The rise of touchscreens pushed buttons out of vogue. But they're making a comeback

The Sunday Magazine17:12What our push-pull relationship with buttons reveals about us

The rise of smartphones, tablets and electric vehicles has pushed buttons out of many design interfaces. In their place are touchscreens, voice activation and motion sensors galore.

But according to consumer trend watchers, buttons are making a comeback.

Apple recently added two new buttons to its latest iPhone — one of which is tied to its new AI functions. In the automotive world, Hyundai and Volkswagen are bringing both buttons and dials back to buttress their touchscreens.

Rachel Plotnick, associate professor at Indiana University Bloomington and author of Power Button: A History of Pleasure, Panic and the Politics of Pushing, studies human-machine relationships.

In her research, she found that the history of buttons in the Western world likely began in the mid- to late-1800s, coinciding with the rise of electrification and industrialization.

Their use has been connected to everything from optimism to fear of increasing automation, and even to class consciousness — such as concerns about the ease of which a ruling class could order servants with the push of a button.

Here is part of her conversation with The Sunday Magazine's Piya Chattopadhyay.

The button game really changed in 2007. That's when Apple released its first touchscreen iPhone, and it influenced how so many of our devices look and operate today. So instead of buttons and knobs, everything seemed to have a touchscreen. Kitchen appliances, our microwaves, our stoves, to kiosks in fast food chains.

Why do you think the touchscreen took off in the way that it did at that time?

On the one hand, I think there was kind of this sexiness of design. You know, touchscreens were perceived as very high tech and new. This is after 2001, the movie Minority Report came out. There was all this excitement around this idea of: how will we manipulate technologies with our hands in new ways? And specifically, how can we touch our data and our computers in different ways? So I think there was kind of this paradigm shift in terms of design.

But also touchscreens [were] kind of wedding software to buttons to make our devices much more flexible. If you think about a physical button, it can usually only do one thing. It carries out one function, whereas a touchscreen can be kind of endlessly updatable so that [it] could over time, maybe do 20 or 30 or 50 different things. 

So there was this kind of newness in terms of the design and its appeal esthetically, but also kind of opening up the range of functions that were available to us on our devices.

You say that there's a sort of ebb and flow to our cultural attitudes about what we consider modern design to be.

I think that's absolutely true. You know, and it's very funny to me to think about the 1950s after World War II is often called the origin of push-button culture. And people were moving into the suburbs, and all of a sudden everything had to have a button on it. It wasn't a cool gadget unless it had a button.

Then we can think later in the '80s and '90s about universal television remotes. You know, the more buttons on that remote, the cooler it was.

And then we entered this period of minimalism where it was all about starkness and, let's get rid of all the buttons. So I do think these pendulums swing back and forth in terms of design.

Let's talk about automakers, because … a couple of them are moving back to the world of buttons, because touchscreens have presented some problems. Why are automakers now bringing back tangible knobs and dials?

If you look at Tesla and some other automakers, touchscreens are still very much considered the paradigm of the moment and the future. But on the other hand, as I started talking to some companies, I think they're hearing a lot of uproar from consumers that they really kind of want the buttons back in their telephone and computer interfaces and their car interfaces.

I think a big reason for that, one, is just kind of touchscreen fatigue. People are feeling a little bit tired of having to look at screens all day, every day. But also studies really do show that it's much safer when you're driving to not be constantly looking down at a screen.

I think we've seen a lot of negative effects from that. People realize that, hey, it's much easier to turn a dial or a knob or push a physical button when I don't have to take my eyes away from the road.

In an interview this fall about Hyundai's decision to bring buttons back, a design vice president at the company said focus groups reported getting "stressed, annoyed and steamed" when they want to control something in a pinch but are unable to do so.

That to me, Rachel, speaks to our emotional response to buttons or the lack thereof.

I remember reading about people saying, I can't rage-poke a touchscreen. There's no way that I can kind of enact frustration with this flat piece of glass. And that always kind of stuck with me and resonated, I think, because the "pushiness" of buttons are something that kind of allow us to experience our feelings, to kind of push back against the world, both literally and metaphorically.

I guess you can have your wiring stripped on your doorknob and it doesn't turn, but … I get mad at all kinds of touchscreens when they don't work. But if a button doesn't work, I don't get angry.

Yeah. And I'm sure there are plenty of people who do get mad at buttons out there. I mean, we've seen the people who are kind of mashing the elevator button: will this door close? Or, you know, they're standing at the crosswalk trying to get the crosswalk to change.

I wouldn't say that buttons are an emotionally neutral technology. But I do think that — you know, any time things break down, that's when we start to get frustrated with them.

But the flatness of touchscreens, I think, sometimes has that kind of flat affect to it as well. It doesn't allow us to sort of engage in that more tactile, interesting way with our devices.

LISTEN | Why the tactile experience is making a comeback 

Columnists from CBC Radio4:23Buttons are back

In the coming weeks, people will be gifting or getting all kinds of new technological devices. Maybe some will have buttons.

What do you want people to think about or consider as they gift or get things with or without buttons?

I was just having this conversation with my mom. She had just purchased a new Roku remote and she was telling me how frustrating it was that it didn't have regular buttons like her old one and that she had to go through all these different menus or she had to talk to the remote. She couldn't just press the button. 

When you're thinking about what might be the latest or newest gadget you want to purchase, you might consider what is this going to be like in my everyday existence? How do older versions of this technology work? And is the new one "better" or does it replace some functions in a way that may actually make your life more difficult rather than easier?