Building A Better Analyst With Technology (10/GUI via FlowingData)

One of the ways to make analysts better is to make them faster. It has always been surprising to me that the various intelligence communities don't do more research into speed reading, for example, in order to figure out how to make analysts be able to access information faster on the job.

Another fairly archaic approach is the QWERTY keyboard and mouse as the primary input devices for computers. There have been lots of attempts to improve on this model (voice recognition, for example, is pretty much there already) but none of them have been able to knock King QWERTY and his trusty sidekick Mouse from the hill.

The most recent entries have been touchscreens but there are lots of problems with them beyond mobile and occasional big screen use (see CNN at just about any time of the day or night...).

The latest entry into this competition is 10/GUI. There seems to be some pretty interesting human-computer interface oriented thought that has gone into the tool. Not sure if it going to sweep the nation but it is worth reviewing and thinking about. See the video below...

10/GUI from C. Miller on Vimeo.

I thought it was pretty cool but I have two concerns. The first is learning the new workflow. I am not too worried about that as it looked like something I would pick up fairly quickly (I figure you have to put in some time on any new piece of equipment and this doesn't look like it would take much more than normal).

I think I would also like to see the left hand functions and the right hand functions on two separate pads, one to the left and one to the right (or at least have this as an option). It looks like it is going to be cramped (particularly for people with big hands).

How would you improve the interface? Leave a comment!