The Windows Client team explains the reasoning behind an important change in Vista's user interface. "One of the first things people notice when they start using Vista is the absence of menu bars. Explorer, photo gallery, media player, and IE all don't show menus by default and just use the so-called 'command module'. What is up with that? Do we hate menu bars? And more importantly - what is the guidance that third-party developers are supposed to follow? Let me break it down for you." And on a slightly related note: Mary Jo Foley has left MicrosoftWatch to start working at ZDNet.
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Member since:2005-06-29
I frankly don't care what "most users" (which really means "vocal users") say about UI for something.
There are actual metrics for analyzing the quality of a UI design. And there are HIG's to try and keep compatibility where it makes sense (which is more often than not)
But basically. The menu was this hackish idea someone came up with back in the day in order to map command line parameters and commands onto the graphical UI. And, I think that if you watch the workflow of experienced users in professional applications (ones people use in a money making scenario) you'll see the avoid the menus except for those occasional items.
So any ideas Microsft or Apple or anyone else comes up with to try and replace the menu (where possible) I'm all for. Throw this idea of obsessive consistency to the wind. There's no reflex to click file->save_as, so why are we worried it's consistent? Because users can't spend 10 minutes learning to use the application we spent 10 thousand hours writing? That's silly, let them learn. GUI should be powerful, not crippled by standards you can't code against.
Standards are for engineers, not users.
So, bravo Microsoft for trying something new in UI: It's been a long time coming from you.
Member since:2006-04-21
The problem for Microsoft is that users don't WANT changes. They want more of the same. That's why MS made it possible to run old, insecure apps in XP, despite the fact it was based on their secure NT kernel. They (the users) won't care that 99% of the apps that don't work in Vista, don't work because they're insecure; all they'll see is that in Vista, MS broke compatibility with DeathMatchOffice 99.
Plus, you go on about not caring what most users say about a UI, and then say that standards are for engineers. Inconsistency, anyone?
Member since:2005-07-06
Are dogmatic style guidelines really that much of an issue any more?
We live in the web age, where conventions are different from site to site. Somehow we manage to navigate. Somehow we can keep track of where we are, what we're doing, and where we're going. As long as pages within the same site or webapp are consistent, then we're ok.
There are a handful of common themes and patterns on the web, but for the most part, anything goes. Why do we not have a problem navigating web pages, but deviate from the application interface rule book by one pixel and the user base comes crashing down in flames?
I used Vista for about two weeks. The only thing that killed it for me was that I couldn't get my wireless card to work.
I didn't notice any real issues with the UI. This is an important point. I wasn't nitpicking to try and find inconsistencies, I was just using the system. And you know what? Stuff was more or less where I expected it to be. Things that I did notice were positives, like the Explorer breadcrumb thing.
Menus suck. They were created to avoid having those terrible Word Perfect keyboard template things. I am all for something better. I haven't had a chance to try Office 2007 yet.
Member since:
2006-04-21
Well, inconsistent UIs are one of the things Linux haters have been criticising Linux for for years, so yes, I'd say at least a proportion of Windows users DO expect and want a consistent interface.
Of course, if you were being snide, you could say that MS kindly solved the problem of inconsistent Linux interfaces by giving us them in Windows, too.