Microsoft Vista User Interface Guidelines Published

SEMW writes "Microsoft has published the preliminary Official User Interface Guidelines for Windows Vista. Highlights include Top 12 Rules for the Windows Vista User Experience — and the use of screenshots from Windows XP as examples of what not to do. The full guidelines are as yet incomplete, but what is there makes for interesting reading."

Comments

This made me laugh.

[radicalnerd]

Be polite, supportive, and encouraging. The user should never feel condescended to, blamed, or intimidated.

Re:This made me laugh.

[Bones3D_mac]

The user should never feel condescended to, blamed, or intimidated.

You mean Vista is doing away with DRM?!

About damned time!

Re:This made me laugh.

[BrynM]

I personally got a chuckle out of the repetitive use of judiciously... why thank you Microsoft, I thought it would've been better to use certain functionallity foolishly!

Rule 12 1/2 should have been: Use judiciously judiciously.

Re:This made me laugh.

[kfg]

The idea that their "Playskool" interface is an attempt to not be condescending is just too condescending to bear.

KFG

The Rules:

[iluvcapra]

(emphasized elaborations mine)

1. Use the Aero Theme and System Font (Segoe UI)
2. Use common controls and common dialogs
3. Use the standard window frame, use glass (transparency) judiciously
4. Use icons and graphics consistent with the Windows Vista style and quality
5. Use task dialogs for new or frequently used dialog boxes and error messages
6. Use Aero Wizards
7. Use Explorer-hosted, navigation-based user interfaces, provide a Back button
8. Use the standard Windows Search (have a little iTunes style search box in your window's corner when appropriate)
9. Use the Windows Vista tone in all UI text (use a professional writing style in you informative text)
10. Clean up the user interface
11. Use notifications judiciously
12. Reserve development time for "fit and finish"!

Re:The Rules:

[iluvcapra]

My thoughts:

Use the Aero Theme and System Font (Segoe UI)

Good, but obvious.

Use common controls and common dialogs

ibid

Use the standard window frame, use glass (transparency) judiciously

Good good. If MS keeps making such a big deal about transparent UI tho, silly developers are gonna use it everywhere.

Use icons and graphics consistent with the Windows Vista style and quality

Good. If you follow this suggestion closely enough, maybe we can convince the users at home that your application comes from Microsoft, too.

Use task dialogs for new or frequently used dialog boxes and error messages

Good.

Use Aero Wizards

If you're replacing a 97 Wizard, you should use an Aero wizard. If you're writing a new app, please do not use a wizard. They're obnoxious, and send the message: "We didn't know how to organize your options in any sort of logical way, so here's a powerpoint that lets you fill in the blanks, masquearding as a UI."

Use Explorer-hosted, navigation-based user interfaces, provide a Back button

In short: Consider making programs that aren't web browsers behave like web browsers, since people use those alot. This is interesting, but at some point you have to explain the difference between the "Back" button and the "Undo" button, and you might just end up making your program into a wizard

Use the standard Windows Search (have a little iTunes style search box in your window's corner when appropriate)

A total dig on my part, and I apologize, but that's basically what they're saying. Apple makes the same recommendation, and give a very slick API for making it work. So good suggestion.

Use the Windows Vista tone in all UI text (use a professional writing style in you informative text)

From Microsofts mouth to ghod's ears.

Clean up the user interface

On their page they list all kinds of things you can do to make your program more ergonomic, but they put it at the end of the list, and phrase it in such a way as to suggest that it should be something you do at the end of development, as opposed to at the beginning, when you're designing your windows on a whiteboard. "Organize your command (sic) into a simple, predictable, and easy to find presentation" is something you do before you start writing code- it is not something you do while "cleaning up".

Use notifications judiciously

Or not at all. The list makes no suggestion about keeping your damn icons out of the systray.

Reserve development time for "fit and finish"!

Fit and Finish has quickly become my least favorite phrase. Sorry, just snarky, I agree with this point. But I would say "Hire a designer" as opposed to "reserve development time", mainly because it will allow collaboration with someone who always has their eyes on the UI and can give the developers continual feedback on how their code is totally rocking for the user ... experience, or totally deviating from reality.

Wow...

[ResidntGeek]

That's a really bitching Notepad icon. They've clearly been hard at work.

user Rule #1

[Quiet_Desperation]

Do not install Vista. :)

Restart now?

[DuranDuran]

> examples of what not to do

Updates complete. Restart now?
What about now?
Now?
Now?
Now?
Just wanted to know if I should restart now?
What about now?
Are you ready to restart?
Shall I restart now?
Should I not restart later?
I think I should restart now.
Wouldn't it be good if I restarted now?
Who's up for a restart??

To do it right...

[jcr]

Step One: write an app for the Mac.
Step Two: get your UI reviewed by Apple's user interface evangelist, John Geleynse.
Step Three: make all the changes recommended by Apple.
Step Four: write a windows app that comes as close as you can get to your Mac version.

Or, you can do what the people who wrote Visio or that guy who ripped off Delicious Library did, and just laboriously copy an existing app knowing that you'll never make it quite the same on Windows.

-jcr

Thank You Microsoft!

[netsharc]

Put only program shortcuts on the Start menu. Never put shortcuts to the following on the Start menu:

• Program uninstallers. Users access uninstallers through the Software Explorer control panel.
• Help files. Users access Help topics directly from your program.
• Control panels. Users access control panels from the Control Panel home page.
• Program options. Users access program options from the Options command, usually found on the Tools menu.
• Readme files. Reconsider the need for a Readme file because most users rarely look at them. If you do need a Readme file, let users access it from your setup program.
• Web sites. Users access Web sites through appropriate links in your program. Exceptions are Microsoft Update and Windows Catalog.

