Most software product managers (aka: referees) that I’ve worked with are sensitive to both the creative and technical natures of  UI projects.  They can help teams mitigate the misunderstandings that happen when humans work with each other, such as:

• Questions about requirements could feel like alien invaders probing for weaknesses
• Constructive suggestions might be taken as a good slapping with heavy criticism
• Exciting ideas might be heard as threats of new gnarly work if approved
• The needs of the end user could be seen as hilarious problems for another day

So product managers, this one is for you.  You see the user acceptance gain with the internal pain, even though the balance of the perceived heavy slapping may be in – or completely out of – your hands.

So I of course explored last night; thinking what is it? A new word for the same old shat, or something truly different? And if it is different, how different, and how does it compare with what we’re familiar with today, or is that not fair to ask? NUI is actually pronounced ‘new’ – so maybe someone’s thought real hard about this, being new that is.

And on my journey through the Google-riffic linkage bounty I re-realize that MS Surface was an exploration into this area – this method of interacting with a system naturally, as we do with anything in life – with physical engagement.

So yes, it’s a real thing, that is not actually all that new. And Bill thinks it’s “what’s next”. This exploration into quality design – like Apple did with the iPhone. Like the Wii did for game consoles. Last year. I state this somewhat sarcastically because it is not as new as Bill’s mention will make it sound, and much R&D has been done in this area. It’s simply not well known, and not well applied. Yet.

And in my bumbling I came across something from NUI (remember, that group…) – someone hacked a Wii for an interesting “Minority Report” style proof of concept. You will of course have to imagine a bit, but it’s there. Really. If the video is not there – it’s in the listing – called “Tracking Fingers with Wii Remote”. I peronsally found the Wii demonstration interesting. Some teenager is going to shock us soon.

And still further into my course, thinking Surface, iPhone and Wii type stuff – I happen upon a couple students that have created their own version of Surface, yet different, and incredibly interesting. If your into that sort of thing check out their Blog. They’re also up on NUI (check out their video on NUI “telly channel”).

My question this whole time was one of categorization – is this truly something new, this feeling of ‘natural interactions’, or is this some subset of Interaction Design (IxD), and part of our evolving understanding of how people WANT to interact with DIGITAL THINGS? I dunno yet.

But… I know someone that does — Dan Saffer over at Adaptive Path is writing a book on this very topic; Designing Gestural interfaces. Very cool. Check out his support site and look for the book the fall of 20008.

Peace. -t