gorilla arm: n. The side-effect that destroyed touch-screens as
a mainstream input technology despite a promising start in the early
1980s. It seems the designers of all those spiffy touch-menu
systems failed to notice that humans aren't designed to hold their
arms in front of their faces making small motions. After more than
a very few selections, the arm begins to feel sore, cramped, and
oversized -- the operator looks like a gorilla while using the touch
screen and feels like one afterwards. This is now considered a
classic cautionary tale to human-factors designers; "Remember the
gorilla arm!" is shorthand for "How is this going to fly in _real_
use?".
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