The Orange Glow of the Computer Monitor

Amber Case suggests that web interfaces should have orange hues for better human health. It appears that blue or blue-white light can trigger health problems such as sleeplessness and obesity.

I can remember decades ago when European nations mandated that CRT monitors used orange as the most healthy color.

-DD

Interface Design

Mike Elgan suggests that new user interface design will revolutionize computing. He posits that virtual reality technologies, where one uses verbal commands to interact with the computer, will replace the current desktop Windows,Icons, Menus and Pointer (WIMP) interface and the tablet Multi-touch, Physics and Gestures (MPG) interface the way that the purely command line QWERTY interface (example: DOS) lost prominence.

My take is that if firms adopt a verbal interface, employees will have to work from home or in offices, as a cube farm of talking knowledge workers would be a confusing babble.

-DD

Google+ Interface Change Dictates Behavior Change

J R Raphael notes that interface changes often change a product's behavior. In this case, he reflects on an interface change in Google+ that eliminated an auto-refresh behavior which he liked.   Contacts at Google said that the elimination of auto-refresh was deliberate, as the switch to a multiple column format would have text squirming around the screen with every refresh.

-DD