[Berlin] I have become, over a short period of time, obsessed with dispensers, of all kinds. Ones that slide, snap, drop, carry, shuffle, lash and grab. Each one designed, I think, with a certain character and mood. If a machine is refunding you change they tend to drop it. If you are demanding money it tends to slide it to you (if they are a bank) or count it into a draw if you’re using a convenient in-shop cash dispenser. When you’re purchasing tickets for travel - the machine certainly spit your notes out when they refuse to take them.

But recently I had a new experience, I was in a bank and I had to literally stick my hand quite deep into the machine and pry the notes out of the its clutches. Strange I thought, when withdrawing money from a bank (unless you’re overdrawn) its your money you’re accessing. That got me thinking that surely there could be a other ways of communicating the transfer relationship between bank and customer than this…

[London] It should be so simple, it should be a joy to use for ‘metro-shoppers’ all over London, but the self service counters in Bethnal Green are really a moody unhelpful and ugly bunch.

It was rush hour and all us ‘metro’ shoppers had our ready meals to the ready and admittedly were looking for the most hassle free route, from work to home, food and bed. Hence there was a long queue hovering round the self service counters.

There were four counters in all, three of them all chirping in cannon their scripts. One, however, was a bit stuck: ‘Please take your change, please take your change”. Its voice dominated the scene, all eyes were on the ‘problem’ space where a guy’s head was bobbing up down and all around trying to find his money. He had taken his change, but was still looking for the notes.

The situation continued for about two minutes, the repitition of course made it seem longer. The man didn’t say a thing: he couldn’t.. who too? Eventually someone tapped him on the shoulder and pointed him back, to the other side of the machine, under the scanner… where you begin your shopping process and… where now his notes lay and…where in any situation, you’d probably use to dispose of receipts, cigarrette buts and gum.

The man was embarrassed, his coordination seemed to leave him as he quickly tried to gather his stuff and leave. The self service counter, of course ignored him and was already calling the next customer; who were by now a bit wary, all hoping that they wouldn’t get the interaction wrong when it was their turn.

Ok iPhone again – since it sells so well before it’s even shipping.
This handheld computer, with mobile phone capabilities added to it, is as everybody knows by now a flat touch sensitive screen allowing gesture navigation, which comes handy for zooming in and out or scrolling. The device’s only and most important button (except of the sleep button as long as energy is in short supply that is) is the home button. In whatever application you are, this button brings you right back to the initial screen, which displays all applications or widgets you can use on this mobile device.

Now undeniably the finger is a much better pointing device than a stylus, especially since it is quite hard to loose it. The finger has one bad characteristic though: it is covered with skin and skin sweats. Our bodies ‘breathe’ through the skin. The skin regulates our body temperature and it forms and communicates our touch sense not mentioning the shielding of our inside. And since it is doing so much for us, it is undergoing a constant renewal process. And in this process a lot rubs off.

A bit of this rubbing off you were already able to see when Steve Jobs first touched the screen to unlock the device for the then following presentation. That’s natural – no worries – happens to all of us. And it happens even with devices which screens you hardly touch ever – but somehow one always gets these fingerprints on them.

Now it is not the intention to get too annoying by elaborating on what implications there might be if you are presenting a device covered with your fingerprints being a little bit sticky to someone to have a look, but have your swipes (best wet) ready.

What is more interesting is to look at the disappearance of buttons or keys other than the most important one. Apple being rightfully famous for their research and development in user interfaces obviously came to the conclusion that it is essential for the user to have the ultimate assurance in form of a physical button: Press it and we will bring you home – wherever you are!

So why is the home button a physical button? Ever seen a one and a half year old toddler on the loose in your living room? What causes the biggest attraction? Round rubber buttons best in bright colours! Or: TV on – TV off, VCR on – VCR off, HiFi on – HiFi off - best combined with a little beeping sound.

We recognise from a very early age on this form of interaction immediately and because of the on/off nature one learns to understand the particular attached action very quickly.
Down to the technical nature of physical buttons we have the reassurance that it has one particular function and not a multiple set of vague possibilities on offer.

