Images: Cheers and jeers for user design

Jeff Han, research scientist at New York University and founder of Perceptive Pixel, puts in his vote for worst interface as one that appeared in the film Minority Report. The movie depicted Tom Cruise using his hands to move graphics and data around on a transparent screen, or a so-called "gestural" interface.

"It turns out that humans are actually quite bad at waving their hands around in free-space with any sort of precision or accuracy, without something to press up against," Han said. "Of course, it looks great on camera, and certainly inspires the public."

Han added: "That's the thing you have to be careful about with (user-interface) design in general--not to get sucked into what 'looks cool' instead of something actually usable."

Photo by Fastcompany.com