[HN Gopher] Star Trek LCARS Interface
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       Star Trek LCARS Interface
        
       Author : mentalpiracy
       Score  : 32 points
       Date   : 2023-04-26 18:16 UTC (4 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.mewho.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.mewho.com)
        
       | Stevvo wrote:
       | Loved the ending credits scene in the last season of Picard. It's
       | two minutes of just beautiful renderings of the screens.
       | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWJ0xtJGg3w
        
       | gigel82 wrote:
       | I'm a trekkie and love the nostalgia of LCARS, but let's be
       | honest: as an UX, it sucks (it's for show, not for usability).
        
         | retrac wrote:
         | For sure. Random numeric strings for what appear to be
         | commands? Maybe it's a security measure...
         | 
         | But speaking of for show. You remind me of something I noticed
         | when re-watching Deep Space 9 for the first time since it
         | aired. The actors handle "using" a touch interface in basically
         | one of two ways. One looks kinda like someone pounding on a
         | keyboard blindly - not even looking at the display perhaps. But
         | the other way looks almost exactly like someone using a tablet
         | or touch interface today. Interacting with it. Tap tap, swipe
         | tap, read, tap.
         | 
         | They obviously put a fair bit of thought into making it seem
         | believable. Pretty cool considering it's just a sheet of
         | plastic they're poking, and that most of the actors had likely
         | never actually used a touch computer interface at that point
         | (though some probably had by the late 90s).
        
       | [deleted]
        
       | piperswe wrote:
       | Interesting, this seems to be inspired by the LCARS interfaces
       | seen in ST: Picard, rather than TNG. I do quite like the slight
       | tweaks LCARS got in Picard.
        
         | joezydeco wrote:
         | The "About" page (click on the [i]) confirms this.
        
       | jljljl wrote:
       | The thing that always fascinated me about LCARS and Star Trek
       | interfaces was the labelling -- rather than a label that tells
       | you what a button does, or whats being visualized on screen,
       | you'll get a random-seeming number or an unlabeled chart.
       | 
       | Most of Starfleet Engineer training must be memorizing what those
       | number labels mean...
        
         | GravitasFailure wrote:
         | I'll chalk that labeling scheme up to trying to look good for a
         | shot but not needing to stand up to any real scrutiny, but I
         | have often wondered how usable a LCARS-inspired interface would
         | be and what would need to happen to make it usable.
        
           | olyjohn wrote:
           | I've seen demos like this for years, but never anything
           | actually that useful made with the LCARS interface. It looks
           | great, but I don't think it's actually useful for anything
           | more than a dashboard. It goes make some great dashboards
           | though.
        
             | GravitasFailure wrote:
             | Funny you should say...I was eyeballing trying to make a
             | LCARS interface to monitor two printers running Klipper and
             | an AirGradient monitor.
        
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       (page generated 2023-04-26 23:02 UTC)