We need more cranks

Completely superfluous according to the Vulcan.... checks notes security Chief.

Somewhere along the line we lost the virtue of do one thing well. Do it right, move on, do something else right. If you need complexity plug some right things together.

Now is the time of jack of all trades, master of none, stuff it into a phone whether appropriate or not. Get the job done as cheap as possible with the same generic crap. Do you want your airplane pilot using only a touchscreen ? Why should it be different for a spaceship, a car, an audio engineer ?

A steering wheel, once learned, is a wonderfully flexible interface that meshes with human intuition, throw rock left, rock go left, we have brain circuits devoted to this stuff, it works. Tactile interfaces can and should speak to our evolutionary core. Let's take a step back, economic imperative be damned.

Phone are getting bigger though, wish they were smaller again.

Exactly. It's the same reason they're being forced into new cars despite the fact that an awful lot of people don't like them

Cheaper to ship.

I agree. I want heft.

Partially probably yes. However, there's also the issue of dealing with dynamic information. If you just need volume and AC controls, use physical buttons please. If you need GPS, media library controls, phone controls, texting, etc, which you don't need at the same time, they can all use one screen, and that screen can have dynamic controls. A touch screen makes a whole lot of sense for that.

I love physical controls. There are some things that should never be replaced by touch controls. There are places where touch controls make sense though. Anyone who doesn't realize this is choosing to be ignorant.

It’s just cheaper to have a one screen that can be configured with a code change to do everything rather than physical buttons that need a full hardware change to do something else.

....you can remap your buttons to do other things....

Physical buttons can also be remapped to do whatever you want. You can even make macros to get a button to do a sequence of things.

Problem is, they look cool, so once the technology arrived to make them real, everyone went overboard.

Isn't the problem they're also cheaper in real life? Like in the car industry the only benefit is that it's saving time and money for the manufacturer.

I've been driving a lot of rental vehicles lately. The safety hazard of a big infotainment system is a real problem, some are worse than others. Also when it glitches it's a real pain in the ass because the only way to fix it some times is to restart the car, sometimes it will clear the settings too.

Touchscreens are a real hazard and impractical during an emergency because you need the muscle memory to be able to grab an anchored point for control.

It's also easy for real life. They don't have to produce different parts or maintain them, or update them. All of that is just changing software and what it displays, that makes it easier for them to develop.

But as we're realizing it, it's harder to use and less safe.

I think it's because manufacturers value slick UI over usable UI.

LCARS is a great example. In universe, the buttons are likely programmed to the users specifications, macros and automations that have been developed over their career or even lifetime.

But when present day people tried to create LCARS for their own apps, it's a fucking nightmare. Too much wasted space and buttons that only look like Star Trek but don't actually do anything impressive.

Touchscreens in a car could work if they were user tested but they aren't. And not only that, but they are rent-seeking devices that companies use to lock out features like fucking heated seats!

What I'd love to see is a completely open-source infotainment system. Android could have been a great OS if they didn't fuck their users.

“Haha! Yes, Johnny!”

Ahhhh that takes me back. I haven't seen that gif for like 20 years.

A gentleperson of extraordinary taste I see.

The far-future panels from Discovery can totally do that. It's too bad they just don't do it.

Wait I want a wall-mounted hardware charcuterie board.

what have you done?!!

we don't don't talk about Bruno!

In the context of star trek thats no excuse. They could easily integrate a little replicator into the panels for customizable tactile interfaces. Like you get on duty, select your specific customized interface profile, wait the ∼5 seconds for the old one to be reclaimed and the new one to materialize and you're good to go. They can keep the standard panel interface right next to it just in case.

Remember Microsoft's surface dial?

Just make a touch screen and a bunch of those.

You can make your own interface outta touchscreen and attachable doodads.

I remember an officer chastising another crewman for using a non-standard interface. I think it was Worf in TNG. Edit: Worf, yes, but DS9. S04E07, "Starship Down"

I also remember a blinded Tuvok activating a tactile interface at his station. (VOY, S04E08, "Year of Hell")

Right? like guess what, I've got good news for you Tom. Also, stick your hands in this psychic jelly to help navigate

This is why Riker sits on then so often

When Tuvok is blinded in Voyager's Year of Hell, he explicitly activates the tactile interface for his console. So it's definitely something that LCARS supports.

Every. Single. Game.

Why does that shit need to be on by default. It’s literal shit experience.

Early days of Android haptic slowed things down so much the phone would lag when typing.

So I turned it off 15 years ago and haven't looked back.

I mean it could hardly be more annoying than having to repack all the rocks into the consoles after they explode every Tuesday

Given the tech we have even nowadays, it's probably cameras/sensors tracking whether or not the operator is looking at the controls they're using.

this is solved by seatbelts.

You think touch screens are better under those conditions? They are worse.

The problem is never that it can't be done...

... it is that people find it easier to complain about the lack of a solution than to put in the work to create a solution for themselves.