At the office, I'm pretty much forced to use MsOffice. (I use LaTeX when I can get away with it.) And I can tell you that the choice of things they put in the Word Ribbon is not even close to what I want/ use. Outlook is more reasonable, except for the lack of certain things that don't really have to do with ribbon vs. menu. I seldom use Excel, and have to google things when I do. Powerpoint...it results in such ugly looking presentations that I avoid it when possible. And I never use any of the other MS apps.
But I digress. I find the choice of default icons on Word's ribbon to be a head scratcher. What on Earth is the "Mailings" tab for? Is that like mail merge? How 1980s...
I think there is one good use for geothermal in most areas, namely heating and cooling homes (and possibly larger buildings). In most of the continental US, the temperature ten or twenty feet underground is a somewhat steady ~50 degrees F (ten C). That means that in the summer, when you need to cool the house, the ground is plenty cool, and a heat pump can transfer that heat; and in the winter, the ground is warmer than the air (for places that go around freezing or below), and again a heat pump can transfer that heat.
There are of course restrictions. IIRC, the ground has to be somewhat wet, meaning it doesn't work in Phoenix. (Dry ground doesn't transfer heat well.) And you need a large enough area of ground to run the coils in--you can't use a fan like you can if your heat pump is exchanging heat with the ambient air. And the payback is not that quick. Might also be problematic if you're in an earthquake-prone area, I'm not sure.
That problem was solved (in theory, I don't guess it was put into practice) back in the 30s (as in 1930s). Pay one crew to dig holes, and pay another crew to fill them in. Presto, full employment.
Umm...I was on a *ship* for three years, and we had a few portholes... But yes, I do vaguely recall portholes on cars.
Oh wait, that's not what I thought they were (although at least as egregious, and I bet they were rust magnets). I thought I remembered small round windows on cars.
Thanks, I see what you mean. I do have to say, though, that I find nearly as much to dislike about some of the suggested replacements (and I realize that the article was years ago, and one person's opinion). The awful handwritten-like font in one, the use of hard-to-read white text on a colored background, the gradient color backgrounds; it all reeks of artists making something pretty rather than human factors people designing something to be easily used. And I think that's the gist of many of the other comments here. But agreed, the skeuomorphic examples on that page are pretty awful.
I want to amen this: "The currently focused app is not sufficiently highlighted." This abomination started with MsOffice 2010 or so.
For the record, Winaero Tweaker (http://winaero.com/comment.php?comment.news.1836) helps you fix this. It isn't perfect, and there may be apps that resist it, but it can go a long ways towards improving this problem (and a few others).
I think the moral of your story is, use text, not icons. I suppose there are exceptions to that, but it's hard for me to think of any. You can alphabetize text items, you can't alphabetize icons. (You can group icons by type, but you can do that for text labels, too.) You can read text, you can't read icons. Text is relatively ambiguous (not entirely, of course, but compared to icons it's much less ambiguous).
Here's the metaphor you're looking for (I'm sure). 3d icons are like having Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones. Flat icons are like having Lego blocks as Indiana Jones.
But Adobe changes the entire interface between generations. The newest Acrobat has the worst interface I've ever seen, it's even worse than MsOffice. Figuring out how to do something, or even figuring out how to remove some toolset that you don't want, is really hard.
Can you point to some pictures of "absurd skeuomorphism"? I don't recall anything like that--that's not to say it didn't exist, but my memory (such as it is) is that what skeuomorphism there was was actually quite helpful.
And some aspects of older (WinXP, say) UIs that made them easy to use had nothing to do with skeuomorphism. Take title bars that change colors depending on whether the app has focus. There's nothing skeuomorphic about that, but it sure was helpful. Contrast Win10 (by default), or MsOffice; several times a day I start typing (or worse, hit the delete key) because I think Outlook has focus, and it turns out I've typed into some other app (or deleted something elsewhere).
Or take visible boundaries on apps; the human eye is much better at detecting contrasty boundaries (like black lines). When the boundary is just a color, the boundary starts to fade or shimmer, and I've had trouble distinguishing where to click when I have overlapping windows and can't figure out where the boundary is at a quick glance. Again, nothing skeuomorphic about having visible boundaries--real world objects don't. But very helpful on a computer screen.
Hire an old guy who has to wear glasses to read text, and who complains if text isn't black on a white background. Like me.
Ok, I don't need a new job now, but I can at least appreciate the need to make applications usable for those over the age of 25. And even better, who have lived through enough changes to distinguish fads from good new ideas. (And if they're really old, they'll know what tail fins on cars are. But more and more people that age are retired.)
