It’s interesting that you’re not critiquing whether these interfaces are realistic or even possible, but instead teasing apart how characters interact with them within the context of a movie. What got you hooked on watching movies this way?

NS: If we had tried to critique the technology, it wouldn't be useful until it was available and, let's face it, some of what we see is simply not going to happen — in our lifetimes or not. But, that isn't the point. Any author will tell you, sci-fi isn't really about the future, it's about the present. It just uses the future as a mechanism to make clear what authors, directors, and production designers want to comment on about our current lives. In essence, that's what Chris and I are doing, too, commenting on the present opportunities of interface design by using objects and contexts "from the future."

What background do you bring into this sort of critique? Is this something you’d like to see more of in design / film / computer science schools?

CN: We're both sci-fi fans from way back. (I'm more a Star Wars fan, Nathan's more of a Trekkie — Trekker?) So, part of what we bring is a lifelong love for the genre. And professionally, we're both designers who work with and think about technology and humans regularly. This book sits right in the Venn overlap between those interests.

NS: There are a lot of parallels between sci-fi design and "real" design, mostly because the majority of what we design on projects is fictional, too. Personas are characters, Scenarios and use cases are narratives, prototypes are scenes (of films themselves), etc. In sci-fi, the goal is inspiration and commentary, in design it's usability, accessibility, desirability, effectiveness, and meaning — that's where they overlap. Sci-fi, as a design technique, makes it much easier to break the conventions of our everyday requirements and explore new possibilities in the interface...

"Imagine the drudgery of trying to write a book using a gestural interface. Misery."

What movie interface stands out to you as just the most fully thought through? Not just something that functionally pulls you into a scene, but that’s elegantly practical?

NS: I love the surgery interface in Chrysalis, the emoticons in Moon, the holodeck (particularly when it's used for simulations and problem-solving), and the Star Trek: Next Generation-type communicators (to name just a few). They're all different but all successful in different ways. Another one we see only for a split second, that we could use today, is the voice-locked guns in Lost in Space (the movie, not the television series). When John Robinson picks up the gun, during the initial battle with the out-of-control robot, he says “Deactivate safety!” to unlock it. Instantly, his voiceprint is checked and the command carried out as he begins to fire the weapon. That's elegant, practical, and effective.

Are there modern gadgets you see that have superfluous / impractical design or functionality that’s borrowed from sci-fi?

CN: Minority Report made a lot of people want gesture for everything. But as anyone with a Wii or Kinect knows, gesture is inelegant and can be exhausting, even when it's fun. Imagine the drudgery of trying to write a book using a gestural interface. Misery.

NS: Or trying to create a spreadsheet! Most voice interfaces fall into the same trap. They work on screen because we only ever hear them for the characters who need to be in control at the moment. That's convenient for the narrative. But we're all the main character in our own lives. Imagine an open-plan office where everyone is talking to their computers. Aside from the privacy concerns (are you really working or are you tweeting or checking Facebook at work?), there is the problem of the level of noise from all of your co-workers. Voice interfaces work well in a few contexts: in the car, on your phone (if it's close to your mouth and you're not in a noisy place or one where you're interrupting others), and maybe at home (if you live alone). Most other applications are just not appropriate. But, we keep seeing them in sci-fi, even on a crowded busy spaceship bridge.