TED2007
Anand Agarawala: Rethink the desktop with BumpTop
Filmed:
Readability: 3.1
1,679,337 views
Anand Agarawala presents BumpTop, a user interface that takes the usual desktop metaphor to a glorious, 3-D extreme, transforming file navigation into a freewheeling playground of crumpled documents and clipping-covered "walls."
Anand Agarawala - Technologist, digital product designer
Anand Agarawala's job: to imagine and build the computers you'll use in 20 years. Full bio
Anand Agarawala's job: to imagine and build the computers you'll use in 20 years. Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
00:25
So, I kind of believe that we're in like the "cave-painting" era of computer interfaces.
0
0
5000
00:30
Like, they're very kind of -- they don't go as deep or as emotionally engaging as they possibly could be
1
5000
4000
00:34
and I'd like to change all that.
2
9000
2000
00:36
Hit me.
3
11000
3000
00:39
OK. So I mean, this is the kind of status quo interface, right?
4
14000
3000
00:42
It's very flat, kind of rigid.
5
17000
2000
00:44
And OK, so you could sex it up and like go to a much more lickable Mac,
6
19000
4000
00:48
you know, but really it's the kind of same old crap we've had for the last,
7
23000
4000
00:52
you know, 30 years.
8
27000
2000
00:54
(Laughter) (Applause)
9
29000
3000
00:57
Like I think we really put up with a lot of crap with our computers.
10
32000
3000
01:00
I mean it's point and click, it's like the menus, icons, it's all the kind of same thing.
11
35000
5000
01:05
And so one kind of information space that I take inspiration from is my real desk.
12
40000
4000
01:09
It's so much more subtle, so much more visceral
13
44000
4000
01:13
-- you know, what's visible, what's not.
14
48000
2000
01:15
And I'd like to bring that experience to the desktop.
15
50000
3000
01:18
So I kind of have a -- this is BumpTop.
16
53000
4000
01:22
It's kind of like a new approach to desktop computing.
17
57000
3000
01:25
So you can bump things -- they're all physically, you know, manipulable and stuff.
18
60000
7000
01:32
And instead of that point and click, it's like a push and pull,
19
67000
3000
01:35
things collide as you'd expect them. Just like on my real desk,
20
70000
4000
01:39
I can -- let me just grab these guys -- I can turn things into piles
21
74000
3000
01:42
instead of just the folders that we have.
22
77000
6000
01:48
And once things are in a pile I can browse them by throwing them into a grid,
23
83000
4000
01:52
or you know, flip through them like a book
24
87000
3000
01:55
or I can lay them out like a deck of cards.
25
90000
5000
02:00
When they're laid out, I can pull things to new locations or delete things
26
95000
5000
02:05
or just quickly sort a whole pile, you know, just immediately, right?
27
100000
5000
02:10
And then, it's all smoothly animated, instead of these jarring changes you see in today's interfaces.
28
105000
5000
02:15
Also, if I want to add something to a pile, well, how do I do that?
29
110000
2000
02:17
I just toss it to the pile, and it's added right to the top. It's a kind of nice way.
30
112000
6000
02:23
Also some of the stuff we can do is,
31
118000
2000
02:25
for these individual icons we thought -- I mean,
32
120000
2000
02:27
how can we play with the idea of an icon, and push that further?
33
122000
3000
02:30
And one of the things I can do is make it bigger
34
125000
3000
02:33
if I want to emphasize it and make it more important.
35
128000
2000
02:35
But what's really cool is that since there's a physics simulation running under this,
36
130000
4000
02:39
it's actually heavier. So the lighter stuff doesn't really move
37
134000
5000
02:44
but if I throw it at the lighter guys, right?
38
139000
4000
02:48
(Laughter)
39
143000
3000
02:51
So it's cute, but it's also like a subtle channel of conveying information, right?
40
146000
5000
02:56
This is heavy so it feels more important. So it's kind of cool.
41
151000
3000
02:59
Despite computers everywhere paper really hasn't disappeared,
42
154000
3000
03:02
because it has a lot of, I think, valuable properties.
43
157000
2000
03:04
And some of those we wanted to transfer to the icons in our system.
44
159000
3000
03:07
So one of the things you can do to our icons, just like paper, is crease them and fold them,
45
162000
4000
03:11
just like paper. Remember, you know, something for later.
46
166000
4000
03:15
Or if you want to be destructive, you can just crumple it up
47
170000
3000
03:18
and, you know, toss it to the corner.
48
173000
3000
03:21
Also just like paper, around our workspace
49
176000
3000
03:24
we'll pin things up to the wall to remember them later,
50
179000
2000
03:26
and I can do the same thing here,
51
181000
3000
03:29
and you know, you'll see post-it notes and things like that around people's offices.
52
184000
3000
03:32
And I can pull them off when I want to work with them.
53
187000
2000
03:34
So, one of the criticisms of this kind of approach to organization is that,
54
189000
5000
03:39
you know, "Okay, well my real desk is really messy. I don't want that mess on my computer."
55
194000
4000
03:43
So one thing we have for that is like a grid align,
56
198000
3000
03:46
kind of -- so you get that more traditional desktop. Things are kind of grid aligned.
57
201000
4000
03:50
More boring, but you still have that kind of colliding and bumping.
58
205000
3000
03:53
And you can still do fun things like make shelves on your desktop.
59
208000
7000
04:00
Let's just break this shelf. Okay, that shelf broke.
60
215000
3000
04:03
I think beyond the icons, I think another really cool domain for this software --
61
218000
5000
04:08
I think it applies to more than just icons and your desktop -- but browsing photographs.
62
223000
6000
04:14
I think you can really enrich the way we browse our photographs
63
229000
3000
04:17
and bring it to that kind of shoebox of, you know, photos with your family on the kitchen table kind of thing.
64
232000
5000
04:22
I can toss these things around. They're so much more tangible and touchable --
65
237000
3000
04:25
and you know I can double-click on something to take a look at it.
66
240000
3000
04:28
And I can do all that kind of same stuff I showed you before.
67
243000
2000
04:30
So I can pile things up, I can flip through it, I can, you know --
68
245000
3000
04:33
okay, let's move this photo to the back, let's delete this guy here,
69
248000
6000
04:39
and I think it's just a much more rich kind of way of interacting with your information.
70
254000
4000
04:43
And that's BumpTop. Thanks!
71
258000
4000
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Anand Agarawala - Technologist, digital product designerAnand Agarawala's job: to imagine and build the computers you'll use in 20 years.
Why you should listen
Anand Agarawala is a Nigerian-born, Indian-Canadian entrepreneur, product designer and technologist. He founded BumpTop, which was acquired by Google in 2010. BumpTop is a 3D desktop user interface inspired by real desks using physics and multi-touch gestures. It started as Agarawala's master's thesis in human-computer interaction at the University of Toronto; it was presented at TED the following year and remains one of the most viewed technology demos of all time.
At Google, Agarawala worked on early versions of the home screen and core user interface on Android. He also led an effort to reboot the design of the Google+ mobile apps. He was later team lead at the Google New York Creative Lab (and modeled for Bergdorf Goodman)! He has been awarded seven patents and was named one of the "Top Entrepreneurs in Technology" by Businessweek.
Anand Agarawala | Speaker | TED.com