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History of the Button

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Presentation given at SXSW on March 12, 2010. Synced with the audio! Even though technology evolved at a crazy pace the last 100 years, the humble button has stayed at the center of it all. What is its past, its future? Why is it important? What does it say about the interaction between humans and technology? Pictures, stories, revelations, movies.
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History of the Button Bill DeRouchey
Transcript
Page 1: History of the Button

History of the Button Bill DeRouchey

Page 2: History of the Button

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

[email protected]@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.

Page 3: History of the Button

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.

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This is a story

that spans over 100 years...

As a contrast to SXSW which focuses so much on the Now and the Future.

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... about how we got from

here to here...

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... about how buttons

have changed how

we understand our world...

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... about how buttons

have changed how

we understand our world.

think.

...

Page 8: History of the Button

MoviesProducts

ScreensAdvertisements

We’ll take almost an anthropological approach by looking at these items to examine the history of the button.

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1910 1956

1984 2010

The simplest motion.

These were all movies in the original presentation.

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is just push the button.

1910 1956

1984 2010

These were all movies in the original presentation.

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We’re in a transition....

This was a movie in the original presentation (from Apple.com).

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We’re in a transition....a transition to Surface.

This was a movie in the original presentation (from Apple.com).

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Transitions

are interesting...

because that’s when our

brains change.

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Generations of Interaction

1 Lever2 Button3 Surface4 Fluid

now

We are currently in a transition from a button era to a surface era.

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Generations of Interaction

1 Lever2 Button3 Surface4 Fluid

1900

We should look to the previous transition to understand today.

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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.

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For example, a gun can simply be understood as throwing a rock, a tiny rock, much faster and with greater accuracy.

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Pressing on the keys of a piano simply triggers a hammer hitting a string. Motion is augmented.

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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.

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Levers scale motion.

Scaling is the mechanical age.

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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.

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Compressed Distance

The telegraph changed our sense of connection over distance. Instant communication across hundreds of miles for the first time.

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Abstracted

Motion

But the button meant for the first time, the result of a human motion could be completely different from the motion itself.

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The motion Push does not scale to

the result Light.

This abstracted interaction with technology represented a new way to comprehend the world.

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Buttons abstract motion.

Abstraction is the electronic age.

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What was the

first button?

This might be the most common question people ask me.

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What was the

first button?

1898

The flashlight was the first simple everyday button. It revolutionized our sense of light.

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Buttons

enter

Daily Life

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1890s

George Eastman of Kodak introduced cameras for regular people.

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1890s

Eastman used the phrase “You Press the Button, We Do the Rest” to show how simple cameras can be.

Button = easy.

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1900s

Doorbells replaced pull ringers in homes.

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1910s

As the electricity grid expanded, homes installed lights and simple pushbuttons to turn the lights on and off.

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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.

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“The Opera Delivered to Your Door” = Pandora“The Observascope” = webcamsOf course, all with a robot servant!

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1920sThe radio.

The next major tech innovation was the radio, sending live audio from a distance.

The opera really now was delivered to you.

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30 million radios sold by 1938.

This was their Internet boom.

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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.”

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Radio presets.First notion of Save.

1938

Essentially, radio presets were the first notion of “saving” in technology. Save your favorite station.

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Buttons

represent

The Future

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New York World’s Fair

1939

During the Great Depression, people looked to a better future, capped by the World’s Fair in 1939.

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A shrine to the button?

1939

Technology was heralded as the emancipator of leisure.

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1940

Movie from 1940 depicting a vision of the future. With robots.

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1940

Roy’s Robot Repair is helping this concerned woman with her robot.

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1940

She controls her robot with buttons. Roll-Oh can even fix a furnace.

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1940

When fixed, Roll-Oh fetches the nice repairman’s hat.

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MonsantoHouse ofthe Future

1958

Visions of the future continued, including this Monsanto home, promoting both the wonders of plastics and pushbuttons.

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1958Another movie.

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1958The happy wife pushes buttons to access hidden compartments.

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1958The happy wife pushes buttons to access hidden compartments.

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1958The happy wife pushes buttons to control her home.

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Buttons

represent

Luxury

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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.

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1956

And in nearly every case, the phrase “pushbutton” became an adjective communicating modern, luxury, advanced, new, easy.

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1958

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1960

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1959

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1961

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1959

Now there’s a woman in control of her laundry.

