilting, only 2 more degrees and we're screwed!"). However, at the same time, us designers to strive to come up with new ideas and try to predict where the future lies, in terms of UI design. Which, at least to me, has become very difficult lately. All the stuff I'd expect to be a thing in 20 years from now is coming now or already here. So what's next?
I think video games are a good spot to draw inspiration from. Specifically, MMORPGs like Star Wars: The Old Republic, World of Warcraft and Final Fantasy 14. Those games can have really cluttered user interfaces, but experienced players can still navigate them near-effortlessly. The core insight I'd take from video games, however, is probably from the Wii. After a quick and intense boom of motion controls, people collectively grew out of them real fast. It turns out that when given the choice between a complicated full-body movement or pressing a single button, people prefer the latter. Convenience is the name of the game!
Transparency is a pet peeve of me, it doesn't happen because it's impossible, no, it doesn't happen because it's annoying to view. It's cool, but annoying.
I can tell how much passion you have for this, how much joy you find in making it, and in gathering the data. I'm not a content creator but a Ph.D. researcher, and I can tell you for sure, making this quality content is not easy at all. You are talented, please post more!
A very interesting development in fictional UIs is the move to retrofuturism, in shows like Severance, Loki, Silo. It's a breath of fresh air after all the glowing blue sci-fi.
As a mechanical engineer myself, I have to say the cluttered hundred windows all over the place aesthetic is incredibly real for technical fields. Everyone in my department is supplied with 3 monitors by default because everyone uses all of them. Browsers, email, instant communication, Excels, Words, PDF's, and all the applications we use to actually *DO* analyses, we're spliting up each screen into windowed corners!
You just need to use i3, multiplexers, or script your environment. I know DevOps Engineers who prefer a small 15" screen. It's not a matter of screens, it's a matter of poor selection of workflow tools.
I‘d love to see an video about game UI and HUDs. I find it difficult to keep track of information in „realtime“-action games. Even the health indicator can go unnoticed if the game itself requires quick reactions, which ironically is the scenario where health is important.
I've seen a video focusing on this but i don't remember by who and it was a while ago. Although it was covering more about why some modern game UIs tend to have a similar boxy look, but i recall it did have some background on the development.
@@eduardrosenberg7190absolutely not, those are distracting and not an adequate solution to your health and ammo being hidden way off in the corner of increasingly wide screens
@@coolbean9880 something cool that Mirror's Edge (2008, not the reboot) did was have your health be shown by the saturation of the colours. The more desaturated your world got the more you should duck in and hide.
I'm an artist and designer that's been looking at UI design and evolutions as a past time since not maybe people pay attention to it. Well unless its in the gamer community. Glad to find someone else share the joy of Fictional designs that inspire the world around us.
The topic of UIs is way bigger than just GUIs though. As a part of my MSc in system design, we had to embrace HMI as a whole, including interaction design, physical controls, labeling, functional and logical grouping, through colors, blocking, lighting _and_ digital GUIs of course. Sound and haptic are also a big part of feedback designs.
There are so many cool design trends in videogames imo. Like, I really can not wait to see what bungie comes up with for the reboot of Marathon. The original from 1994 had did some pretty revolutionary things( Like using a mouse for aiming, but aesthetically too). The trailer for the new one looks really promising. I believe its aesthetic is called "Nasapunk", but it reminds me of mirrors edge. Bright and distinct colours, lots of white... I feel like thats gonna be a trend in a few years or so.
There was an episode of Black Mirror (I forgot which) that had UI I liked so much, I made a note to go back and study it for inspiration for web and app designs! I appreciate media that shows realistic UI that isn’t over-the-top and distracting.
What a cool idea for a video! A (non-dev, non-designer) coworker approached me a few weeks ago to suggest some UI tweaks to our intternal tools. His suggestions were specific and really good... His inspiration? He had been bingi g Star Trek TNG 😅
A point I want to make about 'cluttered' UI in scenes such as Minority Report. I'm thinking that is more of a personal desktop. Like anyone's personal space, I'm sure we all have things spread out, i.e. +50 open tabs in the browser. I know there are certain tools already integrated into modern DE, but I'd love to see more focus on automated UI layouts depending on what task / multi monitor setup / preferred interface (keyboard, mouse, touch) that help seamlessly switch to the most optimal layout
I think a lot of relatively recent UI in games has been feeding on the nostalgia of the 1970s-80s with strong emphasis on vector-like graphics, and that as time goes on we'll start to see more "Windows Classic" style blocky UI, followed by more of the clear and roundy UIs reminiscent of Windows Vista.
Delighted that you briefly focused on Elite! I literally finished a game session of Elite Dangerous (its current incarnation), opened UA-cam on my phone, and watched this video now or less at random. The interface now is much more sophisticated and concerts far more information, but the distinctive, iconic radar display in the middle is virtually unchanged. It's a brilliant interface, and in 40 years I've never seen a more intuitive and easy to understand at a glance method of portraying relative positions of objects in 3D space using a 2-dimensional interface (well, unless you're playing in VR).
I have no idea why but I've always loved the UI in massive control rooms. Like those you can see in central dogma in evangelion, the sidonia's bridge in knights of sidonia, and the bridge of one of the arks in the godzilla 3d animated trilogy.
Awesome video! I will say, to me cluttered UI still makes sense. Just think of all the software designed for specific tasks (video editing, CAD software, programming IDEs) that still opt for cluttered UI because so many tools would otherwise be behind a pesky dropdown menu. I think that will probably stay this way as long as we dont have a direct brain interface or something
Great video. I've been thinking about how to make an intemporal UI for a long time. It's not something a lot of people are talking about sadly. If you look back at all these UIs, the only ones that haven't aged are those using flat colours. It's a concept that has been technologically possible since the very onset of computers and is still relevant today. All those which use advanced effects like reliefs, borders, glows, blurs, opacity, ... come in and out as trends change but if you look at a flat colour UI from the 90s it will look as modern as if it had been made today. The only thing that betrays it would be the antialiasing on text that was pretty bad back then. It's the only thing I've been able to deduce. With regards to interfacing I can't picture what the future will look like. It will have to be reliable and convenient so no big BCI helmets or finicky gesture recognition like what exists today. We do see custom keypads with custom keys to automate some workflows in the gaming and AV community that look very much like the Alien ones. Personally my preferred interfacing tech is a mix of touchscreens, keys, and minimal gestures (not like minority report, more like small taps and swipes without having to move the wrist and arm). But that's not very futuristic.
