Awful interface design

by Volker Weber

wimp

I don't get it. Microsoft hires great talent, and then comes up with confusing and crappy interfaces like this. This screenshot is taken out of a Windows Vista December pre-beta 2 review. Whatever a pre-beta 2 is.

Comments

Pre-beta review? Post-stealth?? Mature-alpha??? Intermediate-final???? Rare-medium????? Bloody-prototyped????? ...

Cem, there is either something wrong with your ?-key, or son #2 is playing with your computer. :-)

Volker, it's the logic chip in the keyboard. Didn't you notice the +1 increment in question marks with each question? Maybe it's got something to do with the extensive use of hyphenation?? ... Darn, now it's hittin' my keyboard, too. Has to be a new virus, then ;)

Stefan, what are you talking about ?????????????????????????????? ;-))))))

what is wrong with your keyboards guys ¿¿¿¿¿

I can't find that weird sign in my thinkpad.

Microsoft's customers are not the end users of their software, they are the purchasing managers at Dell, HP and large corporations. These people don't care about, or understand, good interface design. They buy based on 'feature' checklists, not the usability of the product.

The whole Windows Vista interface seems quite complicated to me. Maybe I'm searching for known patterns (like right-click the desktop to change the resolution). But even when I try to be a "user", I can't find things like changing the desktop theme or browsing the network without clicking through 10 windows...


And Microsoft lists my GeForce 5200 as "Ready for Vista", but using it with all eye-candy (transparent window borders) is no fun at all.

Alex, you made my day!

I'm sure Pratchett's opinion about multiple exclamation marks is transferable to multiple question marks, isn't it? ;-)

C'mon guys. That's why it's called Vista. After a while of using it you'll get the view at a brighter future for free.

I think they will change it if a lot of beta-testers complain about

Nah. The master plan of Bill and Steve is to silently invest into Apple while at the same time subtly (or at least what they call subtle at Microsoft) driving users away from Microsoft products. Once everything goes down the toilet in Redmond, Bill and Steve can cash in on their Apple investment and do what they planned to do from the beginning: get a life - but with style.

Now surely that we can get the eye-candy on XP, and the WinFs on XP - who needs Vista (Another name for a mountain - or cliff ?) - it just delivers the Hollywood DRM model in any case ?

Give me TIGER on Intel.. Now, dammit...!

:-)

---* Bill
P.S. Or at least iTunes on Linux..

Bill, depending on what you need iTunes on Linux for, you might want to have a look at Rhythmbox. Doesn't do everything you can do with iTunes, but a lot of the functions are there. Doesn't look as nice either but that can be said of KDE and GNome, too, if compared to Tiger ;) Be warned, however: setting up Rhythmbox with all it's functions enabled is a major PITA.

...windows users are NOT used to have this kind of interface...
...so windows users think that this is cool and new and outstanding and that it is freaky to use and fancy and....and...and...whatever...

...for me as a "hybrid" user it is absolutely clear that in terms of usability osx/tiger is the best os at the moment...

...cant wait to have it on a intel...

Post a comment











Shall I remember this for you?




Use your full name and a working email address. Unless you want your comment to be removed. No kidding.



Ceci n'est pas un blog

vowe.net is a personal website published by Volker Weber a.k.a. vowe. I am an author, consultant and systems architect based in Darmstadt, Germany.

rss Click here to subscribe

Hello

About me
Contact
Publications
Certificates
Frequently asked questions

Twitter Updates

More >

Poll

Which BlackBerry could be your next one?

Getting poll results. Please wait...

Local time is 18:21

visitors.gif
136 visitors online

News

Other sources of news, imported into my own format to make them more accessible:

Heise Online
Schlagzeilen
Weather

Archives

As most of my articles roll off the front page rather quickly, I am making an archive of previous posts available here. You can also use the handy search box at the top of the page if you are looking for something particular.

Last 30 days
More archives

Got the T-shirt?

Got the T-shirt?
Are you buying from the US?

Systems Architecture

This site runs on an Apache web server on top of the Linux operating system. The content is managed with MovableType which is implemented in Perl. Last but not least the HTML code your browser sees is put together with PHP.

© 1992-2008 Volker Weber.
All Rights Reserved.

Impressum