Post on 17-Aug-2014
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History of the Button Bill DeRouchey
Hello.
This incarnation of the History of the Button was presented at SXSW on March 12, 2010.
This slide deck is slightly different from the live presentation. The main difference is that the videos that were in the presentation have been translated here to stills as best as possible.
Enjoy.
Bill DeRouchey
bill.derouchey@gmail.com@billder
Also, narration boxes like this are extra notes to help fill in context where necessary and point out where this version differed from the live presentation.
About the audio.
If you’re listening to the audio, sorry about the bad quality for the first 12 minutes. SXSW somehow cut off the first 12 minutes.
To make up for it, I had to slice in the audio from my FlipCam recording, which was better than nothing.
If you’re not listening to the audio, then it doesn’t matter at all. Carry on.
This is a story
that spans over 100 years...
As a contrast to SXSW which focuses so much on the Now and the Future.
... about how we got from
here to here...
... about how buttons
have changed how
we understand our world...
... about how buttons
have changed how
we understand our world.
think.
...
MoviesProducts
ScreensAdvertisements
We’ll take almost an anthropological approach by looking at these items to examine the history of the button.
1910 1956
1984 2010
The simplest motion.
These were all movies in the original presentation.
is just push the button.
1910 1956
1984 2010
These were all movies in the original presentation.
We’re in a transition....
This was a movie in the original presentation (from Apple.com).
We’re in a transition....a transition to Surface.
This was a movie in the original presentation (from Apple.com).
Transitions
are interesting...
because that’s when our
brains change.
Generations of Interaction
1 Lever2 Button3 Surface4 Fluid
now
We are currently in a transition from a button era to a surface era.
Generations of Interaction
1 Lever2 Button3 Surface4 Fluid
1900
We should look to the previous transition to understand today.
We love our tools.
We are a bunch of smart monkeys. We figured out how to use the objects in the world around us to augment our human motion. Bones into shovels. Sticks into rakes. Iron into gears.
For example, a gun can simply be understood as throwing a rock, a tiny rock, much faster and with greater accuracy.
Pressing on the keys of a piano simply triggers a hammer hitting a string. Motion is augmented.
You can see the Action.
In the mechanical era, you can see action happen, see how one motion affects another. You can follow the results from action to result.
Levers scale motion.
Scaling is the mechanical age.
Compressed
Time
Major advances in technology actually change how we perceive the world.
For example, train travel compressed our sense of time between faraway places.
Compressed Distance
The telegraph changed our sense of connection over distance. Instant communication across hundreds of miles for the first time.
Abstracted
Motion
But the button meant for the first time, the result of a human motion could be completely different from the motion itself.
The motion Push does not scale to
the result Light.
This abstracted interaction with technology represented a new way to comprehend the world.
Buttons abstract motion.
Abstraction is the electronic age.
What was the
first button?
This might be the most common question people ask me.
What was the
first button?
1898
The flashlight was the first simple everyday button. It revolutionized our sense of light.
Buttons
enter
Daily Life
1890s
George Eastman of Kodak introduced cameras for regular people.
1890s
Eastman used the phrase “You Press the Button, We Do the Rest” to show how simple cameras can be.
Button = easy.
1900s
Doorbells replaced pull ringers in homes.
1910s
As the electricity grid expanded, homes installed lights and simple pushbuttons to turn the lights on and off.
1911
Sidenote: An editorial cartoon from 1911 depicting a dark vision of the future.
Surrounded by technology, lazy, pushing buttons.
For a similar dystopian view, read the 1910 short story “The Machine Stops” from E.M. Forster.
“The Opera Delivered to Your Door” = Pandora“The Observascope” = webcamsOf course, all with a robot servant!
1920sThe radio.
The next major tech innovation was the radio, sending live audio from a distance.
The opera really now was delivered to you.
30 million radios sold by 1938.
This was their Internet boom.
Radio presets.
1938
But tuning to your favorite stations almost required a scientist mentality.
Until 1938 when radio presets (buttons) exchanged the emphasis on “tuning” for “returning.”
Radio presets.First notion of Save.
1938
Essentially, radio presets were the first notion of “saving” in technology. Save your favorite station.
Buttons
represent
The Future
New York World’s Fair
1939
During the Great Depression, people looked to a better future, capped by the World’s Fair in 1939.
A shrine to the button?
1939
Technology was heralded as the emancipator of leisure.
1940
Movie from 1940 depicting a vision of the future. With robots.
1940
Roy’s Robot Repair is helping this concerned woman with her robot.
1940
She controls her robot with buttons. Roll-Oh can even fix a furnace.
1940
When fixed, Roll-Oh fetches the nice repairman’s hat.
MonsantoHouse ofthe Future
1958
Visions of the future continued, including this Monsanto home, promoting both the wonders of plastics and pushbuttons.
1958Another movie.
1958The happy wife pushes buttons to access hidden compartments.
1958The happy wife pushes buttons to access hidden compartments.
1958The happy wife pushes buttons to control her home.