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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.

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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.

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This practice of using “pushbutton” continues today, but only in the seamier parts of the web.

Get rich quick!

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1959Lose weight now!

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Join the Push Button Empire!

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1959

Returning to the living room, the remote control has become the classic example of this pushbutton era.

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1956

First control from a distance

Because for the first time, regular people could control an object from a distance. No wires!

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Buttons

represent

Fear

Page 67: History of the Button
Page 68: History of the Button

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.

Page 69: History of the Button

1950sRaising a generation on fear.

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Buttons

represent

Control

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At the same time, engineers were building complex machines controlled by rows and rows of switches and buttons. We were learning to automate.

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At the same time, engineers were building complex machines controlled by rows and rows of switches and buttons. We were learning to automate.

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Only a select few could understand these machines, could use these buttons, using a highly specialized language.

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Only a select few could understand these machines, could use these buttons, using a highly specialized language.

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1962

From “That Touch of Mink.”

Doris Day works at Univac.

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1962She’s fed up at working in this automation job.

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1962So she slams the machine.

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1962

And leaves the machines running. (Note the Univac in the background.)

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1962Chaos ensues.

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Buttons

represent

Play

Page 81: History of the Button

First pinball flippers.

1947

Humpty Dumpty pinball machine was the first to use flippers.

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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.

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Generational

Icon1977

This Atari joystick revolutionized gaming in the home.

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Shape as

Play

1978

Experimenting with the shape of the button itself.

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Arcades boomed in the 1970s

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Dexterity in pushing buttons now became a prized skill, generating an entire industry.

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Buttons

become

Metaphor

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Before this, buttons were physical things. The Macintosh in 1984 introduced to the general public the idea that buttons could be virtual.

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1964The virtual button still needs a physical button.

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1984The virtual button still needs a physical button.

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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.

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Education through Advertising 1984

Notice the incredible detail to communicate the basics of something we take for granted.

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1984

Notice the incredible detail to communicate the basics of something we take for granted.

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Buttons

lose

Shape

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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.

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Images, text, anything is now actionable. As an example, the next page shows everything that can be acted upon. Compare it to this page.

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Nearly everything can be acted upon. This has changed how we perceive the world around us. All items can have deeper connection.

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2010

We even understand that simple gray text is actionable, simply from its location to its neighbors. We assume that “Work” is a link.

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But would we assume that here?

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Buttons

go

Touch

Page 105: History of the Button

Touchscreens are becoming everyday interactions.

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Touchscreens are becoming everyday interactions.

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The poster child of touch.

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Now taking orders

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Where are we

now?

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Buttons don’t need...

bordersshape

ornamentation

contourwords

form

Page 112: History of the Button

... and yet, we attribute to them

easecontrol

automation

magicsimplicityplay

process

Page 113: History of the Button

We now think about

objects with

depth and time,

instead of just static things.

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We are approaching a time

when anything is interactive.

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Gesture interaction game designed by Ziba for Li Ning in China.

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Imagine somebody 100 years ago encountering this device.

Page 117: History of the Button

Imagine somebody 100 years ago encountering this device.

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Generations of Interaction

1 Lever2 Button3 Surface4 Fluid

soon

The next generation will feature dynamic surfaces.

Page 119: History of the Button

Dynamic tactile surfaces will create

disposable physical interfaces.

Page 120: History of the Button

If it was rumored to be in the iPad, then the technology must be only a few years away.

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Research on dynamic tactile surfaces from Chris Harrison and Scott Hudson at Carnegie Mellon University.

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When buttons can essentially have a disposable physical form, we can build interfaces into any surface.

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Meaning our entire surroundings can be interactable. Imagine the generation that grows up with that.

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And the next generation?

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Imagine growing up in a world where touchscreens and interactive gestures are a given. How does that affect your brain processing?

Page 126: History of the Button

Imagine growing up in a world where touchscreens and interactive gestures are a given. How does that affect your brain processing?

Page 127: History of the Button

Imagine growing up in a world where touchscreens and interactive gestures are a given. How does that affect your brain processing?

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The button has been a

100 year transition technology from the mechanical age to the truly electronic age.

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The button represents

how we interact with

the objects we create.

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And that’s why the button

is the most influential yet least appreciated

innovation of the 20th Century.

Page 131: History of the Button

Bill DeRouchey

@billder

[email protected]

History of

the Button


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