Mag+’Pointy Index Finger’

Mag+ from Bonnier on Vimeo.

A really nice take on the possible future of publishing…rival to the iPad? But why do none of the demos show anyone with any rings, bracelets or long nails? (not that this affects the male half of the population quite as much as it might the female at the risk of sounding a tad sexist). Probably because the sound of jewellry or nails on glass or plastic is, well…like nails on a blackboard to some…a ‘clacky’ sound each time you touch it or get close to it just isn’t sexy…hence the stiff naked ‘pointy finger’ that you see in all these promo demos that keeps the majority of your hand as far as humanly possible away from the surface of the pad.

But that is not realistic now is it?

Doesn’t that kind of defeat the purpose of a ‘hands-on’ touch interface? Someone should have thought through this…Maybe holding it securely in two hands and using your thumbs or thumb tips to swipe and access the main navigational menus makes for a better experience with less movement and more control … and yes you can still use ‘pointy index finger’ to select stuff in the middle of the screen and swipe etc of course. Just maybe make the menus more thumbcentric in the zones near each edge (though it’s not that much use if you are a thumbring aficionado).

And then there are the possibilities of putting pressure sensors on the back so you can navigate that way with your fingers…maybe I’ll do a mock-up…but that’s another post!