Star Windows 7: The 'Why' of Windows 7's New Interface
Linked by Thom Holwerda on Fri 31st Oct 2008 14:47 UTC
Windows Yes, we're still on the subject of Windows 7's user interface overhaul. We know what's going to change, we know what it looks like, but there's one important question that has not really been given much stage time: why? At PDC, one session was dedicated to just that question. Speaking is Chaitanya Sareen [.wmv], part of the windows user interface team. He'll place the changes in Windows 7 into context, talk about Windows' user interface history, and he'll explain why certain changes were made. An interesting insight into the goals of the Windows 7 interface.
E-mail Print r 1   21 Comment(s) http://osne.ws/fsi
Thread beginning with comment 336125
To view parent comment, click here.
To read all comments associated with this story, please click here.
sorpigal
Member since:
2005-11-02

And this is where you are wrong! Vista does a lot things different then XP not for the sake of making things different. Like it or not, there is a concept behind removing things like the "One folder up"-Button. Just click on any part of the path in the bread-crumb-thingie and you jump to any folder above in the tree. Getting two fodlers up now takes one click instead of two = improvement.


This is one of those 'improvements' that I don't like. Yes, it *can* be better and I generally approve of this feature. But... removing the "up one" button is *still* bad. If you have a long path and want to go up to a folder *just left* of the leftmost displayed it takes much longer than moving your mouse pointer once and rapidly clicking one button.

I like the vista 'breadcrumbs' navigation stlye. I liked it when people proposed it for GTK's file chooser dialog in 2005, I think MS implemented it just right. I think it's the one thing in vista they got exactly right. I think they were fools to remove the up one folder button.

This is what I *hate* about UI improvement wonks. Just because they've decided doing something else is 'better' for everyone they want to *force* me to do it. They do not realize that they are not all-knowing. This is like Nautilus spatial mode all over again. The message was: We know how you should be working, so we wont give you an option of doing what you want. Our way is better, just conform to our expectations!

Reply Parent Bookmark Score: 2