How I hate software that install all of that in their Start Menu entries. Or programs that insist they go into "C:\Program Files\My Stupid Software Company Inc\My Stupid Program".

Talking about reform, I find the most illogical thing of user interfaces is the menubar.. how do you exit? Go to "File". Where are the options? Under "Tools".. why can't somebody offer a totally new way of making the menu. Start with "Program", where you have "Options" and "About" (maybe "Help" too), then "Document" or "File", and then "Edit", etc.. We're so used to File -> Exit that we stop thinking how illogical such a construct is... exit the file?

Integrity?

[medoc]

From the article:

Perception is reality, and if your customers don't experience quality in your product throughout, they may conclude there is lack of quality everywhere. A visual bug seen by all your customers might do more damage to your program's reputation than a rarely occurring crashing bug.

Mind your icons, not your buffer overflows. Great! Will exploits follow the Vista guidelines too ?

Two things catched my eye

[Sun]

The first - the design guidelines (10 out of the 12 listed) are focused on appearance rather than on functionality. Making sure your icons look great (#4) comes long before producing a clean interface (#10).

The second is that this document carries a severe undertone of "make sure your app only works on Vista, and looks out of place on anything other than Aero". The entire document keeps saying "use Vista only API whenever you can" and "visually design the application to look out of place when not using the Vista UI" (with a few exceptions).

I guess this is how MS are trying to fight the competition formed by previous OSes being good enough. They try to make sure new applications don't work on them any more.

Shachar

user Rule #2

[BiggerIsBetter]

Do NOT install Vista. ;-)

the best bit

[joe 155]

I just loved this bit;

"# Focus on what users really need to know. Don't avoid important text--be explicit whenever necessary--but don't be redundant or verbose. Because users often scan text, make every word count. Simple, concise text not only saves screen space, it most effectively conveys an important idea or action.

# Remove redundant text. Look for redundant text in window titles, main instructions, supplemental instructions, content areas, command links, and commit buttons. Generally, leave full text in instructions and interactive controls, and remove any redundancy from the other places.

glad to see MS don't break their own rules!

Yes/No dialogs again

[roskakori]

One of the worst misfeatures of Windows (and its developer community) is the retarded design of dialogs. AFAIK the pre-Vista API has a bunch a simple functions to do Yes/No and Ok/Cancel dialogs, but nothing to label buttons sensibly. So it's quite common to have a dialog with "Yes" and "No" buttons, and and huge text explaining what these options mean. Despite the fact that every at least semi-decent article or book about dialog design recommends to use verbs for button labels.

I recently read that Vista finally offers an API to easily change the button labels. Yeah! And guideline 5 (Use task dialogs for new or frequently used dialog boxes and error messages) specifically recommends:

Use positive commit buttons that are specific responses to the main instruction instead of generic labels (such as "OK"). Users should be able to quickly grasp the options by reading the button text alone. Always start commit button labels with a verb.

Yeah again!

However, above this guideline we can see a screenshot of the classic, super retarded Windowesque "Save changes? Yes/No/Cancel" dialog.

I suggest for the final document they just copy this dialog from any random Mac OS application and put a Vista theme on it.

Re:Rule 11

[UnknowingFool]

Use notifications judiciously" which is a great change

But will MS follow their own rules? Hold on a sec . . .

I see that you are posting a reply. Would you like me to open a search on MSN? <Yes><No> Clicks No

Anyway, given the many complaints on Vista's security, it would seem MS isn't following their own rules--

You are posting a remark disparaging Microsoft. Would you like to learn more about the great company Microsoft? <Yes><No> Clicks No

While there maybe good reason to lock down Vista, you would think that MS would make it less annoying--

You maybe posting information which may harm security. Would you like to continue to do so? <Yes><No> Clicks Yes

You have insufficient privileges to post this reply. Please contact the network administrator for privileges.

WTF? %$%#&@!

Don't dumb it down. Not all your users are dumb.

[oyenstikker]

Present choices * and settings in terms of user goals, not technology. Use everyday words when you can. This is especially
effective if you are explaining a complex technical concept or action. Imagine you are looking over the user's shoulder and explaining how to accomplish the task.

Technology-based:
* Enable Internet Connection Sharing host
* Manual Duplex

Goal-based:
* Allow other network users to connect through this computer's Internet connection.
* Print on both sides of the paper.

This tendancy annoys me more and more with ever release of Windows, for many reasons:
1) Most everybody knows what "duplex" means. Why not let those who don't learn what it means instead of pretending the word doesn't exist, and encouraging people to forget.
2) When I am on the phone with a user, I can say "look for the options that says something like "Internet Connection Sharing". Most users will not find the goal-based option, as it does not include the word "sharing".
3) I know what I'm looking for. I know what it was called in NT4, 2000, and 2003 server. Now I have to read paragraphs and guess that "Allow other network users to connect through this computer's Internet connection" is Internet Connection Sharing and not Web Proxy.
4) It encourages the user to not learn about the very complex piece of equipment he just bought. If you provide a good searchable manual instead of dumbing everything down, the program will be easier to use, and the user will learn more.

Imagine if your grill didn't say "Ignite" above the red button, but "Make the fire start", or if your toaster didn't say "Toast", but "Make your bread crispy", or if your car didn't say "ABS", but "Automatically remove and reapply pressure on the brake so your car doesn't skid. Don't pump your brakes".

This is slashdot, so I need to reference either Orwell or Rand:
Or are they trying to reduce English to a smaller set of simple words that everybody can understand? Double-plus ungood.