MacBook PROLED But to use the touch screen, the next story Apple must solve is how optimized the UI/UX of macOS will be.

Desktop operating systems (macOS and Windows) have since their inception been designed and fully optimized for keyboards and mice based on four core factors: ergonomics, control precision, command hierarchy and early hardware limitations.

Actually, for me, there's nothing wrong with Apple making a touch screen for the new MacBook Pro. What they're making users feel "wrong" is that they're turning this feature into KSP and demoing things that Windows users have experienced for many years and it doesn't bring much benefit.

Ergonomics and "Gorilla Arm" syndrome

Do new MacBook users really have to use it like this?

Desktop and laptop screens are placed vertically to the user's eye level, minimizing pressure on the cervical vertebrae. When manipulating touch on a vertical plane, the arm must be raised continuously in space without support. This phenomenon triggers isometric muscle contraction in the deltoids and scapulae.

As a result, users will quickly get tired when used in this position for too long (in fact, I think no one can raise their hand to touch the MacBook's touch screen for 5 minutes continuously), which is called "Gorilla Arm syndrome" in ergonomic terms.

As for the mouse and keyboard, the entire forearm, wrist and hand are placed entirely on the table (or laptop palm rest). The operating force at this time is only focused on the fingers and small wrist joints, allowing you to work continuously for 8-10 hours without causing mechanical exhaustion.

Accuracy

If you use macOS or Windows, you can use a mouse. The tip of the mouse cursor has an interactive area of ​​1 x 1 pixel. This allows the operating system to achieve extremely high information density, increased visibility over a large area and better multitasking capabilities than tablets or phones.

For example, the browser scroll bar you are using is a few pixels thin, the window navigation buttons like on macOS are tiny, or Windows only need 8-16 pixels.

The same goes for highlighting each text character. The mouse and keyboard on the computer operating system will be much more accurate than using your hands to highlight and then edit thousands of cells in Excel spreadsheets. Cutting and editing movie timelines also requires absolute precision at the single-pixel level.

Apple was forced to adjust the icons on the screen to optimize the user's finger touch operation.

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In contrast, the user's fingertips when in contact with the glass surface have an average area of ​​8–10mm (equivalent to 40–50 pixels or more depending on PPI pixel density). To use touch, all buttons, line spacing and menus must be enlarged, reducing the useful display area and breaking the complex multitasking structure of the desktop.

Holographic interactive mouse

The mouse provides a three-dimensional interactive space that a basic capacitive touchscreen cannot:

• Hover state: Hover over an object without activating a command. This is the premise for tooltips explaining features, drop-down menus, content previews, and contextual cursor changes (such as changing to a two-way arrow cursor to stretch the window). Touch has only 2 binary states: touch or no touch.

• Physical button hierarchy: The mouse has a left mouse button (main action), right mouse button (context menu) and a scroll wheel combined with modifier keys (Shift, Ctrl/Cmd, Alt). The touch sensor forces the right mouse button to be replaced by a "long-press" operation, significantly reducing the speed of processing professional tasks.

Computer operating systems are not made for touch

When the modern GUI model was formed at Xerox PARC (Alto, Star) and then commercialized by Apple (Lisa 1983, Macintosh 1984) and Microsoft (Windows 1.0 1985), the monitors at that time were bulky CRTs, thick curved glass and covered with a layer of luminescent phosphor. Touch sensors at this time were only single-point resistors, which were expensive and easily scratched. The coordinate error was also very large, reducing the contrast of the CRT screen in general.

The computer mouse (invented by Douglas Engelbart in 1964) is the cheapest, most durable and optimal hardware solution for digitizing X-Y coordinates on the display screen.

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There used to be role models for Apple

Microsoft tried to bring touch and even pen operations to Windows but kept the traditional desktop architecture intact. The result is failure, as users have to use a pointed stylus to try to hit the dense drop-down menus and 16-pixel scroll bars designed for mice.

They also imposed touch thinking (Metro UI, large Live Tiles, edge-swiping Charm bar) on the entire Windows ecosystem. The mouse-and-keyboard PC experience immediately fell apart: wasted space, unnatural horizontal scrolling, and the hidden Start button angered desktop users. Microsoft was forced to correct the mistake by bringing back the traditional window interface on Windows 10 and Windows 11.

The context menu has been made larger to make it easier to touch by hand, but look at the menu bar?

Looking back at Apple, they also clearly defined that: iOS and iPadOS are optimized from the ground up for fingers, while macOS is optimized for indirect cursors via keyboard and trackpad or mouse. Even when touch screens appear on Macs, interface elements are only locally refined (slightly enlarging buttons when touched, adding auxiliary gestures) and cannot completely replace the control structure of the mouse and keys.

John Ternus himself once said:

“We make the best touch computer in the world, the iPad. It's completely optimized for touch. The Mac is completely optimized for indirect operation. We don't see any reason to change that.”