Yeah, on my desktop, I use a theme based on a 90's unixlike OS, and it only looks out of place with apps that ignore it and use the very modern overly curved corners trend. Which I find very unpleasant.
I think UI in MR.Peabody & Shermon was really interesting. The holographics in the time machine are tactile, they are like part force field. There are all these floating windows that you can grab and use like an actual tablet. Along with floating keyboard that types like a real keyboard. Most satisfying part with the UI is when Sherman needs to override an error and he slides his finger on one of the windows to reveal the override button which is like an actual button. Its a really neat concept of a digital UI that has very tactile things you can interact with
As a Graphic & Motion Designer, always looking the interfases in movies and series, i think that Minority Report not only opened a new path, but explained no linear edit with data ingestion in an ultra modern and stylized way for "The Masses". Was one of the most "No bullshit added elements" of that time.
I remember watching a video about some guy ranting over games/film to display futuristic design with just slapping obtuse angles (often 35 degrees) everywhere and I cant oversee it since then. 10:41 is a good representation of that
I know the UI in older movies (like Alien) was limited by the technology at the time but I've often imagined it to be something akin to the retro aesthetic popular today. Or maybe the reason the screens look so simple is they're displaying simple data in an easy to read format, using the minimum amount of power consumption and CPU cycles. You need that kind of efficiency in long haul space travels.
It's funny that it's actually not the case. Anything moving with that kind of energy budget for human rated interstellar travel should realistically be unconstrained by energy requirements for life support and definitely computation of UI elements on a computer.
I love your videos. I studied, mathematics, computer science and art in uni.I used to hate UI/UX, Frontend for a long time as a backend dev cause I used to suck at it, and never seem to get how the modern world is doing it. But I have gotten very interested and falling in love with it slowly again. Thank you
There’s a phenomenal episode of the podcast “99% Invisible” that covers this topic and it’s great. If anyone wants more of this, the episode is called “future screens are mostly blue”
To answer the pinned question, yes, I very much do, predominantly TNG era Star Trek and the sort is my main cup of tea, but I don't generally diss any. I enjoy the idea of a brighter, more humane future, where we start working together, for everyone's betterment. Regarding the video itself, YT recommended me this video probably due to that background. It was so well made that I felt the need to check out what else you have in store, and while I was somewhat disappointed when I learned that it generally explores topics I'm less interested in - more of a backend brained person - I also felt the need to point out how entertaining it was, and how I wished there was more content from you that I would be interested. To clarify this is to say that this is some good quality stuff that I appreciate existing even if it is not for me, rather than to say that you should be focusing on different content. Once again, very well made!
I never would have put so much thought into something I considered so trivial like UI. But this video totally changed that, I already tried out Figma thanks to this channel, it’s opening me up to a whole new hobby and interest
This is lovely, and maybe someone else suggested it, but the brief brilliance of UIs in Max Headroom (the TV series) is probably worth including here. Or maybe you did and I missed it? Anyway, excellent work and a lovely way to slice time and show us these UIs!
Agreed, I saw Max Headroom as a kid and was amazed! That show was also how I started associating English accents with intelligence and sophistication, thanks to Amanda Pays.
I think my favorite use of UI in semi-recent films is the seemingly recent Iron-man movies. Just being able to touch and interact with images and holograms seems so cool(and that if AR technology becomes more widespread, it could totally be possible) . Great video, can't wait to see what you make next!
As the junction of being a huge sci-fi nerd, a programmer, and GNU/Linux user, I wanted to bringe al together, and taking advantage that Linux UI programs are the bee's knees in terms of customization, I'm developing a UI theme that bring that "glowing blue screens" aesthetic onto a usable everyday computing experience. It is not a simple task, as I need to keep that feel of the "cyberworld" while removing all that clutter those UI put in place just to make it seem complicated and technical. In the end I want people to be able that they are using Iron Man's computer or something while being a comfortable experience that does not give you a headache.
I actually enjoyed this journey through earlier fictional UI a lot. I have a heavy interest in old computers, and have an Apple II, but I never really thought about how those early UI’s and things like GS/OS compared to what was being done in film or sci-fi. I’ve always focused on things like the Amiga in the background of Die Hard, or the Apple III in Tron, that I never paid attention to the fictional stuff. In Very well done editing as well, can tell the design skills transfer a bit. Can’t wait to see more.
1:01 Correction: The first video game ever made was a game of Draughts (checkers) made by British computer scientist Christopher Strachey in the summer of 1952. Here is an in-depth, hour-long documentary about the topic: ua-cam.com/video/uHQ4WCU1WQc/v-deo.html
That's such an interesting journey. I love the aesthetic of all the unintelligible black screens with the colorful blinking graphics and the walls of button panels
very nice video ! just a little complaint (srry), if possible, could you render the videos at 60 fps ? in parts where static elements move fast enough, they appear blurry and are hard to our eyes to concentrate on (ex : 5:00 or 8:05) also your voice is so relaxing 🥰
As a big Obsidian user it was cool to see it representing the future of UI at 10:16! I know it's mostly the graph view that makes it look cool, but it really is a wonderful and flexible piece of software!
In 1991, there was a computer game called Rules of Engagement, that simulated space battle missions. It had colorful control screens that looked like they came straight out of Star Trek: The Next Generation. The screens were a little cluttered, but worked well. For the sequel in 1993, they had mini panels that could be arranged four on a screen. This might sound good as you could put the most important controls all on one screen. Except that the screen looked even more cluttered, and four panels never seemed to be enough to hold all the panels that you needed, so you were constantly switching them out for others. It was a mess.