Another very important factor is the felt resistance when we press a physical button. We feel as soon as we have overcome this physical resistance of the button and know instantly when the action is released and we can expect the result.
The transportation of the touch sense is much quicker and the processing of the signal means by far less effort for our central nervous system than for instance if we would trigger a virtual button on screen. There the only possibility is to show the release of a button mainly through visual means i.e. changing of the colour or shadow, a mimicry we need to interpret in our brains first, hence it takes much longer and means more of an effort even if we talk about fractions of milliseconds and tiny amounts of calories we need to burn.

And one must not underestimate the notion of trust if one compares a virtual interface and a physical one. Everyone who has some experience with using a virtual interface has had some disappointments where the interface did not work or the interface reacted in a totally unintended way. An experience usually followed by disappointment mounting to anger or with un-experienced users it raises self-doubt and frustration. And that means stress. So if you can avoid stress – that’s a good thing, isn’t it? Life is too short to get stressed about buttons. With one word – users in general find it more convenient to use physical buttons and the experience is more satisfying.

Which brings us back to the touch sensitive screen of the iPhone. With a little imagination one can see the fantastic possibilities the gesture navigation and handling open up. If it comes to the old fashioned keying in of letters certain doubts remain. The space available for every single key is not necessarily generous (nor is it on most other handheld devices – sliding keyboards on the wider side should not go unnoticed - like HTC efforts) though the visual solution for the feedback when a letter key had been pressed is interesting since it reminds one of the action of an old typewriter which throws the single keys towards the page.

Nevertheless the physical action as on other devices is missing – the praxis will show how satisfying this virtual replacement is. Maybe it would be interesting to look at solutions, which combine the freedom of virtual interface with the aspects of a physical one where polymer layers deliver the haptic qualities on top of the virtual interface elements  – now that would be quite something!

After the hype, which had the iPhone conquer the front pages of broadsheets around the world the first criticism wasn’t too far off. Next to the concerns whether the energy supply for the device was sufficient enough, the decision not to take 3G on board were the main points of criticism.

There was a clear emphasis in the presentation of Steve Jobs on the Wifi connectivity of the device, trying to overcome some sticky questions in the audience heads about the lack of bandwidth by opting for EDGE (Enhanced Datarates for GSM Evolution) instead of embracing UMTS for a device, which is designed more than any other Smart Phone around rich media content.
In fact a lot of the profiling of the iPhone makes it mandatory that the user has fast network access.

Now what prompted Apple to opt against 3G? The notion that 3G technology would take up more space, hence would have an impact on the form factor doesn’t sound very convincing.
Fact is that WiFi networks grow very fast and very big in the US. And they cost a fraction of the UMTS networks. New more powerful Wifi standards are around the corner and WiMAX seems not too far off for the mass market either. As a little reminder: It is Intel, the producer of the chip for the iPhone, who is pushing hard for the rolling out of WiMAX.

If one looks at Jajah or skype or a similar service, one gets the idea that the merging of desktop computer and applications with the phone is not only approached by making phones ever ’smarter’.
In fact the adding of phone capabilities to a computer is driven mainly by the cost conscious consumers.

The users drive to embrace cheap ways to communicate with the ever more expanding WiFi networks might be the really big challenge Apple had in mind with the iPhone, since they would not really take the smart phones on, which are designed mainly for solvent business customers, but the skypes of this world which can but don’t have to collaborate with the almighty providers of our days.

The presentation of the iPhone

Looking at the interaction possibilities this new device from Apple has to offer, the iPhone might have the potential to be regarded as a milestone similar to the introduction of the Apple II back in 1977, or as stated in Steve Jobs presentation, the Macintosh in 1984.

To focus on gesture movements is certainly not only Apples domain but they are one of the most prominent names with the ability to introduce a mass market device making use of that technology. And freeing the interface of any fixed buttons together with the potential of the power of the UNIX based operating system makes it a very promising move.

Hence the praise from all sides and the subsequent jump in share price seem to confirm Steve Jobs claim that this is a revolutionary device which he clearly tries to sell on the commercial merits of the iPod - and the emphasis of the iPod and its fantastic success story is not only designed to win Wall Street over but gives one a clear idea how the marketing machine will run this device.

But there are some critical voices who seem to have a fair idea of how power hungry such a device will be – and the emphasis of power saving and managing capabilities in the presentation were an invitation to the critical minded observers and give one a good idea of how attentitive the users will need to be in order to keep the device going until they will have the chance to recharge it. Let’s hope that the search for the most powerful battery does not result in any explosive stuff similar to the laptop battery disaster.