Buttons
represent
Luxury
In the 1950s, the promise of pushbutton technology became available to a wide variety of consumer items, providing a new luxury for the middle class.
1956
And in nearly every case, the phrase “pushbutton” became an adjective communicating modern, luxury, advanced, new, easy.
1958
1960
1959
1961
1959
Now there’s a woman in control of her laundry.
So easy...
even a woman can do it.
And also in nearly every case, women were used in ads to add the subtle message of, this new technology is so easy to use, even a woman can use it.
Buttons cross the chasm.
Picture the classic Crossing the Chasm diagram of early adopters vs. late adopters.
“Pushbutton” meant that the product was simple enough for late adopters to now buy.
This practice of using “pushbutton” continues today, but only in the seamier parts of the web.
Get rich quick!
1959Lose weight now!
Join the Push Button Empire!
1959
Returning to the living room, the remote control has become the classic example of this pushbutton era.
1956
First control from a distance
Because for the first time, regular people could control an object from a distance. No wires!
Buttons
represent
Fear
Who has their finger on the button?
After WWII, we had automated war machinery so much that global nuclear annihilation was perceived to be as easy as pushing a button.
And it may have been.
1950sRaising a generation on fear.
Buttons
represent
Control
At the same time, engineers were building complex machines controlled by rows and rows of switches and buttons. We were learning to automate.
At the same time, engineers were building complex machines controlled by rows and rows of switches and buttons. We were learning to automate.
Only a select few could understand these machines, could use these buttons, using a highly specialized language.
Only a select few could understand these machines, could use these buttons, using a highly specialized language.
1962
From “That Touch of Mink.”
Doris Day works at Univac.
1962She’s fed up at working in this automation job.
1962So she slams the machine.
1962
And leaves the machines running. (Note the Univac in the background.)
1962Chaos ensues.
Buttons
represent
Play
First pinball flippers.
1947
Humpty Dumpty pinball machine was the first to use flippers.
First game interaction?
1947
First mechanical game where you can interact with the ball in play to keep it in play. Beginning of a new era in gaming.
Generational
Icon1977
This Atari joystick revolutionized gaming in the home.
Shape as
Play
1978
Experimenting with the shape of the button itself.
Arcades boomed in the 1970s
Dexterity in pushing buttons now became a prized skill, generating an entire industry.
Buttons
become
Metaphor
Before this, buttons were physical things. The Macintosh in 1984 introduced to the general public the idea that buttons could be virtual.
1964The virtual button still needs a physical button.
1984The virtual button still needs a physical button.
1984Education through Advertising
This concept was so new that Apple needed to educate people simply how to use a mouse.
They took out 39 pages of advertising in Newsweek to essentially publish a user’s manual.
Education through Advertising 1984
Notice the incredible detail to communicate the basics of something we take for granted.
1984
Notice the incredible detail to communicate the basics of something we take for granted.
Buttons
lose
Shape
1996
With the web, “buttons” could become anything. They didn’t need a specific shape that said “I’m a button.” They could be blue text and underlined.
Images, text, anything is now actionable. As an example, the next page shows everything that can be acted upon. Compare it to this page.
Nearly everything can be acted upon. This has changed how we perceive the world around us. All items can have deeper connection.
2010
We even understand that simple gray text is actionable, simply from its location to its neighbors. We assume that “Work” is a link.
But would we assume that here?
Buttons
go
Touch
Touchscreens are becoming everyday interactions.
Touchscreens are becoming everyday interactions.
The poster child of touch.
Now taking orders
Where are we
now?
Buttons don’t need...
bordersshape
ornamentation
contourwords
form
... and yet, we attribute to them
easecontrol
automation
magicsimplicityplay
process
We now think about
objects with
depth and time,
instead of just static things.
We are approaching a time
when anything is interactive.
Gesture interaction game designed by Ziba for Li Ning in China.
Imagine somebody 100 years ago encountering this device.
Imagine somebody 100 years ago encountering this device.
Generations of Interaction
1 Lever2 Button3 Surface4 Fluid
soon
The next generation will feature dynamic surfaces.
Dynamic tactile surfaces will create
disposable physical interfaces.
If it was rumored to be in the iPad, then the technology must be only a few years away.
Research on dynamic tactile surfaces from Chris Harrison and Scott Hudson at Carnegie Mellon University.
When buttons can essentially have a disposable physical form, we can build interfaces into any surface.
Meaning our entire surroundings can be interactable. Imagine the generation that grows up with that.
And the next generation?
Imagine growing up in a world where touchscreens and interactive gestures are a given. How does that affect your brain processing?
Imagine growing up in a world where touchscreens and interactive gestures are a given. How does that affect your brain processing?
Imagine growing up in a world where touchscreens and interactive gestures are a given. How does that affect your brain processing?
The button has been a
100 year transition technology from the mechanical age to the truly electronic age.
The button represents
how we interact with
the objects we create.
And that’s why the button
is the most influential yet least appreciated
innovation of the 20th Century.
Bill DeRouchey
@billder
bill.derouchey@gmail.com
History of
the Button