Video game UI is getting to the point that we can browse the internet using the ingame ui. Like putting UA-cam videos up on the Orvvilles' bridge viewscreen (as they do in the show) in the Orville Experience on Steam.
Currently my favorite UI is Star Citizen's. It falls prey to the blue glowing sci fi trope, but it's remarkably simple, easy to navigate, and fits into the immersion of the world pretty welll
I heard somewhere that the holographic interface trend is actually a utilitarian one for film: the viewer can see the interface AND the actor’s performance. With an opaque interface you have to pick.
It was like watching a history lesson on UI design. I always think it's cool how sci-fi geniuses have inspired so many cool innovations too. Thinking without limits because its fiction.
Prey 2017's computer UIs are the perfect blend between standout aesthetics and actual functionality, they're a joy to interact with in the world, clear even at a distance, and are sensible enough you could see them actually being used.
The original Star Trek pilot showed Spock using a hand waving gesture to change images on a screen. I always thought that was so cool and they never did it again in the series. I always imagine some executive was confused by it and told them not to do it anymore.
Despite being a sci-fi lover, I had never thought of drawing inspiration from the interfaces of my favorite movies to implement in a project, and I think doing so can provide the touch of the decade in which you base the design, thanks for the reflection.
the UIs in star trek really look like the kind of UIs you see on machinery like Allen Bradley HMIs and stuff. Very controls engineer esque design that You'd see on machinery in plants / factories or manufacturing lines.
Great video! Love your editing and storytelling skills, there's one suggestion I have is adding more background music to types of vids like this and maybe spacing out talking points because the video sounds more like a lecture sometimes, but that was just my opinion and it's fine if some people disagree, anyways, you earned a new sub today and probably countless of other subs, love your content :D
I think the biggest difference in cinema vs real world UI is clearly a practical consideration for the sake of the audience, that's using lots of text instead of symbols and icons. If you look at any professional GUI application from the last couple of decades, or even something like a modern airplane glass cockpit, you won't notice a massive amount of descriptive text on screen, unless it's for something complex. Where text is used for a control or indicator it's generally a short abbreviation. Of course in universe, and in the real world, the person using this UI is trained in what all those symbols and abbreviations mean, but the cinema audience generally isn't, so full desciptive text makes the user's actions more obvious.
1:03 Tennis For Two (1958) was a video game on an oscilloscope before Spacewar!, and in 1950-1952 there were computers playing Nim and OXO (tic-tac-toe) using light bulbs. In 1951-1953 the bouncing ball game, where a ball had to be put into a hole, ran on the Whirlwind computer. 1:36 I was a bit surprised that the computer voice interface (by Majel Barrett-Roddenberry) was not mentioned.
I would love for a time when it's reasonably accessible to customize your own UI and not have everything break every few months because of updates. On the more commercial OSes front, it's all about branding and keeping everything identifyably that brand's look. On the less commercial OSes front (not that linux isn't really commercial) it's about trying to catch up with expectations and market demand with way too little resources and the priorities mostly just being to a handful of clients who have very narrow interests, so while the tools are there, you can spend a huge amount of effort just for some (potentially necessary/important) change to break everything. Maybe at some point there will be reached a time where user interaction with a PC at least on a 2D plane has become more or less stabilized because it's been kinda figured out for the majority of users, that those more enthusiastic around design or how they would like to interact with their system will be allowed more flexibility in doing so, without having to completely reinvent huge swathes of things which have already been created in some different form, just for it to stop working soon after. But with everything becoming even more corpo and brand-oriented and those enthusiastic about things losing more and more ability to customize stuff as things get more locked down to a certain way of being, we might never reach that intersection without a very big change in priorities.
Kudos for the amazing UI timeline and history lesson, personally i like The Sci Fi/Cyberpunk Aesthetics, but i think UI design should experiment with different takes like the Art deco one of "The Fifth Element" instead of the predominant blocky "hard edge" ones.
I kind of have a feeling that once e-ink style display technology improves, people will love to have UI that doesn't glow or strain your eyes. things that look like normal mundane surfaces until they change to show you the controls or important updates, what you need, as you need it. I guess we'll find out soon enough
I feel like the style of sci-fi UI the real world is likely to lean towards in the coming decades will probably be something like the ones in children of men (2006) - understated, rather than flashy or in-your-face. Sure, the cars have HUDs, but they're for simple things like the speedometer and navigation, clean light sans serif, and they're tucked away in the corner of the windshield so you can still see the road unobstructed. I don't think the real world ever lands on the most outlandish designs predicted by past sci fi - tech innovation tends to stick to pretty middle-of-the-road aesthetics. But hey, most of the time the art direction isn't there to predict, it's there to set a tone. You could never say the fifth element wasn't realistic enough - if it was a believably realistic future, it wouldn't be the fifth element!
I honestly love how you think and surely hope to work with you someday. I have been exploring a concept of cross-media based narratives and expressing them as cinemativ UIs. Eg what if Your mouse pointer was iron man, and clicking a button is similar to him punching a wall. It a bit of work aligning the parallels between real-world entity and digital-character but it could work wonders if done right. I feel there is a lot of entetainment and educational value in that paradigm. - Nik, with love from South Africa
modern websites tend to be geared towards getting people to not skip over ads and read as much as possible while staying on the page (even if it's something you're not interested in) which makes them kind of boring and "clean", since it's about making money old fashioned sci fi designs are better because of limited resources and making things more stylised. such as in battle beyond the stars where they had a couple of C64 computers on one of the ships consoles personally I like the orange neon glow style effects you get with the 80's style anime scifi like the bubblegum crisis car scene
i like the idea of normalizing custom, tailor-made UI, but i hate the idea of (whatever kind of) "AI" doing it. i think, *algorithmic* guides for customizing one's UI (like making sure the text contrast ratio is high enough, and applying changes to related areas) would make more sense for something like this anyway
but then, i'm also highkey allergic to the term "AI". especially right now, now that the term is used _everywhere_ for marketing, i just want it to go away
@@backup_hddDon't think of the fake marketing AI, ex.: "this washing machine uses AI to wash your clothes!" (yeah, right 🙄), think of a proper AI, that is a personal UI designer that can create a good looking UI to your specifications (style, needs, etc.). So like ricing, but you can do it in a few minutes and not week/months.
