BJ McGeever offers an insightful follow-up to my comments on natural scrolling:
In any case, the change, or at least a look into the merit of a change, is a necessary one. The multi-touch trackpad is an input device unlike any of its predecessors. With the advent of new technology, we must not simply make it fit to our current patterns and habits of usage, but rather reexamine and redefine our thinking to accommodate the new opportunities it affords us.
Some really smart people put a lot of thought into natural scrolling. My advice: Give it three days before you render a verdict.1 Not three seconds. In the grand scheme of your computing life, three days is not a huge time investment.
If natural scrolling doesn’t take, do what’s right for you. But keep in mind that you’re usually better off learning to swim with currents than against. It doesn’t take a ton of imagination to see where computer interface design is going.
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For me, three days was all it took. I really like natural scrolling. Also noteworthy: I’ve abandoned my Magic Mouse. The MacBook trackpad has become extremely versatile for me. ↩
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My advice is to set it back to the normal way for several reasons:
1. Never be a Prussian. (“Everything that is not forbidden is mandatory.”) Not even if the Prussians now live in Cupertino and claim to be world-class designers. No, make that particularly because they claim to be world-class designers. Beneath the chests of many artists, beats the heart of a totalitarian. Many famous artists were also infamous jerks. Picasso is a excellent example.
2. Don’t automatically swim with the current (or against it). You might find out you’re just upstream from Niagara Falls. Never let what you do be dictated without good reason. There’s no reason for this change. Mice scrolling no more has to be like trackpad or touch screen scrolling than airplanes have to be handled like cars or boats. I’ve never had any trouble adapting between my iPhone’s touch screen and my oppositely scrolling Microsoft mouse, so don’t tell me that I need this change. I know better Jonathan Ives. I know a lot better Steve Jobs. Why? Because I know me.
By the way, one of my minor interests areas happens to be noting the absolutely stupid reasons artists gives for doing what they do. One extremely well-known artist praised the VW Beetle for following the ‘streamlined’ design of a flying beetle. He thought he was being clever. Someone with more sense pointed out: 1. Beetles don’t move very fast and 2. Beetles don’t have that shape when they’re flying.
3. If Apple gets away with this, they’ll make more irritating moves. Now more than ever, Apple needs a bit of humility. Apple isn’t infallible, particularly with UIs. Never forget that it spent years trying to force one-button mice on us. Also, take note of their current grab for 30% of in-app purchases. The idea was so bad, they’re getting almost no takers. You know what you like and need. There’s no reason to bend to their concepts of artistic elegance or consistency.
4. A more mundane reason is that shifting to Lion’s many worthwhile features is enough hassle, why compound it with one that isn’t necessary and easily turned off? If this change is easy, as some claim, wait until you have nothing better to do. And wait a long time if you like.
This is clearly a case where it’s not obvious who’s more contrarian: the natural scroller or the conventional scroller. :)
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