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points by lysace 1 day ago | 0 comments

"We've done tons of user testing on this, and it turns out it doesn't work," Jobs said at the company's "Back to the Mac" event in 2010. "Touch surfaces don't want to be vertical. It gives great demo but after a short period of time, you start to fatigue and after an extended period of time, your arm wants to fall off," Jobs continued. "It doesn't work, it's ergonomically terrible."

https://tech.yahoo.com/ai/apple-intelligence/articles/ergono...

[–] solarpunk_enthu 1 day ago

Maybe users changed over the span of 16 years, while being daily exposed to touch screens? Remember, in 2010 the idea of using a finger was novel.

[–] threetonesun 1 day ago

Well my arms didn't get longer, that's for sure. Also MacOS and software made for MacOS doesn't optimize for touch targets unlike something that will be distributed on iOS/iPadOS.

[–] Keyframe 1 day ago

The phenomenon is called "Gorilla arm syndrome" so not sure what to think of when I read "maybe users changed" :)

[–] cedilla 1 day ago

Not that novel. The first ergonomics studies on touchscreens were done in the seventies. In 2010, touchscreens were already sophisticated technology and well established in many settings.

I got my first laptop with a digital pen and touchscreen in 2008 or so. They were rare back then, but nothing groundbreaking new. The touchscreen did suck though.

[–] chrisco255 1 day ago

I don't know why you got downvoted, it's true. A lot of screens were touch screen even in the 90s, but they were typically single-touch rather than multi-touch capacitive interfaces. They were used a lot (and still are) in Point of Sale terminals, for example, where an employee needs to stand and ring up sales.

[–] kps 1 day ago

It's not the finger, it's the arm. Remember light pens?

[–] benoau 1 day ago

That was looking at it as a usability problem.

Now it's a "how will you still need an iPad" problem, that they have solved perfectly because it's a usability problem.