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User-centric GUI Design Explained to All
TuringTest writes "The webzine User Instinct carries an article on Usable GUI Design showing that good user interfaces are not beyond the means of free and open software development: 'This article presents five key points of user interface design [...] that any software developer should be able to use.' In related news, The Economist writes against software complexity in an interview to MIT's John Maeda, PhD in interface design. See also OpenUsability, a project for testing user interfaces in a bazaar-like model. The specifics of UI design in Open Source projects has been previously debated on Slashdot."
My car has a completely different set of layout for dash controls from my girlfriends.
Wow, multiple girlfriends? One disqualifies you from slashdot, with more than one you should hand in your UID.
And yet, after a short period of familarisation, I find I can cope pretty well with all of these things, as can everyone else I know.
Go try Blender, then come back and tell us that...
Na, my favorite 95 flaw was the ability to close the start button... Toolbar is there, but no start button. It took all kinds of teachers to figure out how it to fix that!
IN THE RED CORNER
.....
we have a trembling k6-233, never done any harm to anyone, never let you down since the day you purchased it, but worked away slowly processing any task thrown at it.
IN THE BLUE CORNER
We have the Might of a front page Slashdot Effect
Secounds out, Round 1. Ding Ding......
Will there be a burial at dawn?
Wow, multiple girlfriends? One disqualifies you from slashdot, with more than one you should hand in your UID.
I'm just impressed that he's so familiar with the "dash controls" of all his girlfriends. Please post links to any good manuals!
...because everyone knows that only complete idiots couldn't adapt.
Take cars for example...I'm sure most people could adapt if you moved the trottle to the left foot. The "bipedal interface" is obsolete anyways. One only needs a single pedal on the floor for the brakes. I say we should try a hand-operated throttle instead.
And who's idea was it to arrange the gears on an automatic as PRNDL? They might be easier to find if they were sorted alphabetically--DLNPR. And what's with the antiquated idea of a steering wheel? Lets use a joystick and have a trigger for the throttle and a button on top for the horn. I also thing that the gears in a manual transmission should be arranged in a circle instead of "H" or "H with a line in the middle" pattern. Or maybe in all cases we could get high-tech and have gear selection on a pull-down menu in a touch screen on the dash.
Also, this left and right hand drive thing is dumb. Drivers should always sit in the centre of the vehicle, straddling the console.
There...much better. I'm sure there would be no confusion or resistance to these changes. Of course we could also make the automotive interface skinnable so each person could play with the positions of all the controls. I know a few people who would really love to drive from the back seat. Then everyone would be happy.
The drivers license test might be a bit more complex, but I'm sure it wouldn't be any more involved than MCSE certification.
"if I have to think about them, even for a second, I'm going to kill someone."
I feel the same way about end users.
it is only after a long journey that you know the strength of the horse.