Independent Human Interface Guidelines

An anonymous reader alerts us to the IndieHIG Wiki, which is an independent effort to pick up the ball that Apple has dropped on human interface guidelines (can you spell FTFF?). From the wiki: "The IndieHIG project is an initiative created out of the necessity to document the new look and feel aspects of the Mac OS X experience, outside of the supervision of Apple itself. The project is not intended to replace, but rather to supplement the somewhat dated Apple Human Interface Guidelines (HIG). There are many instances of Apple using new and experimental interface styles, spurring developers to emulate these styles in their own applications. Unfortunately, because Apple provides neither guidelines nor code for developers to work with, the implementation of these interface styles and features by third parties can be lopsided and directionless. The IndieHIG intends to change this by providing a comprehensive set of guidelines governing the use and appearance of new, undocumented interface elements so that their implementation by third party developers adheres to the unwritten standards that Apple has set."

Comments

Re:Dumb mistake, Apple

[RustNeverSleeps]

No, actually this behavior is not new to the latest version of iPhoto and it is specifically covered in Apples (now dated) Human Interface Guidelines. Quoting from the HIG:

"In most cases, applications that are not document-based should quit when the main window is closed. For Example, System Preferences quits if the user closes the window. If an application continues to perform some function when the main window is closed, however, it may be appropriate to leave it running when the main window is closed. For example, iTunes continues to play when the user closes the main window." As iPhoto is not document based nor does it do anything with the main window closed, it should (and does) quit when you close the main window. That said, I agree that there are some inconsistencies that Apple should fix in OS X and Apple first-party applications, just that the example you gave is not one of them.

Re:Microsoft's User Interface Guidelines

[AaronBrethorst]

You mean these guidelines?. They pretty easy to find; searching for "Vista Ux Guidelines" will do the trick for you.