UI consistency
I often wonder if I’m super sensitive to issues in user interface, or if everyone notices the same things that I do.
For example, when I find things that are inconsistent in user interfaces it really bugs me. I’m sitting in front of a beautiful Apple cinema display attached to a laptop, all made by a company that clearly cares a lot about user interface. BUT, when I want to maximize something that’s iconized, I have to remember the command to do it on an application-by-application basis. Yes, I could reach for the mouse, but I don’t want to reach for the mouse.
If I want to get my iTunes window up, I can Apple-TAB to get to iTunes, and then to get the window up from the dock I have to Apple-Option-1. If I’m tabbing over to Terminal, I have to use Apple-1. If it’s iCal, there is no key combination to maximize the window. Duh.
Nokia care about user interface too. Yet on my cheap 6070 model, no doubt with a stock version of Series 60, when I go to delete things from the messaging area, the buttons I have to press depend on the type of thing I’m deleting. If it’s a text message, I click Left (Options), Select (Delete is the first option), and then Left (Yes, I want to delete). It’s the same for the Sent Items. It I try to delete a template, I have to click Left, Down, Select, Left. If it’s a sent email message, I have to click Left, Select, Select. There are various other items in there, and I bet they have differing delete sequences too.
Those would be such simple things to make more consistent, you would think. I find stuff like that in user interfaces all the time, and I always wonder why these companies with huge budgets don’t have someone who can see these things take a look at their products for what seem like glaring inconsistencies.
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