if people didn't reflexively poo-poo any change to their computers.
That feels a little disingenuous. People would have happily ignored the Touch Bar if it didn't remove the physical F row and escape key.
Apple turned it into a contest between an F row with physical keys, key travel, and feel and a touch-screen based key pad that required you to look away from the primary output device to even use. Then had it default to the positions of the dynamic buttons moving around as you switch applications (which is a UX fail).
Essentially Apple's own design trade-offs killed Touch Bar. There was nothing reflexive about it, people hated losing something they were actively using and getting something worse in exchange.
Well, I was never a real Touch Bar fan, but a couple devil's advocate points:
- Later editions of the Touch Bar brought back the physical escape key.
- I'm typing this on a MacBook Air right now, and while I always thought "why didn't you put the touch bar over the function row keys," the answer is clearly that there's just not enough space on a 13" or 14" laptop unless you want to shrink the trackpad, which you don't.
- My biggest complaint with the touch bar -- accidental inputs -- would probably have been solved with the return of the scissor switch keyboards they have now rather than the flat "butterfly" switches.
- Most Mac programs don't make much use of function keys; most of us are probably only using the keys for media control. Even after all this time I do tend to glance at the keyboard to use one, particularly on a laptop, so the advantage of muscle memory is (at least for folks like me) lessened. I'm sure there are people for whom this isn't true, but I'm a touch typist who can hit 100+ wpm and still don't feel I can rely on knowing just where function keys are in relation to standard keyboard keys. It's not consistent between keyboards: look at the current Mac laptop keyboard, an external Magic keyboard, and a third-party mechanical keyboard, and there's a good chance you'll see three different arrangements.
- At least in principle, with the Touch Bar more Mac programs could have taken advantage of it in similar ways to the Stream Deck.
The biggest problem with the Touch Bar might just have been that Apple themselves never seemed to fully commit to it. It never showed up on external keyboards, so almost nobody using their computer at a desk could use it even if they wanted to; the majority of keyboards it shipped with used the, let's say, controversial butterfly keyswitches, so it got bound up with that in public perception, and when Apple started backing away from that design they started backing away from the Touch Bar as well; and, they never did much with the API after it initially shipped.
Even setting aside the "the touch bar should have been above the function keys instead of replacing them", the touch bar also just didn't work very well. My experience with it was that it froze somewhat frequently and the shifting buttons lead to me hitting the wrong thing because what was under my finger changed right as I was pressing it. The touch bar being context-sensitive is also sort of the opposite of a stream deck; a large part of the point of the stream deck is that the buttons control OBS (or your software of choice) regardless of what application is active. The touch bar could be configured to do that, but there wasn't anything guiding people to do so.
Apple could have just stuck the touch bar above the f-keys instead of replacing them. I didn't mind the touch bar, but given the choice between it and f-keys I'll take the keys.
Comments
This could have been the touch bar (on macs) if people didn't reflexively poo-poo any change to their computers.
That feels a little disingenuous. People would have happily ignored the Touch Bar if it didn't remove the physical F row and escape key.
Apple turned it into a contest between an F row with physical keys, key travel, and feel and a touch-screen based key pad that required you to look away from the primary output device to even use. Then had it default to the positions of the dynamic buttons moving around as you switch applications (which is a UX fail).
Essentially Apple's own design trade-offs killed Touch Bar. There was nothing reflexive about it, people hated losing something they were actively using and getting something worse in exchange.
Well, I was never a real Touch Bar fan, but a couple devil's advocate points:
- Later editions of the Touch Bar brought back the physical escape key.
- I'm typing this on a MacBook Air right now, and while I always thought "why didn't you put the touch bar over the function row keys," the answer is clearly that there's just not enough space on a 13" or 14" laptop unless you want to shrink the trackpad, which you don't.
- My biggest complaint with the touch bar -- accidental inputs -- would probably have been solved with the return of the scissor switch keyboards they have now rather than the flat "butterfly" switches.
- Most Mac programs don't make much use of function keys; most of us are probably only using the keys for media control. Even after all this time I do tend to glance at the keyboard to use one, particularly on a laptop, so the advantage of muscle memory is (at least for folks like me) lessened. I'm sure there are people for whom this isn't true, but I'm a touch typist who can hit 100+ wpm and still don't feel I can rely on knowing just where function keys are in relation to standard keyboard keys. It's not consistent between keyboards: look at the current Mac laptop keyboard, an external Magic keyboard, and a third-party mechanical keyboard, and there's a good chance you'll see three different arrangements.
- At least in principle, with the Touch Bar more Mac programs could have taken advantage of it in similar ways to the Stream Deck.
The biggest problem with the Touch Bar might just have been that Apple themselves never seemed to fully commit to it. It never showed up on external keyboards, so almost nobody using their computer at a desk could use it even if they wanted to; the majority of keyboards it shipped with used the, let's say, controversial butterfly keyswitches, so it got bound up with that in public perception, and when Apple started backing away from that design they started backing away from the Touch Bar as well; and, they never did much with the API after it initially shipped.
Even setting aside the "the touch bar should have been above the function keys instead of replacing them", the touch bar also just didn't work very well. My experience with it was that it froze somewhat frequently and the shifting buttons lead to me hitting the wrong thing because what was under my finger changed right as I was pressing it. The touch bar being context-sensitive is also sort of the opposite of a stream deck; a large part of the point of the stream deck is that the buttons control OBS (or your software of choice) regardless of what application is active. The touch bar could be configured to do that, but there wasn't anything guiding people to do so.
Apple could have just stuck the touch bar above the f-keys instead of replacing them. I didn't mind the touch bar, but given the choice between it and f-keys I'll take the keys.
I like my Stream Deck a lot, and I don't care for the Touch Bar at all.
It could have been okay if they went for haptic feedback, but I'm glad they're phasing it out.
I think we will see an Apple laptop with OLED keys someday, maybe just the top row, not soon but perhaps before the decade is out.
I agree but also think that physical buttons are a big win.