This channel gives me the exact same vibes as Acerola. A channel based around graphics rather than ui / ux. The video formatting and humor feel similar.
I wonder if the recent popularity of blue interfaces also has to do with the proliferation of then-hard-to-manufacture blue LEDs, which were expensive and placed into high-end well designed hardware like sound systems, maybe some subtle psychological influence there? I'm also thinking it could be that the blue color helps these interfaces fade in with the background a bit better, as opposed to a variety of colors on different flashing lights.
Ultimately UI’s in film are storytelling devices first and foremost, and there’s a language to them that differs from the one we use in real life in the same way that nobody really speaks like an actor reading a script does, or hangs up the phone without saying goodbye, etc. Busy, overly complicated UIs are more of a shorthand for “this is the future” while being visually interesting to look at, rather then a earnest attempt at envisioning the future of computing. Personally I suspect that UI’s in the future will actually become *more* minimalistic than now, not less, as computers become more intelligent. A lot more things will be controlled through voice or predicting what we want, rather then having to click through a web of UI’s to get the information or functions we want.
I love your videos. I get so excited when I see the blue dot next to your name and know there's a new video. A phenomenal blend of meaningful information, beautiful visuals, humor, and research. So well balanced 😙🤌
I think fictional UI should continue to push the boundaries for what might really be built for things. This is particularly interesting to me in scenarios where humans become more capable and the interfaces are adapted to them. What could those be like? The style of interface you’ve highlighted I think will continue to differ because who they are for in these stories and games differ. Different personalities and professions work best with different interfaces; be they cluttered, simple, childish, pleasing, etc. I like the idea of self optimizing interfaces a lot.
I was about to mention something when no mention was made of the UI in Jurassic Park, but then I remembered the "UNIX system" used the real UI from the Silicon Graphics workstations of the time.
I remember back in the day when you could completely replace the windows shell with a custom program… when I was a kid I replaced my windows gui with a real functional LCARS ui
I find the AR technology of Star Trek: Discovery really interesting (after they went 1000 years into the future). It's the kind of UI I would expect to find in VR eventually. An interface right in front of your face that already kind of knows what you are trying to do. It's fascinating though, that almost every fiction UI relies on the users' hands to grab, move, touch, activate it. Nobody had the idea to use eye tracking. In hindsight it's such an obvious choice, because your eye allow you to focus something in space. Maybe that's because such a UI would only feel great, but wouldn't look great.
You can go back further than 1962 for the first video game. It would either be an unnamed missile game on a "cathode-ray tube amusement device" in the 1940s. Or, the more likely contender, 1958's Tennis for Two on the same technology.
I'm curious, are you into scifi? If yes, like what? If no, WHY NOT?
Star Trek. It has been instilling hope in millions of people for generations. And that's not an easy thing to do. It is the inspiration of many doctors and scientists.
Yep. Because who doesn’t want to explore all the possibilities of space and technology. :) all the ways it can go right, and serve as warnings for all the ways it can be misused.
Yep. Alita: Battle Angel, Interstellar, Minority Report, Total Recall (2012), Tron Legacy, Ready Player One, and The Matrix Trilogy
No. Mostly cus I haven't got much exposure. From the list of movies and games in this video, I only know the Matrix. Even that was a recent watch.
Hi from France. Love your job! To answer your question: I'm a big fan of scifi. I love Foundation form Azimov but Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis have a special place in my heart.
I've worked on The Flash, Arrow, Legends of Tomorrow, Supergirl, Siren, Snowpiercer and more as an FUI designer, so this was super fun and interesting to watch. The reason we've been seeing blue interfaces since Minority Report and keep seeing them still today isn't actually the fault of us designers, it's the directors who keep asking for it. Because at the end of the day, FUIs are storytelling tools before anything else. That's also the reason you see so many incredibly cluttered FUIs - it conveys that the user is smart and extremely knowledgeable, that what they're doing is important and/or highly technical at just a glance. We don't want the audience to be able to make sense of the UI at a glance, we just want them to get the idea of what's happening, or to tell a story point (The Martian: "The MAV is tilting, only 2 more degrees and we're screwed!"). However, at the same time, us designers to strive to come up with new ideas and try to predict where the future lies, in terms of UI design. Which, at least to me, has become very difficult lately. All the stuff I'd expect to be a thing in 20 years from now is coming now or already here. So what's next?
thank you for your insights :D
Interesting angle would be how culture affects a UI? Even reading order would change things.
that actually makes a lot of sense, cluttered Sci-fi UIs make it seem like the character is too busy multitasking to actually close all their tabs
I think video games are a good spot to draw inspiration from. Specifically, MMORPGs like Star Wars: The Old Republic, World of Warcraft and Final Fantasy 14. Those games can have really cluttered user interfaces, but experienced players can still navigate them near-effortlessly.
The core insight I'd take from video games, however, is probably from the Wii. After a quick and intense boom of motion controls, people collectively grew out of them real fast. It turns out that when given the choice between a complicated full-body movement or pressing a single button, people prefer the latter. Convenience is the name of the game!
Transparency is a pet peeve of me, it doesn't happen because it's impossible, no, it doesn't happen because it's annoying to view.
It's cool, but annoying.
I can tell how much passion you have for this, how much joy you find in making it, and in gathering the data. I'm not a content creator but a Ph.D. researcher, and I can tell you for sure, making this quality content is not easy at all. You are talented, please post more!
THANK you :D glad you enjoyed it
@@juxtopposedI can’t tell if you are male or female.
@@cyberhax2480the voice definitely feels "female" and not ai generated 😂. But maybe there are more people behind this channel? 🤔
@@cyberhax2480 They're a cat.
@@zenlanfleek6580 Obviously a cat.
