Wired HC Article (Rod McCall)

[Rod McCall]

>
> know the commands, quirks and limitations. Programs are unfortunately 
> made by programmers, and they are seldom wise but most often rather 
> knowledgeable.

Well you'll be pleased to hear that not everyone here at Runtime is a 100% programmer. Alan the main designer of the UI now spends most of his time on UI related aspects of the product. Also my PhD (being handed in soon) and chapter (in a rather academic) book are both on usability - check my staff profile for more info on the usability side of me. Also as I've said elsewhere we do take UI stuff very seriously. 


> I think, as a cross platform application, RunRev has omitted from many 
> directions. Some are advantageous, for example its HyperCard roots. 
> Others are desastrous especially its way of thinking about the users as 
> a knower.
> 
> The most needed Features in Revolution for me would thus be:
> - an useful errormessage handling/generator (would make debugger 
> obsolete)
> - better automation of the scripter
> - simpler menu generator/assistant (would decrease list traffic)
> - improved UI (would increase revenue)
> - General uncluttering and simplifying
> - bug fixes (would decrease bad press)
> - better documentation (sad fact: its one of the best, ever!)

ok, all relevant points and are now being added to my UI/features list on my Palm Pilot. When we come to do the next major version I hope we can fulfill atleast some if not all of the things above.

For a more amusing look at usability try the Interface Hall of Shame below:

<http://www.iarchitect.com/mshame.htm>

I've not looked at it for a while but it was a source of many examples when I used to lecture on this subject. As yet I don't think we have a tabbed window with 30+ tabs, although we could add it if there was enough demand :-) 


cheers,

rod

-- 
Rod McCall <www.runrev.com>
Runtime Revolution Ltd
T: +44 (0) 870 747 1165
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