Universal GUI

[Chipp Walters]

I understand progressive discovery. I find in most instances it creates
problems. I'd much rather see a menu item disabled and still holding a
place, then removed completely from a menu. Microsoft is terrible with this
with "Menus show recently used commands first." I hate it, and disable this
feature each time I install Office2000 or Outlook.

Dan, can you give an example where "progressive discovery" works well?

-Chipp

> -----Original Message-----
> From: use-revolution-admin at lists.runrev.com
> [mailto:use-revolution-admin at lists.runrev.com]On Behalf Of Dan Shafer
> Sent: Monday, July 28, 2003 11:25 AM
> To: use-revolution at lists.runrev.com
> Subject: Re: Universal GUI
>
>
>
> On Monday, July 28, 2003, at 12:57 AM, Scott Rossi asked:
>
> > Does this mean that any time you've encountered a preference group in
> > an
> > application or the system that contains disabled checkboxes, you stop
> > using
> > the program/system immediately and trash it?
> >
> > I wonder how you get along without QuickTime (System
> > Preferences/QuickTime/Connection tab), non US keyboard layouts (System
> > Preferences/International/Input Menu Tab), the Mouse control panel
> > (with a
> > trackpad), or a modem (System Preferences/Network/Modem tab)?
> >
> Short answer: I had never looked at any of those settings until you
> pointed them out.
>
> Short reaction: No, I probably don't absolutely and immediately stop
> using the program/system. If there are alternatives, I might. If
> there's a program I must have and it does this kind of thing, I
> probably learn to tolerate it but I am an unhappy user.
>
> Alternative design: Apple's designers should not disable the checkbox;
> rather they should hide the option until and unless the user makes a
> selection from the popup menu that should enable the user to change the
> checkbox setting. Then and only then the checkbox should appear. This
> is part of another key UI design concept: progressive discovery. Only
> show the user as much of the UI as is needed to accomplish the
> immediate objective. Several Claris products 15 years ago, for which
> the UI was designed by one world-class designer, demonstrated this
> brilliantly. Why should I even have to look at the checkbox and have it
> clutter my use of the program if it's not relevant to my current
> situation? No value. No reason for it to be there.
>
> I'm a real minimalist when it comes to UI design anyway. Every single
> component of the UI ought to serve some practical purpose. If it
> doesn't, banish it.
>
>
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