21 Aug
2004
21 Aug
'04
7:48 p.m.
On Saturday 21 August 2004 04:51 pm, Lee Revell wrote:
On Sat, 2004-08-21 at 16:36, John Check wrote:
That presumes we have a monopoly on inconsistency. ;)
Having a consistent interface will definitely work to our advantage, but
I'm talking about near term when I say things like that. Being as I'm not
going to be the one coding, I can't say "must" or "has to".
On Saturday 21 August 2004 04:24 pm, Lee Revell
wrote:
Sorry, I disagree. This kind of thing is MADDENING for users and makes
Linux look fly-by-night.
On Sat, 2004-08-21 at 16:14, John Check wrote:
I agree, but I think "should" is a more realistic position than "has
to". On Saturday 21 August 2004 02:10 pm, Pete Bessman
wrote:
> I guarantee you that the last thing on 99.8% of users' minds when
> they're adjusting a horizontal volume slider is "This is kind of
> like reading a book, which goes left to right and top to bottom;
> and if we assume an association between beginnings and ends, then
> it follows that left and up are vaguely synonymous. Therefore, to
> decrease the volume with my mousewheel, I MUST spin up."
Nope, they try one way, then the other, then make a mental note if it
doesn't fit the expectation.
Which is why is HAS to work the same way in every app. You can't
expect users to make mental notes of differences like this from app to
app. Of course, you can't force people to follow human
interface guidelines
in the free software world. All we can do is carefully develop them
based on what users want, then if you choose not to comply you are
explicitly stating that you are hubristically choosing to ignore the
users need for a consistent experience.
And in that case one gets what one deserves. From what I can see so far
WRT proprietary stuff, there are a lot of little annoyances that add up to a
lot of opportunity for LA.