Ask HN: Why the disparity between SciFi UI's and what we have in use?

by psion on 12/10/2021, 3:19:15 PM with 6 comments
Watching science fiction shows/movies/games/comics/etc, the user interfaces are rather magnificent. But they rarely use elements from what people actually use. And in actual user interfaces, there isn't much that get's used in SciFi. Why is there such a large gap in these designs?

  • by usrbinbash on 12/10/2021, 6:05:38 PM

    >Why is there such a large gap in these designs?

    Because user interfaces in movies are designed to look cool in movies, not to be practical in real life.

    Imagine if an application actually displayed a giant glowing green box with PASSWORD: in fontsize 200 right in the middle of the screen, hiding all other applications while doing so. How well would using a password-manager work in that scenario?

  • by kleer001 on 12/10/2021, 7:47:47 PM

    Not all the time. Every once in a while we get the interfaces in Tron Legacy or The Matrix Reloaded:

    https://ilikeinterfaces.com/2015/03/19/terminal-ui-tron-lega...

    and

    https://nmap.org/movies/matrix/trinity-nmapscreen-hd-crop-12...

    or sometimes they even use real software, like NMAP

    https://nmap.org/movies/

    But yea, for the most part they're only for show.

  • by laumars on 12/10/2021, 3:29:53 PM

    Because of ergonomics. When you watch something on TV and movies you want your actors to do exaggerated movements to really capture the attention of the audience. But when you operate a computer you want your movements to be as little as possible or else you quickly get RSI.

    Edit:

    It’s also worth adding that SciFi operating systems are not general purpose ones. They’re designed around a specific function, a function that’s typically integral to the plot.

  • by 5bolts on 12/10/2021, 9:09:30 PM

    could there be a licensing issue at play as well? same/similar reason why the brands of computers, phones, monitors are rarely real world versions?

    The plus side, kids watching those and growing up to be developers will skew UI's more towards those futuristic versions... same as the kids that watched star trek helped us get the handheld computers we have now.