Computer, this is one of the most important products for our lives, and it has become to one necessary product to develop anything today. People use the computer for a work, amusement, and creation. But how so many people began to use the computer even though it is the most high technological product. There is one tool which became an icon of the computer, the user interface.
At the first, the computer had only keyboard to input the command twenty years ago; the user types letters usigng the keyboard and the computer plogram was needed to typed perfectly, but the most people who were using the computer were engineer in reality. When more people such as office workers began to use the computer, one famous interface product came out, mouse. The desktop computer, AppleⅡ was the first computer, which has the mouse, and caught many users that were not only office workers, but also general people, and the mouse became an icon of computer. While the mouse is used every computer, and computer developers have tried to explore new interface, since the mouse is not perfect interface design after all.
There are some users who use the computer for specific purpose; painters and fine artists are good examples to it. Generally they use brushes for painting, and some of them tried to scan their works and retouch using the computer, but the mouse was not good method for their works. Some company focused it and finally they reached to produce the pen tablet. It has enabled to artists paint their art works on the computer directly.
Studying from these successes, the developers started to think if the idea of those interface design can be applied to controlling three dimensionally. Because of those interface design are only available for two-dimensional aspects, the next step was how to interface in three-dimensional way. Recently, new interface product came out, which has 2-3 arms and a pen tool in the point. The user holds the pen and brushes or carves three-dimensional object directly, and some feedbacks from the interface, in detail, the user can feel sense of resistance like touching the object by a hand from the interface.
According to this history of the interface design for computing, it can be said that the interface design indicates the human needs a sense of reality. As an evidence of it, now the developers trying to find the way to how communicate and connect between the computer and real object. There is one product, which can be said a good example of connection between computing and reality, iPod touch and iPhone by Apple company. Both of them have a wide big screen, which occupies almost top surface, and an amazing point is its interface method. The user just touch the finger tip on the screen directly, and when the finger tip slides left, right, up, and down, the screen moves as the finger tip moves like a turning a page of note book. Whatever tactual sense is a hard plastic, this really similar action to the reality, and this attracts millions of people now.
In my opinion, the product design for interface never end its development. In the imagination of the computer in the future, people might be attracted, and also interface design might change to more interactively more than ever. The process of developing the product for interface is very similar to the other product design such as like exploring how people can use the product simply and directly as much as possible. The interface design can be said exactly applicable to that process.
