Personally I think that the movie Oblivion had one of the best UIs of all time. Every element placed there was animated with such a detail to transporting meaning, and wasn't there just for the show effect as most other Sci-Fi UIs. [1] I wish this UI was reality.
While I think Star Trek transported the idea of using touch screens everywhere, I don't think their UIs are practical, as all of them were static (except for the tablets, which only displayed texts).
The realistic detail I remember from that movie is that the drones had plausible-looking reaction control thrusters (like those from missile interceptors [1]). There's a behind-the-scenes video that mentions the idea and has some (spoiling) shots from the film. [2]
In a scene (spoilers, [3]) where a hovering drone is firing its side-mounted autocannon turrets, the reaction thruster animation doesn't match what's needed to counter the torque from the recoil:
1. The drone begins by firing both port and starboard turrets forward--no torque from recoil here, only backwards force that is countered by the drone's gimballed main thruster.
2. The drone ceases firing its starboard turret to slew it towards a target directly behind it. Of the aft-facing reaction thrusters visible in the shot, only the starboard ones are firing. But this would exacerbate the torque of the still-firing port turret instead of countering it!
3. The starboard turret finishes targeting and begins firing aft, but the reaction thruster animation remains unchanged.
Of course, this level of detail already far exceeds expectations, considering that this all happens in less than a second, and that there's no impact on viewing experience when fast-moving effects don't stand up to frame-by-frame scrubbing.
Imagine this:
Picard goes to the holobridge.
Computer, give me flight controls in the style of the enterprise-D
Computer … … …
Picard: Ah, right at home!
Reminds me of Lt. Barclay, when he was "infected" by the alien probe. He found the existing computer interfaces inefficient so he went to the holodeck to create more efficient ones.
"Tie both consoles into the Enterprise main computer core utilizing neural-scan interface."
"There is no such device on file. "
"No problem, here's how you build it. "
The VR game Star Trek: Bridge Crew played with this idea briefly in the tutorial levels. In hindsight, it seems so obvious. Why not have a bridge suited to exactly what you need, including the ability to change without having to physically move to the rarely used Battle Bridge. If nothing else, everyone having their own ergo setup seems really nice.
Given the frequency with which holograms ran amuck, seems prudent to have as much separation as possible between critical functions and the holodeck.
From a military-readyiness perspective, that jlso seems like that would put you at an enormous disadvantage if all of your controls were dependent upon the (presumably) high power draw of the holodeck. Physical controls that do not disappear in the midst of an already bad situation seems best.
While I think Star Trek transported the idea of using touch screens everywhere, I don't think their UIs are practical, as all of them were static (except for the tablets, which only displayed texts).
[1] https://gmunk.com/OBLIVION-GFX