The touchscreen backlash and the power of buttons

We live in a world of buttons, or at least we did, until touch came along. Now, a touchscreen backlash brewing, Clayton takes a look back at the history of buttons with help from button expert Rachel Plotnick, author of Power Button: A History of Pleasure, Panic, and the Politics to see why gamers treat buttons and touchscreens a little bit differently.

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[dliessmgg]

fun fact: the EU recently decided to update their car saftey requirements that certain functions have to be on buttons instead of touchscreens

[ironcastlive]

I will die defending physical interfaces

[AbsurdAsparagus]

I cannot stress how dangerous touch screen interfaces in a car are. physical button can be interacted with without looking, a touch screen cant be. and the touch screen buttons are these flashing distracting lights. they are an objective danger on the road.

[waelisc]

touchscreen:
one raindrop: i'm about to end this man's whole career

[jluca]

This video really could have used a bigger mention about how buttons aid people with disabilities. The talk of convenience is important in regards to the way that individuals and societies interact, but one person's "convenience" can be necessary if you have a disability. Also, the joystick to powerchair connection would have been neat to see more of.

[Jergling]

One of the most infuriating things about touchscreens is that they have the potential to "false trigger" - either giving the impression they were pushed when they weren't, or becoming pushed when not indicating that they were. It's like every time I try to turn the page on my touchscreen kindle, I have to wait 5 seconds to make sure it's not just lagging, or I'll end up turning two pages! If a physical button clicks, I know it triggered. I just have to wait.

[imallfordabulls]

Honda took away the volume knob in the mid 2010s. They have since added them back because there was so much feedback that people missed buttons.

[cyclopsboi]

customizing spring tension is when i knew i had ventured too far down the rabbit hole of buttons

[SilverLemondrop]

what i love about physical buttons is you can *feel* them without actuating them yet. which is useful for operating without looking, but also to just center your finger over the right one. Your sight is blocked by your hand even when you are looking directly at it and those last few moments are by feel alone. On a touchscreen that makes you completely blind. you cant hold your finger on it and wait for the right time to press it.

[tvanddy]

My ideal device is basically a Soviet nuclear power plant control panel.

[revolutionofthekind]

Drew gooden's video on touchscreens in cars made me aware of this issue, since our car is a 2019 nissan sentra, so it has buttons and a touchscreen but you dont even ned to use the touch screen at all if you dont want to. I am so glad theyre back

[mr.bennett]

I work in interface design, and I quite literally test windows-based electromechanical control software, and we ABSOLUTELY have a hybrid touch+buttons interface because NOTHING BEATS BUTTONS We nerd out about buttons and joysticks ALL THE TIME.

[SpryMahiMahi]

the immortan joe bits. the "uh oh im sure this technology wont have societal implications!" repeated bits. the cameos from simone and pat. thank you so much clayton this was great. i loved the clicky on your demo button.

[BigBadBalrog]

I think one of the drivers of touch screen supersaturation is the fact that you *have* to pay full attention to it. Every goddamn app is fighting tooth and nail for more of your eyeball time, so replacing anything with a button that can be pressed while doing something with your eyes other than watching ads is seen as a bad thing.
I'm calling it: Subscriptions to avoid ads on car "infotainment" screens. I mean, there was already a subscription for the use of seat heaters already installed in your BMW.

[misterdoctor]

touch screens in cars are often presented as more advanced tech, but in fact they are just cheaper for the manufacturer while also being more dangerous to the consumer and more difficult to repair. Legality aside, I felt very safe sending a text on my old flip phone that I could operate without looking. after a couple of times nearly driving off the road trying to send a text from my iPhone, I won't risk it again.

[Feyraligatr]

The button-less power and eject 'buttons' on the PS4 were the first things to make me absolutely loathe this descent into button-less madness.

(And excellent and super interesting video, thank you!)

[CassiusZedaker-prkc]

I was sold on buttons by my experiences trying to emulate on my phone, where all of the emulators use touch-controls. They're so bad that only certain games, like RPGs, are really playable on them.

[TheSpyder]

12:54 hammering back seven beers so i can be significantly safer in my subaru forester than most modern cars

[___Noah]

Adding a comment to boost this video because the war on buttons has gone on for far too long.

[wellurban]

There’s a similar rationale behind the rise of modular synths: buttons, knobs and wires are far more tactile and expressive than mouse controls or touch screens on a Digital Audio Workstation. DAWs are still more practical (and certainly more affordable) for most users, but twisting a big filter cutoff knob is always going to be more satisfying,