Windows 95 UI Design

Post by userbinator » Fri, Dec 27, 2019, 10:38 PM UTC

aspenmayer wrote: post #76

jplayer01 wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The most annoying thing about Windows 10 is how it makes clear improvements in some areas, but then decides to be utterly brain dead in other areas. The task manager is hugely improved. The file explorer is better. The copy/move file dialog is far more useful. But then they abandon the Control Panel and give us this flat UI abomination that doesn’t even support one of the original ideas that made Windows 95 such a hi…

I share so your frustration with Windows 10. It’s reaching iOS levels of lack of discoverability of features. I wrote to tell you that Control Panel itself still exists. You can get to it from using the hidden search in Start Menu. Open Start and begin typing Control Panel and it will show up eventually. Or you can right-click on Start button and select it. Or even type “control panel” in command prompt or powershell…

Post by perl4ever » Fri, Dec 27, 2019, 11:32 PM UTC

vsareto wrote: post #215

perl4ever wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This made me think, how long did it take for cars to acquire basically their modern standard interface, and have personal computers been around that long? Apparently, the Austin 7 popularized what are now standard controls for cars in 1922 (although it wasn't the very first example), and the IC auto was patented in 1886, which means it was about 36 years before people mostly settled on one interface. By comparison, m…

It's funny you mention cars, because there's definitely a new trend towards touch screens, and it happened fairly recently.

Post by dang » Sat, Dec 28, 2019, 5:46 AM UTC

chadlavi wrote: post #295

RodgerTheGreat wrote: post #4

A generation was raised on usable designs which clearly communicated interactability with a consistent visual language. It is only natural that they would come to think of computers as inherently ordered, understandable devices. Machines had always been this way. It was obvious to this new generation that the affordances of youth were purely redundant. Clutter. Overhead. Junk! Widget by widget, pixel by pixel, bevels…

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Post by oneeyedpigeon » Sat, Dec 28, 2019, 12:56 PM UTC

Wowfunhappy wrote: post #264

oneeyedpigeon wrote: post #263

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It hurts usability in several ways. For example, you can’t click on an iOS scrollbar to jump to a specific part of the document. Nor can you use it as an instant reference to determine how long the document is.

> For example, you can’t click on an iOS scrollbar to jump to a specific part of the document. How would you propose doing that on a 3.5" screen without a mouse or stylus? > Nor can you use it as an instant reference to determine how long the document is. You scroll the screen a tiny bit and the scrollbar pops up. Again, keep the size of the screen in mind—making the scrollbar persistent would be a poor use of space.

Post by 333c » Sat, Dec 28, 2019, 5:00 PM UTC

mikehollinger wrote: post #235

ordinaryperson wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Compounding this frustration (on iOS at least) is stuff like "force touch" and hidden toolbars. Depending on how hard you press a button you might get a totally different UI interaction. Are others good at knowing exactly how many newtons of force it takes to follow a hyperlink instead of triggering this horrid mini-preview window? Maybe that's why Jonny Ive made millions of dollars while I work like a stiff for a li…

> Want to open a new tab in mobile Safari while on a webpage? Oh I must tap the invisible button bar at the bottom. So obvious. ... I didn’t know there’s a button bar there until just now, and I tend to think that I know what I’m doing. I’ve always scrolled all the way back to the top of the page to get to that bar. I genuinely wonder what else I’ve missed now.