 | By Woody Leonhard Windows guru Long Zheng has undertaken an important project that may bring some consistency to the user interface in the next version of Windows. You can contribute by voting on the most egregious problems in the current Windows user interface in hopes that Windows 7 shows some improvements. Maybe. |
Vista’s got the look we don’t like
If you think Windows Vista has a reasonably good — or at least consistent — user interface, you haven’t been looking hard enough.
In my books on Vista, I jump through many hoops trying to explain how similarly worded options in different parts of Windows evoke very different results. I also have to explain how features readily accessible in one corner of Windows sit in obscurely identified locations elsewhere.
Every version of Windows has had consistency problems and design mistakes. Unfortunately, many of the sins of the fathers have been visited upon the Vista son.
Take the Add Fonts dialog, for example. It’s hellaciously difficult to use — and it hasn’t changed one iota in the past four versions of Windows. Also, the Safely Remove Hardware dialog must’ve been designed by a programmer with a graduate degree in obfuscation. While Windows stores lots of information that can be useful in identifying which “device” needs to be shut down, none of the details appear in this dialog.
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