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Outlier2 -> RE: Brilliant Clock Design (2/27/2010 3:52:54 PM)
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heartcream,
Thank you for this. I agree it is interesting. It also brings up a related topic which I don’t think is a hijack. The design of clock faces and the information they convey.
I was fortunate enough to know an accomplished horologist. He had a very successful business and several patents concerning timepieces. I once had a discussion with him about timepiece design that changed my perspective on information displays.
I asked him if he was concerned about his repair business with the technology now available to display information using digital displays and he said no. Not only could he always make money repairing and restoring antiques but he said the traditional clock face will always remain the dominant and preferred way to display time. I asked why he thought this was so.
He said that the new types of display were wonderful for precision. They could display large numerals, tenths, hundreds, even thousandths of seconds. But if you were showing only digital increments you were losing the field of reference that a traditional analog face provides.
He put it this way. “When you look at a clock face you not only see the time it is but you see it in reference to the rest of the day or night. Think about it this way: you not only see that it is 10:00 AM.; you also see that it is 2 hours since you started work and 2 hours until lunch. You also see all the other references that are significant to you: the time until your project has to be done, the time until your meeting, whatever. You don’t get that with digits that read 10:00 AM”
When you choose any information display you are always making this choice between precision and field of reference. Automobile displays went digital for awhile and then when back to reproducing analog faces using digital technology so that the drivers would have the field of reference instead of just the display of the exact numbers. The car companies found the public had a preference for analog displays. This was true even if they did not know why.
NASCAR teams used to use this principal. They would use analog display gauges and then rotate them in the dashboard so that the indicator needle was pointing straight up when the gauge was in the desired range. Then when the driver was running at 180 MPH he would not have to “read” the gauges. He would just glance and only pay attention to (spend any time on) any needle that was not straight up. Once again, sacrificing precision for field of reference.
I think this is why some of the screensavers in Arpig’s post are analog displays. A lot of people still prefer them even if they do not know why. The newness of the others wears off ands they find themselves going back to the traditional field of reference.
A lot of speculation on my part, but something I think about when I am thinking about any tool or any other item that I am going to be using to give me information.
Thanks again for this interesting clock; I will enjoy using it from time to time.
Outlier
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