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Scrollbars are becoming a problem

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Re: Scrollbars are becoming a problem

#281

Post by supportengineer »

MenhirMike wrote: post #193
marcus_holmes wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am coming to the opinion that Windows XP was the maximum usable interface, and we should have stopped there [0]. But then, I might just be old and telling the kids to get off my lawn. [0] this is definitely true for Windows. All subsequent versions of Windows have had worse UX.

Windows 2000 was the last truly great Windows for me. It was the last Windows version that had a working "Find in File Contents" feature without having to install grepwin.

After a few small tweaks, Windows 7 Professional was a cat. Purring in my lap cause it loves me.

Re: Scrollbars are becoming a problem

#282

Post by worik »

tom_ wrote: post #129
amanzi wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

First time hearing the term a11y for me too. I hope to never come across it again.

I claim your time would be better spent figuring out why it makes you unhappy and working out how to not mind it - this is a somewhat common means of abbreviation, and you'll probably encounter it again.

I have not seen it in the thirty five years since I learnt what FAQ meant

Re: Scrollbars are becoming a problem

#283

Post by TerrifiedMouse »

pseudalopex wrote: post #223
TerrifiedMouse wrote: post #207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Win95 default was peak Windows UI for me. It had proper shading so you can see the window edges. Min/max/close buttons were high contrast and easy to see, and were big enough to easily click. Window titles were high contrast and clear. The UI was light and snappy unlike XP’s.

What was worse in Windows 98? Or Windows 2000?

> What was worse in Windows 98? Or Windows 2000?

Nothing. Those are just touch ups of the Win95 UI. Smoother color gradients from using more colors and smoother animation.

XP was the next big change. Never liked it. Felt like I was dragging around bitmaps. It’s “heavily” for no reason - no usability improvement nor does it even look that good.

Edit: Oh right I forgot about Active Desktop and MS’s attempt to turn Windows Explorer into Internet Explorer. Not a fan of it but at least it didn’t impair usability that much. Visually it still use the same “language”.

Re: Scrollbars are becoming a problem

#284

Post by imp0cat »

rubyfan wrote: post #8
LapsangGuzzler wrote: post #3

Whenever I read a piece like this or another UX blog, it just becomes so obvious how little we care about a11y. “Good” (as in accessible) design is pretty boring and decluttered compared to most modern expectations of web apps. I read Adam Silver’s book on forms and came away realizing that we’re doing it entirely wrong from an a11y standpoint but that’s just not a priority.

I find it ironic that in order for your comment to be accessible the reader must lookup “a11y” to find that it means “accessibility”.

And educate himself just a tiny little bit? ;)

Then in his next web project, he just might use https://github.com/pa11y/pa11y and make the world a better place!

Re: Scrollbars are becoming a problem

#286

Post by codetrotter »

worik wrote: post #269
MenhirMike wrote: post #193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Windows 2000 was the last truly great Windows for me. It was the last Windows version that had a working "Find in File Contents" feature without having to install grepwin.

Windows 3.1 for me

Well. Someone had to say it :p

Re: Scrollbars are becoming a problem

#287

Post by JohnFen »

nine_k wrote: post #59

The author sees half the problem and offers the worse half of a solution. A scrollbar is not only a control, it's also an indicator . It shows where your viewport is relative to the bigger view, e.g. a long list. Hiding scrollbars, like some [redacted] GUIs like macOS do, is just acutely impolite, much like making buttons indistinguishable from text, or putting light grey text on a light grey background. A solution e…

> scroll wheels on a mouse

But that breaks down if you have to scroll a very long way.

Re: Scrollbars are becoming a problem

#288

Post by bentcorner »

bsder wrote: post #261
codalan wrote: post #135

It's not just scrollbars. It's the elimination of window borders. Aside from not being able to differentiate one window from another similarly colored window in the background, it's nearly impossible to click and hold on anything along the edge to resize the window. It's the overloading of the title bar with so much shit like search boxes and extraneous buttons that a user has almost no place to grip to move the wind…

I'm surprised that nobody has mentioned the bane that is "progressive scrolling". "No, we won't actually load the text at the bottom of the scollbar until you scroll down to it--and we'll only load it in a dribble." @#$%^&*()_+!

I recall a site that had progressive scrolling and some content in a footer I was trying to get to...

Re: Scrollbars are becoming a problem

#289

Post by gnyman »

jchw wrote: post #180
marcus_holmes wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am coming to the opinion that Windows XP was the maximum usable interface, and we should have stopped there [0]. But then, I might just be old and telling the kids to get off my lawn. [0] this is definitely true for Windows. All subsequent versions of Windows have had worse UX.

I absolutely agree. For at least 10 years now, my dream has been to essentially recreate the Windows 2000/XP UX as a Linux desktop environment. That said, doing so would basically require creating everything from the ground up, because merely theming some existing toolkit and window manager to look like XP is not at all the point. And frankly, there HAVE been SOME useful UI/UX improvements in the past couple decades,…

Have you looked at Q4OS with the windows theme pack? https://q4os.org/ and https://xpq4.sourceforge.io/

It's does not seem well known but it looks and works very closely to old Windows.

I have a side project plan to take this, combine it with a decent laptop, pre install libreoffice and a browser and sell it as "Stable OS" with a long term "no-change" policy to anyone who just needs a basic computer where not everything changes at the whim of someone looking for a item on their resume.

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