No, the Ribbon already was the first level of Hell. Succeeding improvements simply went to deeper layers of Hell. I guy named Dante once pointed this sort of thing out.
BTW, before someone tells me how wonderful the Ribbon is, and how I just ought to get with the times; I have no objection to there being a Ribbon. I just object to being forced to use it instead of menus (forced on the assumption that I have to use MsOffice products, which I do at work). Give me a choice between the Ribbon and menus, and I'll immediately stop complaining.
Nyet, Boris and Natasha are busy tryink to make all traffik lights in US turn green at same time. They read about this in American science fiction story, http://www.gutenberg.org/files....
"Can we get a new layout for the RIBBON": Here's a suggestion for an improved ribbon. First, assign text labels to each icon, so the user doesn't have to guess what they mean. Then allow the user to hide the icons, so only the text labels appear. And underline a character in each label, so you can get to a menu choice by typing keys, if you prefer that over using the mouse. Finally, place the text labels in vertical stacks at each level of the hierarchy, and when there's a further choice to be made at any given level of the hierarchy, let a new stack of text labels start to the right of the current one (or to the left, if there isn't room to the right). Oh, and instead of having the "Backstage" page, which users find confusing, put that functionality into a set of text labels like other commands; maybe call the top-most label in this new set "File".
I'll put a word in for Winaero Tweaker, which at least makes it possible to make the title bar change colors depending on whether that window has keyboard focus. (Although I don't know whether it works with MsOffice 2010+, where it was impossible to tell by looking whether it had focus even under Windows7. The reason I don't know is that I hate MsOffice's Ribbon, so I have LibreOffice installed instead.)
The way I would describe the diff between Win7 and Win10 (I've never owned a computer with Win8) is that if my computer were Indiana Jones, Win7 would have Harrison Ford and a bunch of other good actors, while Win10 would have Legos characters.
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At the office, I'm pretty much forced to use MsOffice. (I use LaTeX when I can get away with it.) And I can tell you that the choice of things they put in the Word Ribbon is not even close to what I want/ use. Outlook is more reasonable, except for the lack of certain things that don't really have to do with ribbon vs. menu. I seldom use Excel, and have to google things when I do. Powerpoint...it results in such ugly looking presentations that I avoid it when possible. And I never use any of the other MS apps.
But I digress. I find the choice of default icons on Word's ribbon to be a head scratcher. What on Earth is the "Mailings" tab for? Is that like mail merge? How 1980s...
I can get used to getting old, too. That doesn't mean I have to like it.
Correct; smart people use LaTeX.
(Disclaimer: I use LaTeX whenever I can.)
I think there is one good use for geothermal in most areas, namely heating and cooling homes (and possibly larger buildings). In most of the continental US, the temperature ten or twenty feet underground is a somewhat steady ~50 degrees F (ten C). That means that in the summer, when you need to cool the house, the ground is plenty cool, and a heat pump can transfer that heat; and in the winter, the ground is warmer than the air (for places that go around freezing or below), and again a heat pump can transfer that heat.
There are of course restrictions. IIRC, the ground has to be somewhat wet, meaning it doesn't work in Phoenix. (Dry ground doesn't transfer heat well.) And you need a large enough area of ground to run the coils in--you can't use a fan like you can if your heat pump is exchanging heat with the ambient air. And the payback is not that quick. Might also be problematic if you're in an earthquake-prone area, I'm not sure.
That problem was solved (in theory, I don't guess it was put into practice) back in the 30s (as in 1930s). Pay one crew to dig holes, and pay another crew to fill them in. Presto, full employment.
Umm...I was on a *ship* for three years, and we had a few portholes... But yes, I do vaguely recall portholes on cars.
Oh wait, that's not what I thought they were (although at least as egregious, and I bet they were rust magnets). I thought I remembered small round windows on cars.
So you got me...
Thanks, I see what you mean. I do have to say, though, that I find nearly as much to dislike about some of the suggested replacements (and I realize that the article was years ago, and one person's opinion). The awful handwritten-like font in one, the use of hard-to-read white text on a colored background, the gradient color backgrounds; it all reeks of artists making something pretty rather than human factors people designing something to be easily used. And I think that's the gist of many of the other comments here. But agreed, the skeuomorphic examples on that page are pretty awful.
I want to amen this: "The currently focused app is not sufficiently highlighted." This abomination started with MsOffice 2010 or so.