A very interesting development in fictional UIs is the move to retrofuturism, in shows like Severance, Loki, Silo. It's a breath of fresh air after all the glowing blue sci-fi.
Steampunk interfaces.
I was thinking the same, we left behind a good source of inspiration and designers are acknowledged that
You know, I never even realised your profile picture was half HAL. That is so awesome
:D
And other half is a human eye (duh) because it’s Juxtaposing humans and tech
Sorry but what's HAL??
HAL 9000 from 2001@@arrowai
@@ArtemisAYO thanks :)
As a mechanical engineer myself, I have to say the cluttered hundred windows all over the place aesthetic is incredibly real for technical fields. Everyone in my department is supplied with 3 monitors by default because everyone uses all of them. Browsers, email, instant communication, Excels, Words, PDF's, and all the applications we use to actually *DO* analyses, we're spliting up each screen into windowed corners!
You just need to use i3, multiplexers, or script your environment. I know DevOps Engineers who prefer a small 15" screen. It's not a matter of screens, it's a matter of poor selection of workflow tools.
a whole channel dedicated the study of UI/UX? with a passionate storyteller and clean video style?!
subbed.
Great video and explanation of how much UI changed over course of years. Keep it up
glad you liked it!
I‘d love to see an video about game UI and HUDs. I find it difficult to keep track of information in „realtime“-action games. Even the health indicator can go unnoticed if the game itself requires quick reactions, which ironically is the scenario where health is important.
will do!
I've seen a video focusing on this but i don't remember by who and it was a while ago. Although it was covering more about why some modern game UIs tend to have a similar boxy look, but i recall it did have some background on the development.
Haven't developers solved it by adding effects like blood on edges etc to indicate that you are really low on health? Followed up by sound effects.
@@eduardrosenberg7190absolutely not, those are distracting and not an adequate solution to your health and ammo being hidden way off in the corner of increasingly wide screens
@@coolbean9880 something cool that Mirror's Edge (2008, not the reboot) did was have your health be shown by the saturation of the colours. The more desaturated your world got the more you should duck in and hide.
We live in a UI dystopia where most UI are aimed at vertical phone screens, not even working well if just you flip the same phone to landscape mode.
That thumbnail picture look so sick!
✨✨ thanksss
Another video so soon?! I'm not complaining!
WE'RE SO BACK
WE’RE SO BACK
You're such a good storyteller, you make videos super interesting and beautiful!
I'm an artist and designer that's been looking at UI design and evolutions as a past time since not maybe people pay attention to it. Well unless its in the gamer community. Glad to find someone else share the joy of Fictional designs that inspire the world around us.
The topic of UIs is way bigger than just GUIs though. As a part of my MSc in system design, we had to embrace HMI as a whole, including interaction design, physical controls, labeling, functional and logical grouping, through colors, blocking, lighting _and_ digital GUIs of course. Sound and haptic are also a big part of feedback designs.
There are so many cool design trends in videogames imo. Like, I really can not wait to see what bungie comes up with for the reboot of Marathon. The original from 1994 had did some pretty revolutionary things( Like using a mouse for aiming, but aesthetically too). The trailer for the new one looks really promising. I believe its aesthetic is called "Nasapunk", but it reminds me of mirrors edge. Bright and distinct colours, lots of white... I feel like thats gonna be a trend in a few years or so.
There was an episode of Black Mirror (I forgot which) that had UI I liked so much, I made a note to go back and study it for inspiration for web and app designs! I appreciate media that shows realistic UI that isn’t over-the-top and distracting.
What a cool idea for a video!
A (non-dev, non-designer) coworker approached me a few weeks ago to suggest some UI tweaks to our intternal tools. His suggestions were specific and really good... His inspiration? He had been bingi g Star Trek TNG 😅
A point I want to make about 'cluttered' UI in scenes such as Minority Report. I'm thinking that is more of a personal desktop. Like anyone's personal space, I'm sure we all have things spread out, i.e. +50 open tabs in the browser.
I know there are certain tools already integrated into modern DE, but I'd love to see more focus on automated UI layouts depending on what task / multi monitor setup / preferred interface (keyboard, mouse, touch) that help seamlessly switch to the most optimal layout
I think a lot of relatively recent UI in games has been feeding on the nostalgia of the 1970s-80s with strong emphasis on vector-like graphics, and that as time goes on we'll start to see more "Windows Classic" style blocky UI, followed by more of the clear and roundy UIs reminiscent of Windows Vista.
Do one on video game HUDs and UIs please! So much to cover! Even stuff like the adoption of video game controllers for non video game devices.
will do!
@@juxtopposed Persona 5 Royal/3 Reload UI video letsgooooooooooooo
Delighted that you briefly focused on Elite! I literally finished a game session of Elite Dangerous (its current incarnation), opened UA-cam on my phone, and watched this video now or less at random. The interface now is much more sophisticated and concerts far more information, but the distinctive, iconic radar display in the middle is virtually unchanged. It's a brilliant interface, and in 40 years I've never seen a more intuitive and easy to understand at a glance method of portraying relative positions of objects in 3D space using a 2-dimensional interface (well, unless you're playing in VR).
I have no idea why but I've always loved the UI in massive control rooms. Like those you can see in central dogma in evangelion, the sidonia's bridge in knights of sidonia, and the bridge of one of the arks in the godzilla 3d animated trilogy.
Awesome video!
I will say, to me cluttered UI still makes sense. Just think of all the software designed for specific tasks (video editing, CAD software, programming IDEs) that still opt for cluttered UI because so many tools would otherwise be behind a pesky dropdown menu. I think that will probably stay this way as long as we dont have a direct brain interface or something
True, I hate searching through multiple levels of menus! Even things like cars and cameras are guilty of that now.
Great video. I've been thinking about how to make an intemporal UI for a long time. It's not something a lot of people are talking about sadly.
