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I see. You mean "spatial" in the limited, Mac-centric "spatial memory" sense.

Well, I am glad that Thom's article on spatial memory was mercifully shorter than the John Siracusa article (on a subject that can probably be covered in a few sentences). However, I disagree with Siracusa's point that path models are slower and less efficient than spatial models, but that contention is grounds for a whole other discussion.

Spatial memory comes under the broader usability topic of conditioning, and both topics are integral to most design and art disciplines (industrial design, interior design, graphics design, photographic design, gui design, etc). Conditioning also applies to many activities and processes and to certain non-spatial mental models (such as command-line command-option-argument protocol). It doesn't take a genius to realize that keeping things in their expected place, time and order can make a task more speedy and efficient.

I think you will find that many Linux WMs/Desktops do a good job of maintaining spatial conditions (and smart placement), and the same probably applies to most Windows versions.

I haven't noticed anything "spatially special" in OSX. Perhaps you could be a little more specific on what you mean by objects and modes, because, as I mentioned in an earlier post, I can't discern the models you describe, and I use all three OSs.

Edited 2007-11-19 06:20

That is usually what one means in this kind of discussion, since Apple did a boatload of research on it back in the day



It goes further then that. There is a finder feature from at least OS7 that is when you hold command and click on the folder title, a dropdown list of all the folders in the path shows up. It was kind of obscure, and only really useful in specific circumstances. In OSX, a little while ago I wanted to add the current folder I was in to the places sidebar. Just to see if it would work, I tried holding command and clicking the title, then dragging that to the places bar. It worked. By contrast, Vista explorer has GNOME-esque path buttons. The idea is a good one, and implementation is good to a point, but try and drag a group of files to one of the buttons. Or try and drag one of the buttons to the favorites bar, or anywhere else for that matter.

On the Mac, a handle for a folder is a handle for a folder no matter where it is, even in a relatively obscure and next to useless place. I can count on it. In windows, a handle to a folder could be many things depending on the context.

Another example would be dragging a folder to a taskbar icon. A third would be dragging a text selection to the desktop.

I am sure some or all of these are implemented somewhere in linux, but what i am trying to illustrate is that treating ui objects consistantly goes beyond window size and placement.



Maybe its just me, but virtually every serious application I use in windows (and linux) is designed to be run full screen. It may not launch full screen, you may be able to operate it at less then full screen, but at the end of the day, 99% of the time you are using the taskbar to switch between several maximized programs. For example, I often have Visual Studio, and Photoshop open at the same time. Due to the large amounts of pallets in both VS and PS, if you expect to get any work area at all you are going to run them full screen, using the taskbar to switch back and forth.