This book was basically about how things today (well... 20 years ago) are designed in stupid ways. The author mentioned ways in which these simple design flaws can be fixed, and how they got to be poorly designed. The book is pretty old, but the fundamentals it mentions still apply today. It mentions how a lot of problems are caused because of poor testing, and about the misconception that if something goes wrong, then it is the users fault. The author did a good job to show that designers are usually biased, and that careful attention needs to be payed to the people using the products. Many times the designer gets used to their idea, so it seems simple to them, but when new users try it, they have trouble getting started with the product.
So, the UI that I like is Windows Vista! Now I know everyone else in the world seems to hate it, but I actually believe it is a much improved interface. I'll start by explaining why I think people hate it. People hate change! It seems that every interface that goes through a major change is hated (such as vista, facebook, and office). Why? I believe that people hate change because we like positive feedback. We like UIs where we can find what we want to do quickly, and get that instant positive feedback. Vista moved many things around, so when people try to do one of those actions that used to provide instant feedback, they have to slow down and search for it. This causes negative feedback, making the user feel inadequate. Once you get used to the new UI, I feel that Vista is way better than XP. The newly designed Media Center has a ton of new features, yet is easy to navigate. Finding files no longer requires navigating through an endless number of folders. You can jump to many of the important folders instantaneously, and you can back track to the folder you want instead of having to back up many layers. I also like the new aero style, although that isn't as important as other features. There is one big feature that I can't seem to remember, but I know that I liked it. If I remember it, I'll post it later. I guess the overall reason I love vista is that there isn't anything I hate about it. I can use it without getting pissed at it (I wish I could say the same about XP). In UI, that's one of the most important features. People will less often remember the parts of the UI that work well, but the will quickly remember the parts that they hate.
I agree that vista had bad reviews because people normally liked things to stay the same, and vista changed many things from xp. Also, there were many added features that people complained about, but these features were the same ones that people complained that weren't in xp (some security improvements). Overall, I also enjoy vista, although I am still learning how to use it and haven't run into major problems yet.
ReplyDeleteGood point, people DO hate change. I remember everyone on Facebook was going crazy because they didn't know where anything was. It made everyone feel inadequate, and nobody likes to feel that way. After a few weeks, nobody was saying anything, and I think people probably like it better now (though they won't admit it. When we have to relearn how to use something, our natural response is to reject it.
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