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Domain: iarchitect.com

Stories and comments across the archive that link to iarchitect.com.

Comments · 161

  1. Interface Hall Of Shame by Coda · · Score: 1 · on Download.com Features Linux Distro

    Here you are:
    http://www.iarchitect.com/mshame.htm

    This should be required reading for all software developers.

    The sections devoted to Win95 are:
    Common File Dialogs
    Explorer
    Find Applet

  2. Hell will freeze over first by Greyfox · · Score: 1 · on GM ponders Linux for 7,500 Dealers
    Lotus does not like Linux. They're porting Domino server over, probably because it's getting hard to ignore all the companies moving their servers to UNIX/Linux.

    That's OK. Linux doesn't like Lotus either. Their apps are ugly, dumb and awkward. If you read the interface hall of shame on Iarchitect you'll note that they have a whole section dedicated to "Bloated Goats."

  3. Re:Windows UI consistent? by Guy+Harris · · Score: 1 · on Interview: Mandrake Answers

    There's also the User Interface Hall of Shame, with various UI design mistakes (in the view of the authors) in various UIs, including but not limited to Windows (they alo have a User Interface Hall of Fame, for stuff they deem sufficiently praiseworthy).

  4. Re:Windows UI consistent? by Guy+Harris · · Score: 1 · on Interview: Mandrake Answers

    There's also the User Interface Hall of Shame, with various UI design mistakes (in the view of the authors) in various UIs, including but not limited to Windows (they alo have a User Interface Hall of Fame, for stuff they deem sufficiently praiseworthy).

  5. Re:Useability / Human Interface Design by nmarshall · · Score: 1 · on Interview: Ask Mandrake Anything

    Microsoft [..] spends tons of money [..] on useability and the human interface.

    your kidding right? check out the Interface Hall of Shame they show that M$ didnt spend tons of money on anything but ad's!
    (rant mode on)
    IMHO gnome's "try, untry, ok, cancel" is much better then M$'s "OK, Cancel, Apply" ie WTF does Apply do that's diffrent than Ok? ( dont answer that i know alreadly...)
    (rant off)
    now, yes M$ is consistent, but not easy to use. i would love to have a consistent way to do things, but thats what gnome and kde are for right?

    nmarshall
    #include "standard_disclaimer.h"
    R.U. SIRIUS: THE ONLY POSSIBLE RESPONSE

  6. Re:Useability / Human Interface Design by belrick · · Score: 1 · on Interview: Ask Mandrake Anything

    I'll point you to the User Interface Hall of Shame in hopes of disuading you of the notion that Microsoft creates a good user interface that is also consistent...

    Bruce

  7. Re:This same old irritating assumption by petchema · · Score: 1 · on Business Week Online Laughs at Win2K
    This is not an assumption, when you design an interface it is very important to follow the rules of the GUI environment you are using to reduce confusion and lower the time needed to master new apps.

    If you have specific needs, create additional controls (aka widgets), but give old controls a new behavior is bad ergonomic style by any metric.

    I'm not affiliated with them, but sites like http://www.iarchitect.com are really interesting if you're interested in GUI ergonomy...

  8. Re:Yet more MS bashing by Kierkan · · Score: 1 · on Back Orifice 2000 on CNN.COM

    Please read this, then think again if they really make great GUIs.

  9. Re:Windows looks isn't the right fashion for us by FFFish · · Score: 1 · on Caldera Graphic Installation Screenshots
    Well, then, go here and get a clue.

    Windows is a *TERRIBLE* UI.

  10. Good lad. by Chris+Johnson · · Score: 4 · on Rasterman leaves RedHat
    I don't use Red Hat- I pillage it ;)
    I'm currently trying to build a really small linux installation for 486es, and I'm getting the files from RH5.1 to do it. The CD originally came from linuxmall as a two-for-one at about $5. Red Hat is probably not the distribution I should be using, but it's the only one we got at the moment, we're real low budget :)
    Anyone who seriously thinks that cloning Windows is strategically vital had better go investigate the Interface Hall of Shame, and the reviews of the Windows Find applet, Explorer, and the common file dialogs. These are faithfully duplicated in environments like KDE (I'm thinking of Explorer in particular, it is _very_ similar), and the agenda to clone Windows will bring more and more of these horrible, appalling errors and awkwardnesses into whichever Linux environment goes that route.
    Meanwhile, I'll be messing around with largely text-oriented Window Maker implementations (and figuring out neat things to do with scripts), and Raster will presumably be constantly furthering the limits of wild and ornate window manager interface design, and we can damned well make our _own_ mistakes, thank you: we don't _have_ to make Windows' mistakes as well just to be taken seriously. I'll happily take Raster seriously- he talks like a designer, like someone willing to try something new, or make his own decisions. I hope he takes me seriously but hey, I haven't 'shipped' yet so I have to get results together before I can expect to even be noticed. At any rate, I think it's safe to say that neither of us give a damn for faithfully replicating Windows mistakes out of some misguided notion that it is expected of us ;P
    So good luck, and if there's anything I can do to help, Raster, you're welcome to it. Here, it's not much, but I am good with GFX: use any or all of my Linux graphics such as tiles and textures and backgrounds. If I can do more I will, and if my own pursuits help you out I will rejoice, just as I daresay you'd rejoice if yours help out mine.
    And if Red Hat does not rejoice to see non-Red-Hat-style implementations being busily developed, if they do not rejoice to see their profitable standardization undercut by people like us, well, fsckem ;) who knows, we may yet discover that something like Red Hat is simply not profitable. Over in Mac land we have recently suffered the loss of a _very_ historic third party company, Micro Conversions, the only ones doing Voodoo2 cards for the Mac officially. Hacks of their drivers drove them under. We might see Red Hat croak in similar fashion for two reasons:
    • if you want windows so badly, Microsoft is happy to sell you it
    • cheapbytes. Who pays the packager/distributor $80 for what is free, particularly if it isn't in turn funding the Rastermans of the world? Who'll pay Red Hat to make Linux more like Windows? Not me, I'll tell you. They are just another distribution.
    Good luck, Rasterman. Hack on.
  11. Windows error messages by jkovach · · Score: 1 · on Response to John Carmack's Comments About Macs

    On another note, the error messages on Macs are among the least helpful I have ever seen. "Application Unknown has quit because an error of type 3 has occurred")


    This may be bad, but at least you can go look up the error number somewhere. On Windows, I have seen such gems as "Internet Explorer was unable to open this site. An unexpected error has occurred" and "Internet Explorer was unable to open this site. The operation completed successfully."


    Go to for more examples of bad Windows error messages.


    However, if you do get a blue screen of death, it gives you a register dump and a process list. You can also set the OS to write a dump of all system memory to a file for debugging purposes.