If you look back at all these UIs, the only ones that haven't aged are those using flat colours. It's a concept that has been technologically possible since the very onset of computers and is still relevant today. All those which use advanced effects like reliefs, borders, glows, blurs, opacity, ... come in and out as trends change but if you look at a flat colour UI from the 90s it will look as modern as if it had been made today. The only thing that betrays it would be the antialiasing on text that was pretty bad back then.
It's the only thing I've been able to deduce. With regards to interfacing I can't picture what the future will look like. It will have to be reliable and convenient so no big BCI helmets or finicky gesture recognition like what exists today. We do see custom keypads with custom keys to automate some workflows in the gaming and AV community that look very much like the Alien ones.
Personally my preferred interfacing tech is a mix of touchscreens, keys, and minimal gestures (not like minority report, more like small taps and swipes without having to move the wrist and arm). But that's not very futuristic.
Yeah, on my desktop, I use a theme based on a 90's unixlike OS, and it only looks out of place with apps that ignore it and use the very modern overly curved corners trend. Which I find very unpleasant.
I think UI in MR.Peabody & Shermon was really interesting. The holographics in the time machine are tactile, they are like part force field. There are all these floating windows that you can grab and use like an actual tablet. Along with floating keyboard that types like a real keyboard. Most satisfying part with the UI is when Sherman needs to override an error and he slides his finger on one of the windows to reveal the override button which is like an actual button. Its a really neat concept of a digital UI that has very tactile things you can interact with
As a Graphic & Motion Designer, always looking the interfases in movies and series, i think that Minority Report not only opened a new path, but explained no linear edit with data ingestion in an ultra modern and stylized way for "The Masses". Was one of the most "No bullshit added elements" of that time.
I remember watching a video about some guy ranting over games/film to display futuristic design with just slapping obtuse angles (often 35 degrees) everywhere and I cant oversee it since then. 10:41 is a good representation of that
Oblivion's aesthetic is incredibly cool, and I thought the UI from that movie as as well. While not being to practical, it was definitely a spectacle.
Such an underappreciated topic, great job!
I know the UI in older movies (like Alien) was limited by the technology at the time but I've often imagined it to be something akin to the retro aesthetic popular today. Or maybe the reason the screens look so simple is they're displaying simple data in an easy to read format, using the minimum amount of power consumption and CPU cycles. You need that kind of efficiency in long haul space travels.
It's funny that it's actually not the case. Anything moving with that kind of energy budget for human rated interstellar travel should realistically be unconstrained by energy requirements for life support and definitely computation of UI elements on a computer.
I love your videos. I studied, mathematics, computer science and art in uni.I used to hate UI/UX, Frontend for a long time as a backend dev cause I used to suck at it, and never seem to get how the modern world is doing it. But I have gotten very interested and falling in love with it slowly again. Thank you
There’s a phenomenal episode of the podcast “99% Invisible” that covers this topic and it’s great. If anyone wants more of this, the episode is called “future screens are mostly blue”
LCARS is now a fully functional Linux tiling window manager.
To answer the pinned question, yes, I very much do, predominantly TNG era Star Trek and the sort is my main cup of tea, but I don't generally diss any. I enjoy the idea of a brighter, more humane future, where we start working together, for everyone's betterment.
Regarding the video itself, YT recommended me this video probably due to that background. It was so well made that I felt the need to check out what else you have in store, and while I was somewhat disappointed when I learned that it generally explores topics I'm less interested in - more of a backend brained person - I also felt the need to point out how entertaining it was, and how I wished there was more content from you that I would be interested. To clarify this is to say that this is some good quality stuff that I appreciate existing even if it is not for me, rather than to say that you should be focusing on different content.
Once again, very well made!
I never would have put so much thought into something I considered so trivial like UI. But this video totally changed that, I already tried out Figma thanks to this channel, it’s opening me up to a whole new hobby and interest
that's the goal :) glad you enjoyed it
UX/UI designers that literally have to study years and/or get a degree to design UIs: "am I a joke to you?"
This is lovely, and maybe someone else suggested it, but the brief brilliance of UIs in Max Headroom (the TV series) is probably worth including here. Or maybe you did and I missed it? Anyway, excellent work and a lovely way to slice time and show us these UIs!
Agreed, I saw Max Headroom as a kid and was amazed! That show was also how I started associating English accents with intelligence and sophistication, thanks to Amanda Pays.
This channel never stops to amaze me:( Thank you so much
I think my favorite use of UI in semi-recent films is the seemingly recent Iron-man movies. Just being able to touch and interact with images and holograms seems so cool(and that if AR technology becomes more widespread, it could totally be possible) . Great video, can't wait to see what you make next!
I enjoy your videos very much. This channel is my new favourite.
This might be my favorite video you've done so far. We don't deserve all the work and research that goes into these videos.
Incredible incredible video! I was going through a bit of a slump in regards to UI and general enthusiasm, but you've inspired me greatly!
The anime "Evangelion" was so influential, the UI designs are used in some of the public places and ARE used during disaster alerts like earthquakes.
I gotta admit. Every single of your videos is an inspiration for me.
As the junction of being a huge sci-fi nerd, a programmer, and GNU/Linux user, I wanted to bringe al together, and taking advantage that Linux UI programs are the bee's knees in terms of customization, I'm developing a UI theme that bring that "glowing blue screens" aesthetic onto a usable everyday computing experience.
It is not a simple task, as I need to keep that feel of the "cyberworld" while removing all that clutter those UI put in place just to make it seem complicated and technical.
In the end I want people to be able that they are using Iron Man's computer or something while being a comfortable experience that does not give you a headache.
Such a fantastic video. A wonderful way to explore UI, presented clearly and simply!
I actually enjoyed this journey through earlier fictional UI a lot. I have a heavy interest in old computers, and have an Apple II, but I never really thought about how those early UI’s and things like GS/OS compared to what was being done in film or sci-fi. I’ve always focused on things like the Amiga in the background of Die Hard, or the Apple III in Tron, that I never paid attention to the fictional stuff. In Very well done editing as well, can tell the design skills transfer a bit. Can’t wait to see more.
