At the start of almost every technology transition, chaos rules. Competitors create confusion, often quite deliberate, as they develop their own unique way of doing things incompatible with all others.

Donald Norman writes about the subsequent mess that is arising as gesture-based control takes over on cellphones, tablets, touchpads and computers.

Apple has now decided that the discrepancy between the scrolling model for scrollbars and gestures should be eliminated. Computers mostly still lack touchscreen interfaces, especially multi-touch, and they still use windows and scrollbars. Nonetheless, in Apple's latest version of its operating system (OS 10.7, otherwise known as Lion), the default model has been changed: one moves the material up, not the window down. Apple wants everyone to move the material with a two-finder gesture, moving the two-fingers down the screen (on a touch screen) or on a trackpad. Yes, there still is a scrollbar that still seems to use the old mode, but I predict that scrollbars will disappear as control devices. Indeed, in new applications the scroll bar is hidden, only becoming visible when the two-finger scroll is initiated. Although it can be grabbed and moved, the scrollbar's main function now is to indicate what part of the material is visible through the window.

The result has been great confusion among customers. Suddenly, the well-ingrained habit has been reversed. Apple has long had a touchpad on its portable machines as well as being sold as an external control device. But the two-fingered drag downward used to move the material upward--that is, it controlled the scrollbar. Now the same movement controls the material displayed, so moving downward moves the material displayed downward.

[...] Microsoft faces the same issue about the scrolling model as it deploys gesture systems on everything from its "surface" product, to smart phones, tablet computers, regular computers and its touch mouse. Which model will they adopt? So far, Microsoft is sticking with the current model of moving the window: move the finger up to scroll the material down.

While his focus is primarily on the complexity in scrolling models, the confusion extends to many different parts of, at least in Apple products, software based UI. Apple's UI standards of late have seemingly taken a hit in terms of importance which is surprising considering the import role software plays in the companies success.

Excellent read: Gesture Wars by Don Norman. Via Smallsurfaces.