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As an hardware guy with a love for good interfaces I can only say: told ya so (ca. 5 years ago).

Touch screens can be nice for a lot of things, but sometimes actual haptic feedback and positional consistency is worth more than the flexibility gained. Especially in devices or machines we interact with multiple hours a day, where flexibility isn't the point. E.g. a tablet using a touch screen makes a lot of sense, as that flexibility makes sense here. But it makes less sense in a car, except maybe for the entertainment system and even there actual physical switches, dials and levers can be superiour in terms of usability.

What I love are really nice things like motor faders on upper class mixing desks. You have a physical interface that can follow whatever digital state you have stored, it is just perfect.

There is a future in devices that combine screens, physical dials, levers and latches with haptic feedback, e.g. like this amazing project: https://github.com/scottbez1/smartknob

(A dial with a motor and a screen, which allows for virtual "limits" and dedents)



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