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Re: My alter sheet is not textured (metal)

On Monday, July 7, 2003, at 05:14 PM, email@hidden wrote:

That many people ignore the guidelines doesn't mean they're dated.

True.

The point of any set of human interface guidelines is to insure that every program behaves identically, to the extent possible.

But how do you allow for "improvements" and innovation if you don't allow at least some bending of the rules.

(For example, semi-transparent menus make menus *harder* to use, not easier, since the text showing through from beneath interferes with reading the text in the menu items themselves.)

A bad example, as the degree of transparency is so low that the menus are not measurably harder to use.. The 'coolness' factor in some cases is ever so slightly useful.. like being able to see behind title bars of inactive windows... I can read things enough and yet see through enough to find the window I want. Neato! And "looking cool" without getting in the way may attract enough attention to help market share.. The perfect example of this is the original iMac.. the main thing that attracted the users was the pretty colors. I can't imagine how many of those sold because they "looked cool".

Consistency of behavior--*the* reason to have human interface guidelines at all--is no longer a consideration. (If it were, Finder windows wouldn't have two different--and incompatible--behaviors depending on whether the toolbar were visible or not. [And no other program uses the visibility of the toolbar as a "behavior switch", either, making things that much less consistent.])

I guess you are referring to the fact that when the toolbar is gone (and thus the forward/back buttons are not available) double clicking a folder opens a new finder window. It is odd... but sometimes convenient at the same time... and doesn't require the user to learn some key presses to get around the otherwise completely visual UI.

The UI is designed to match the current case design, rather than being designed to match user requirements. Aqua appeared with the ca!
ndy-colored iMacs. "Steel" becomes the standard exactly when the brushed-metal G5 appears. (There'd probably have been an all-white UI design if Apple had been able to figure out how to make it even remotely usable.) In a few years, when the G6 case is yet another style, the guidelines will make *that* design the norm.

In the days of 'skinable' UIs the change in background color is hardly noticeable, much less a hang-up for users. I think 'feel' matters much more than 'look' in this regard.

Running a Swing UI with the Java L&F may look ugly on a Mac, but I've never seen anyone that could not still find all the controls and use them effectively.

| And if I've been looking at the pictures right, Finder won't be exempt at Panther,

Which is exactly the point: the Apple-written Finder is now violating Apple's own rules for program interface design.

Apple has to violate the OLD guidelines in order to make what they obviously perceive as improvements to the UI. They just don't update the guidelines enough... or perhaps they release experimental UI features to test the waters before changing the guidelines.

Like *all* police, the GUI Police have a proper jurisdiction. Like all police, the GUI police can attempt to enforce taste, as well. Aqua is more prone to "GUI fascism" simply because it *is* about marketing. It is driven by fashion, not usability. Where it dictates taste, rather than simple usability, it oversteps the bounds of what human interface guidelines *ought* to concern themselves with. (That you can speak of the guidelines *as* "dated" simply confirms their roots in fashion.)

The goal of Apple is to sell stuff. Fashion has to be considered along side of usability. It shouldn't interfere, and I'm not sure that it has to any significant degree. Do you buy clothes based entirely on usability? Or do you actually consider what style or color you like as well?

Scott
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