Linked by Thom Holwerda on Sun 4th Nov 2007 19:24 UTC
This is the third article in a series on common usability and graphical user interface related terms [part I | part II]. On the internet, and especially in forum discussions like we all have here on OSNews, it is almost certain that in any given discussion, someone will most likely bring up usability and GUI related terms - things like spatial memory, widgets, consistency, Fitts' Law, and more. The aim of this series is to explain these terms, learn something about their origins, and finally rate their importance in the field of usability and (graphical) user interface design. In part III today, we focus on the desk accessory, popularly known as the widget, applet, mini-app, gadget, or whatever the fashionable term is these days.
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Member since:
2005-11-11
Ah DOS TSRs. There's at least one I still use today, to take screenshots of the game Privateer (running in DOSbox) as part of an ongoing effort to clone it. Amazing the hoops we jumped through.
I'm still not sure what I think of Dashboard and the like. Is the Dashboard calculator really more convenient than hitting the calculator key on my keyboard and having a regular (tiny) windowed app appear, one that I can switch to and from with the window manager's normal methods?
[iI've always been partial to "Replicants" - but disappointed that no one ever wrote a complimentary program called "Decker" (which would be designed to kill replicants, of course).[/i]
It's have to be called Deckard, but yes, that does seem like an obvious name for such a program. [OT]I'm trying to decide whether I can make it to Denver in time for a screening of the Final Cut.[/OT]