1:01 Correction: The first video game ever made was a game of Draughts (checkers) made by British computer scientist Christopher Strachey in the summer of 1952. Here is an in-depth, hour-long documentary about the topic: ua-cam.com/video/uHQ4WCU1WQc/v-deo.html
That's such an interesting journey. I love the aesthetic of all the unintelligible black screens with the colorful blinking graphics and the walls of button panels
Thank you so much for turning down the brightness of the behance shot, you are a saint
lmao glad you noticed
You are a genius!!! Where have your videos been? Love it!! Still waiting for MS Clippy to become the AI companion all around. 😂
very nice video !
just a little complaint (srry), if possible, could you render the videos at 60 fps ? in parts where static elements move fast enough, they appear blurry and are hard to our eyes to concentrate on (ex : 5:00 or 8:05)
also your voice is so relaxing 🥰
As a big Obsidian user it was cool to see it representing the future of UI at 10:16! I know it's mostly the graph view that makes it look cool, but it really is a wonderful and flexible piece of software!
What a great idea for a video, and great execution. Nice job!
Idiocracy's take on UI and man-machine interaction is supreme
for real
The quality and passion behind your video is astounding!
And You sound so much like the female version of CHM tech, it's crazy lol
In 1991, there was a computer game called Rules of Engagement, that simulated space battle missions. It had colorful control screens that looked like they came straight out of Star Trek: The Next Generation. The screens were a little cluttered, but worked well. For the sequel in 1993, they had mini panels that could be arranged four on a screen. This might sound good as you could put the most important controls all on one screen. Except that the screen looked even more cluttered, and four panels never seemed to be enough to hold all the panels that you needed, so you were constantly switching them out for others. It was a mess.
This isn't a UA-cam video, this is a journey!
Video game UI is getting to the point that we can browse the internet using the ingame ui. Like putting UA-cam videos up on the Orvvilles' bridge viewscreen (as they do in the show) in the Orville Experience on Steam.
Currently my favorite UI is Star Citizen's. It falls prey to the blue glowing sci fi trope, but it's remarkably simple, easy to navigate, and fits into the immersion of the world pretty welll
I heard somewhere that the holographic interface trend is actually a utilitarian one for film: the viewer can see the interface AND the actor’s performance. With an opaque interface you have to pick.
I'm drunk af and your videos are so fuckin good. Always straight to the point.
It was like watching a history lesson on UI design. I always think it's cool how sci-fi geniuses have inspired so many cool innovations too. Thinking without limits because its fiction.
Prey 2017's computer UIs are the perfect blend between standout aesthetics and actual functionality, they're a joy to interact with in the world, clear even at a distance, and are sensible enough you could see them actually being used.
The original Star Trek pilot showed Spock using a hand waving gesture to change images on a screen. I always thought that was so cool and they never did it again in the series. I always imagine some executive was confused by it and told them not to do it anymore.
Editing and knowledge GOD level reached 👹👹👹
Despite being a sci-fi lover, I had never thought of drawing inspiration from the interfaces of my favorite movies to implement in a project, and I think doing so can provide the touch of the decade in which you base the design, thanks for the reflection.
The growth of AR/VR will play a big role in that.
the UIs in star trek really look like the kind of UIs you see on machinery like Allen Bradley HMIs and stuff. Very controls engineer esque design that You'd see on machinery in plants / factories or manufacturing lines.
Great video! Love your editing and storytelling skills, there's one suggestion I have is adding more background music to types of vids like this and maybe spacing out talking points because the video sounds more like a lecture sometimes, but that was just my opinion and it's fine if some people disagree,
anyways, you earned a new sub today and probably countless of other subs, love your content :D
I think the biggest difference in cinema vs real world UI is clearly a practical consideration for the sake of the audience, that's using lots of text instead of symbols and icons. If you look at any professional GUI application from the last couple of decades, or even something like a modern airplane glass cockpit, you won't notice a massive amount of descriptive text on screen, unless it's for something complex. Where text is used for a control or indicator it's generally a short abbreviation. Of course in universe, and in the real world, the person using this UI is trained in what all those symbols and abbreviations mean, but the cinema audience generally isn't, so full desciptive text makes the user's actions more obvious.
minority report was game changer. i was a kid and it blew my mind
I need to find the cat video from 7:54 It's a matter of life and death
Fantastic video btw. Who knew fictional UI would be so interesting
Hi there, new subscriber here. Loved this, such a bloody strong video. Looking forward to more
The UI video essay I didn’t know I needed. Now I want to go watch 2001 SO.
1:03 Tennis For Two (1958) was a video game on an oscilloscope before Spacewar!, and in 1950-1952 there were computers playing Nim and OXO (tic-tac-toe) using light bulbs. In 1951-1953 the bouncing ball game, where a ball had to be put into a hole, ran on the Whirlwind computer.
1:36 I was a bit surprised that the computer voice interface (by Majel Barrett-Roddenberry) was not mentioned.
I would love for a time when it's reasonably accessible to customize your own UI and not have everything break every few months because of updates. On the more commercial OSes front, it's all about branding and keeping everything identifyably that brand's look. On the less commercial OSes front (not that linux isn't really commercial) it's about trying to catch up with expectations and market demand with way too little resources and the priorities mostly just being to a handful of clients who have very narrow interests, so while the tools are there, you can spend a huge amount of effort just for some (potentially necessary/important) change to break everything. Maybe at some point there will be reached a time where user interaction with a PC at least on a 2D plane has become more or less stabilized because it's been kinda figured out for the majority of users, that those more enthusiastic around design or how they would like to interact with their system will be allowed more flexibility in doing so, without having to completely reinvent huge swathes of things which have already been created in some different form, just for it to stop working soon after. But with everything becoming even more corpo and brand-oriented and those enthusiastic about things losing more and more ability to customize stuff as things get more locked down to a certain way of being, we might never reach that intersection without a very big change in priorities.
I loved this, shared it around... you missed my 2 favorite FUI examples from recent days == 1. West world 2. The Expanse
1:40
I totally recognize OpenOffice Calc on a dark theme, and a planning on another monitor. She's clearly the HR and finance girl.