For the record, Winaero Tweaker (http://winaero.com/comment.php?comment.news.1836) helps you fix this. It isn't perfect, and there may be apps that resist it, but it can go a long ways towards improving this problem (and a few others).
I think the moral of your story is, use text, not icons. I suppose there are exceptions to that, but it's hard for me to think of any. You can alphabetize text items, you can't alphabetize icons. (You can group icons by type, but you can do that for text labels, too.) You can read text, you can't read icons. Text is relatively ambiguous (not entirely, of course, but compared to icons it's much less ambiguous).
Here's the metaphor you're looking for (I'm sure). 3d icons are like having Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones. Flat icons are like having Lego blocks as Indiana Jones.
But Adobe changes the entire interface between generations. The newest Acrobat has the worst interface I've ever seen, it's even worse than MsOffice. Figuring out how to do something, or even figuring out how to remove some toolset that you don't want, is really hard.
Can you point to some pictures of "absurd skeuomorphism"? I don't recall anything like that--that's not to say it didn't exist, but my memory (such as it is) is that what skeuomorphism there was was actually quite helpful.
And some aspects of older (WinXP, say) UIs that made them easy to use had nothing to do with skeuomorphism. Take title bars that change colors depending on whether the app has focus. There's nothing skeuomorphic about that, but it sure was helpful. Contrast Win10 (by default), or MsOffice; several times a day I start typing (or worse, hit the delete key) because I think Outlook has focus, and it turns out I've typed into some other app (or deleted something elsewhere).
Or take visible boundaries on apps; the human eye is much better at detecting contrasty boundaries (like black lines). When the boundary is just a color, the boundary starts to fade or shimmer, and I've had trouble distinguishing where to click when I have overlapping windows and can't figure out where the boundary is at a quick glance. Again, nothing skeuomorphic about having visible boundaries--real world objects don't. But very helpful on a computer screen.
Hear hear! and see my screed a couple posts up from yours.
Hire an old guy who has to wear glasses to read text, and who complains if text isn't black on a white background. Like me.
Ok, I don't need a new job now, but I can at least appreciate the need to make applications usable for those over the age of 25. And even better, who have lived through enough changes to distinguish fads from good new ideas. (And if they're really old, they'll know what tail fins on cars are. But more and more people that age are retired.)
or likewise, assume that I know what some icon is without having to mouse over it and read the text
No, the Ribbon already was the first level of Hell. Succeeding improvements simply went to deeper layers of Hell. I guy named Dante once pointed this sort of thing out.
BTW, before someone tells me how wonderful the Ribbon is, and how I just ought to get with the times; I have no objection to there being a Ribbon. I just object to being forced to use it instead of menus (forced on the assumption that I have to use MsOffice products, which I do at work). Give me a choice between the Ribbon and menus, and I'll immediately stop complaining.
Nyet, Boris and Natasha are busy tryink to make all traffik lights in US turn green at same time. They read about this in American science fiction story, http://www.gutenberg.org/files....
Boris, that you?
Eh, no talk stink. Those animals gave their lives for this.
Perhaps they should call it H+. You know, Health plus...
You forgot the tail fins. Oh wait, GM actually did that...
"Can we get a new layout for the RIBBON": Here's a suggestion for an improved ribbon. First, assign text labels to each icon, so the user doesn't have to guess what they mean. Then allow the user to hide the icons, so only the text labels appear. And underline a character in each label, so you can get to a menu choice by typing keys, if you prefer that over using the mouse. Finally, place the text labels in vertical stacks at each level of the hierarchy, and when there's a further choice to be made at any given level of the hierarchy, let a new stack of text labels start to the right of the current one (or to the left, if there isn't room to the right). Oh, and instead of having the "Backstage" page, which users find confusing, put that functionality into a set of text labels like other commands; maybe call the top-most label in this new set "File".
Here's why it's better:
----
----
What's the matter with you, don't you want tail fins on your car?
Amen, preach it!
I'll put a word in for Winaero Tweaker, which at least makes it possible to make the title bar change colors depending on whether that window has keyboard focus. (Although I don't know whether it works with MsOffice 2010+, where it was impossible to tell by looking whether it had focus even under Windows7. The reason I don't know is that I hate MsOffice's Ribbon, so I have LibreOffice installed instead.)
The way I would describe the diff between Win7 and Win10 (I've never owned a computer with Win8) is that if my computer were Indiana Jones, Win7 would have Harrison Ford and a bunch of other good actors, while Win10 would have Legos characters.