Bring back a version of this to help aging seniors deal with increasingly complex interfaces.
In many ways interfaces have remained pretty static since then.
The only real innovation was the iPhone, but it’s just a more responsive multi touch palm, to some degree.
We still use windowing computers with mice/trackpad and keyboard, have pocket computers with apps and touch screens, and interface with more less the same browser with URL bar.
We maybe are on cusp of VR and that will be a sea change in interfaces, if it ever comes to pass. And voice commands, but pretty limited function so far
That’s from the 90s to today.
Compare that to 60s to 90s, where you barely had desktop calculators, and used magnetic tape and maybe punch card inputs:
This is correct. Folks, VisiCalc was introduced in 1979, when today's ninety-year-olds were 44. They had not even lived half their current life.
You can’t just treat this as a throwaway line. Touch interfaces signal a fundamental shift in the way people interact with computers. You just take swipes and gestures for granted. Have you watched a senior try to interact with the modern web? The interface is not only the buttons of the browser, but the page itself. Today we have shifting interfaces that move because of lazy load ads. We have popups that one needs to understand how to close. We have essential functions buried behind an arbitrary “hamburger” menu icon. We have sites that hijack the back button. Sites that deliberately try to deceive. And lots of software (including Microsoft apps) has shifted to a cloud model. This becomes an inextricable aspect of the interface itself. Suddenly, there’s no means to “save” and old “digital paper” model/metaphors have given way to “infinite web page” documents.
I spend a lot of time with seniors and see firsthand the roadbumps and dead ends they face.
We don’t necessarily need Bob. We just need an iOS 1 mode, skeuomorphic design and all. Back when the camera app only had a photo or video switch, a take photo button, and a gallery button.
But web developers have done their best to wreck this. Have you ever had to explain GDPR cookie dialogs to elderly parents? I've watched them Google recipes only to blame the chef when the site was broken or unusable, which was more often than not.