Kudos for the amazing UI timeline and history lesson, personally i like The Sci Fi/Cyberpunk Aesthetics, but i think UI design should experiment with different takes like the Art deco one of "The Fifth Element" instead of the predominant blocky "hard edge" ones.
I kind of have a feeling that once e-ink style display technology improves, people will love to have UI that doesn't glow or strain your eyes. things that look like normal mundane surfaces until they change to show you the controls or important updates, what you need, as you need it. I guess we'll find out soon enough
80 years earlier, who would've thought people will have jobs to center divs
I feel like the style of sci-fi UI the real world is likely to lean towards in the coming decades will probably be something like the ones in children of men (2006) - understated, rather than flashy or in-your-face. Sure, the cars have HUDs, but they're for simple things like the speedometer and navigation, clean light sans serif, and they're tucked away in the corner of the windshield so you can still see the road unobstructed. I don't think the real world ever lands on the most outlandish designs predicted by past sci fi - tech innovation tends to stick to pretty middle-of-the-road aesthetics. But hey, most of the time the art direction isn't there to predict, it's there to set a tone. You could never say the fifth element wasn't realistic enough - if it was a believably realistic future, it wouldn't be the fifth element!
I honestly love how you think and surely hope to work with you someday.
I have been exploring a concept of cross-media based narratives and expressing them as cinemativ UIs.
Eg what if Your mouse pointer was iron man, and clicking a button is similar to him punching a wall.
It a bit of work aligning the parallels between real-world entity and digital-character but it could work wonders if done right.
I feel there is a lot of entetainment and educational value in that paradigm.
- Nik, with love from South Africa
modern websites tend to be geared towards getting people to not skip over ads and read as much as possible while staying on the page (even if it's something you're not interested in) which makes them kind of boring and "clean", since it's about making money
old fashioned sci fi designs are better because of limited resources and making things more stylised. such as in battle beyond the stars where they had a couple of C64 computers on one of the ships consoles
personally I like the orange neon glow style effects you get with the 80's style anime scifi like the bubblegum crisis car scene
i like the idea of normalizing custom, tailor-made UI, but i hate the idea of (whatever kind of) "AI" doing it. i think, *algorithmic* guides for customizing one's UI (like making sure the text contrast ratio is high enough, and applying changes to related areas) would make more sense for something like this anyway
but then, i'm also highkey allergic to the term "AI". especially right now, now that the term is used _everywhere_ for marketing, i just want it to go away
good point
@@backup_hddDon't think of the fake marketing AI, ex.: "this washing machine uses AI to wash your clothes!" (yeah, right 🙄), think of a proper AI, that is a personal UI designer that can create a good looking UI to your specifications (style, needs, etc.). So like ricing, but you can do it in a few minutes and not week/months.
This channel gives me the exact same vibes as Acerola. A channel based around graphics rather than ui / ux. The video formatting and humor feel similar.
I wonder if the recent popularity of blue interfaces also has to do with the proliferation of then-hard-to-manufacture blue LEDs, which were expensive and placed into high-end well designed hardware like sound systems, maybe some subtle psychological influence there? I'm also thinking it could be that the blue color helps these interfaces fade in with the background a bit better, as opposed to a variety of colors on different flashing lights.
Ultimately UI’s in film are storytelling devices first and foremost, and there’s a language to them that differs from the one we use in real life in the same way that nobody really speaks like an actor reading a script does, or hangs up the phone without saying goodbye, etc. Busy, overly complicated UIs are more of a shorthand for “this is the future” while being visually interesting to look at, rather then a earnest attempt at envisioning the future of computing.
Personally I suspect that UI’s in the future will actually become *more* minimalistic than now, not less, as computers become more intelligent. A lot more things will be controlled through voice or predicting what we want, rather then having to click through a web of UI’s to get the information or functions we want.
I love your videos. I get so excited when I see the blue dot next to your name and know there's a new video. A phenomenal blend of meaningful information, beautiful visuals, humor, and research. So well balanced 😙🤌
I think fictional UI should continue to push the boundaries for what might really be built for things. This is particularly interesting to me in scenarios where humans become more capable and the interfaces are adapted to them. What could those be like?
The style of interface you’ve highlighted I think will continue to differ because who they are for in these stories and games differ. Different personalities and professions work best with different interfaces; be they cluttered, simple, childish, pleasing, etc.
I like the idea of self optimizing interfaces a lot.
OMG I miss Dead Space so much :( Also great video!
I remember a period where I was into Windows desktop gadget UIs like Rainmeter and had LCARS and all these various retro themes
The Linux Enlightenment desktop was really into all that.
I was about to mention something when no mention was made of the UI in Jurassic Park, but then I remembered the "UNIX system" used the real UI from the Silicon Graphics workstations of the time.
unexpected gundam!!1!
(this video is great if i am going forward with making my own UI project that i have in mind, thanks!)
ayy this is actually a really creative video idea, love this
Fully expected a "and that's why this video is sponsored by Squarespace" at the end
10:30 I genuinely thought that the "sponsorship" fragment of the video started and there will be some advertisement here 🤣
I remember back in the day when you could completely replace the windows shell with a custom program… when I was a kid I replaced my windows gui with a real functional LCARS ui
I find the AR technology of Star Trek: Discovery really interesting (after they went 1000 years into the future). It's the kind of UI I would expect to find in VR eventually. An interface right in front of your face that already kind of knows what you are trying to do.
It's fascinating though, that almost every fiction UI relies on the users' hands to grab, move, touch, activate it. Nobody had the idea to use eye tracking. In hindsight it's such an obvious choice, because your eye allow you to focus something in space. Maybe that's because such a UI would only feel great, but wouldn't look great.
Eye strain plus modal in one has to switch from "do something" to "just looking" back and forth.
You can go back further than 1962 for the first video game.
It would either be an unnamed missile game on a "cathode-ray tube amusement device" in the 1940s.
Or, the more likely contender, 1958's Tennis for Two on the same technology.