{"id":263,"date":"2008-09-15T07:15:07","date_gmt":"2008-09-15T12:15:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/desktop\/2008\/09\/15\/what-if-matlab-had-only-4-buttons\/"},"modified":"2008-09-15T07:15:07","modified_gmt":"2008-09-15T12:15:07","slug":"what-if-matlab-had-only-4-buttons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/community\/2008\/09\/15\/what-if-matlab-had-only-4-buttons\/","title":{"rendered":"What if MATLAB had only 4 buttons?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yesterday I went to the Apple Store to drool over the new iPod Touch. Playing around with its applications I was reminded of a scene in the recent web production: Dr. Horrible\u2019s Sing-a-long Blog<\/a>. In one scene Dr Horrible controls a van using 10-button app on his iPhone. <\/p>\n

I\u2019ve recreated that UI below, in a purposely-stylized sketch. Is this UI sufficient to drive a vehicle? My automatic \u201903 Ford Taurus has well over 60 buttons, dials, levers, etc. factory-installed within arm\u2019s length of the driver. That\u2019s a lot more than Dr. Horrible\u2019s controller. <\/p>\n

\"Dr.<\/div>\n

This got me thinking, what if Matlab had only a few buttons? What are the essential functions that one would need? <\/p>\n

I took a sample of my co-workers (based on who was at his\/her desk at the time) and gave them 30-seconds to come up with their version of the four-button MATLAB. I took down their first four or five thoughts. As you can see, there are some patterns. <\/p>\n

Will (usability): Will chose Data Import, Edit, Plot, Export Variable, with a runner-up of “call technical support (not an actual feature)”.<\/p>\n

\"Import,<\/div>\n

Ken: Ken’s choices were Run, Save, Help, and New M-File<\/p>\n

\"Run,<\/div>\n

Linda (documentation): The Current Directory, Preferences, Command History (not real icon), M-Lint, with a runner-up of Help.<\/p>\n

\"directory,<\/div>\n

Dan: Help, Halt Execution (not real icon), New M-File, Open File<\/p>\n

\"help,<\/div>\n

Zain: Help, Editor, Plot, Path tool (not real icon)<\/p>\n

\"help,<\/div>\n

Adam & Ammar (technical support): Save, New M-File, Help, Open, runner-up: Command History<\/p>\n

\"save,<\/div>\n

Jiro<\/a> (application engineering): Start, Up One Directory, Plot, Run M-File<\/p>\n

\"start,<\/div>\n

I also had to ask Seth<\/a>, to make sure the Simulink side of things is represented.
Surprise, suprise, Seth chose: Simulink, the Editor, Help, and Exit MATLAB (not real icon).<\/p>\n

\"simulink,<\/div>\n

I think he went with “Exit” because I caught him trying to wrap up and go home for the weekend. I also let him have Shortcuts<\/a>, which violates the spirit of this exercise, but I think it demonstrates one good point: MATLAB is too complex for us to please everybody with just one subset of tools, and that is why we try to make it is customizable as possible. <\/p>\n

Finally, Mike: At first I came up with M-Lint, Editor, Run, and Import. I also wanted Help and the Web Browser. I also cheated and added a Command-Line. <\/p>\n

\"M-Lint,<\/div>\n

If your MATLAB had only four buttons, what would you choose?<\/p>\n

PS: And no, don\u2019t expect any sing-a-longs on the Desktop blog, but you may be able to get Doug<\/a> to sing for beer. :)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yesterday I went to the Apple Store to drool over the new iPod Touch. Playing around with its applications I was reminded of a scene in the recent web production: Dr. Horrible\u2019s Sing-a-long Blog. In… read more >><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":38,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[8],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/community\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/community\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/community\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/community\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/38"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/community\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=263"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/community\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/community\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/community\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=263"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/community\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}