Re: [NTLK] [OT] NCU-like software native MacOS X: what prevents it

From: Michael J. Hußmann (michael_at_michael-hussmann.de)
Date: Thu Jan 31 2002 - 15:31:52 EST


Oliver Brose (oliver.brose_at_t-online.de) wrote:

> > Who needs this, and for what?
>
> Uh, no such questions regarding GUIs! Once you start that way, you will be
> back to the command line very quickly!

In the good old days at Apple, before the Human Interface Group was
disbanded, these questions were seriously considered, and even answered.
These days, the GUI is considered the icing on the cake, something that
should look beautiful and extravagant, but questioning its use is a no-
no. But that's not what human interface design is all about. The original
Human Interface Guidelines didn't just state, "Do it this was, not that
way", rather they took care to explain why some designs were good and
others bad. The new Human Interface Guidelines for Aqua just tell you how
it should be done, without explaing why. For example, dialog elements
should be centered now instead of being aligned to the left. Centering
interface elements is a notoriously bad idea, but the Aqua Guidelines
fail to explain why Apple chose to ignore this. It is certainly desirable
for an interface to be beautiful and elegant, but when some feature
serves no real purpose, such as menu tranparency, then it should be
discarded. And while drop shadows do serve a purpose, the effort it takes
to create these illusions under Mac OS X is just ridiculous, while their
benefit isn't any greater than it was under the classic Mac OS where drop
shadows consist of opaque, black lines.

- Michael

Michael J. Hussmann

E-mail: michael_at_michael-hussmann.de
WWW: http://michael-hussmann.de

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