The iPod click wheel was the pinnacle of purposed hardware design
November 21, 2018 | Uncategorized
In today’s digital age, it sometimes feels like hardware has taken a back seat to the software that drives our devices. Button of the Month is a monthly look at what some of those buttons and switches are like on devices old and new, and aims to appreciate how we interact with our devices on a physical, tactile level.
It’s almost impossible to talk about hardware controls without mentioning the iPod click wheel. I’ve been dancing around doing this one for a while since plenty has already been said about how Apple solved the problem of navigating and scrolling through lists of data on a small screen without a touch interface. It’s a UI paradigm that still lives on in a way; the Apple Watch’s Digital Crown is probably the most direct…
