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Microsoft Ignores Usability With All-Caps Menu in Visual Studio

Posted by timothy on from the this-glass-house-sure-is-pretty dept.

mikejuk writes "The recent release of Visual Studio 2012 contained a UI element that few believed could make it into the final version — ALL-CAPS menus. After lots of user criticism and disbelief, Microsoft has moved swiftly to do something about it — by tweaking the typography. '... we explored designs with and without uppercase styling. In the end we determined it to be a very effective way of providing structure and emphasis to the top menu area in Visual Studio 2012.' This must be a new meaning of the word 'structure,' because putting the menu items into all-caps means that they are all the same height. When each menu items starts with a cap then there is structure because you can see the change in height, marking the start of the next menu item. The idea that putting a menu into all caps adds structure is something that is very difficult to see. If you wanted to put structure into a menu, well how about color? Oh wait, I forgot the design department dumped color in favour of the 'everything-is-grey UI.' Developers are the people who invented CamelCase to make sure that the structure of run together words would stand out better — and now we are asked to believe that making a menu all-caps adds structure. I don't think so."

2 of 415 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Iâ(TM)m horrified. by Shinaku · · Score: 1, Troll

    Last nail in the coffin of one of the most used development environments in the world?

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  2. Re:Relearning... by Beardo+the+Bearded · · Score: 0, Troll

    I DO MILITARY DRAFTING SO CAPS LOCK IS ON ALL THE TIME.

    WELCOME TO MY WORLD BITCHES

    Oh, due to the Slashdot filter assuming ALL CAPS is offensive, I have to fill the next three lines with cursing.
    Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck

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    ECHELON is a government program to find words like bomb, jihad, plutonium, assassinate, and anarchy.