Shutdown III
November 29th, 2006
Shutting down your computer, part III:
Interestingly, the process to design this same feature in Mac OS X was very different, which probably accounts for the different result as well.
For the record, the Apple approach to shutting your computer is at least somewhat superior to that in Windows: there aren’t quite as many options, and those that are presented have the virtue of serving distinct functions. What’s interesting isn’t so much what the choices are, but how they got to be that way and what that process says about the way the two companies make decisions.
[See here and here for context.]
[Via dan sandler]
December 3rd, 2006 at 10:51 pm
I find this interesting, in this mix of I-am-absolutely-right opinions: “And how about Shut Down? Shouldn’t the power button that you used to turn the computer on be the same key you press to turn it off?”
I can’t say how many people, over the years, I’ve heard complain, loudly, vociferously, and at tremendous length (as well as with I-am-absolutely-right certitude) about how illogical, and absolutely nonsensically so, they thought it was to make the place to find “turn on” labeled as “turn off.” I can’t say how many, but it’s been an awful lot of people. To quite a few people, in my experience, it seems the most illogical thing ever.
And, actually, I’ve never ever ever, until reading this piece, heard or read anyone arguing the reverse, though I’m certainly sure there are a fair number of such people.
So I’m a touch doubtful of the Absolute Certainty this guy displays in his own judgement that his personal preferences should rule.
(The other interface complaint I’ve heard hundreds of times, and sometimes from people literally screaming, they were so angry and emphatic, was the choice of Apple (for many years of OS, anyway; dunno about in recent years) to make the “place” that one put disks to simply eject them was the “trash.” If I had a penny for every first-time user I’ve seen nearly faint at the idea that someone was trashing (obviously an erasure, right?) their entire disk of so-many-hours of work, before it was explained to them that “trash” means “erase/destroy” — except here, for no apparent reason, beyond wanting to scare the shit out of people — it didn’t, I’d [fill in your favorite cliche].)
So while I, too, roll my eyes at having 8 choices as to ways of do things, I’m not entirely impressed by certitude that there’s One Best Way For Everyone (which just happens to be clear to a particular designer, but not to stupider people); this doesn’t reflect reality as I know it.
December 5th, 2006 at 12:54 am
Taking the Eject Disk Volume thing first: as someone who only switched to using a Mac full-time some three or so years ago now I used my iMac for months before I even realised the drag-to-trash option still existed under OS X. Having been using a two-button trackball ever since I was using Windows, I just plugged it into my iMac and used the (right-click, or Command-Click if your pointing device has only the one button) context menu to select the Eject option for the volume I wanted rid of. I fully agree that it seems strange to eject a volume by dragging it to the Trash can, but then you could also argue that using the term ‘Eject’ doesn’t make sense when in practice most of the volumes I open aren’t on physical drives at all, but are simply disk image files, stored as a single file on my hard disk as a convenient way to package an application and its associated Readme files and so on. ‘Close volume’ or ‘Put away’ would work just as well for that type of disk image. (Incidentally, I think the concept of the mountable disk image file is a very handy feature: much nicer than unzipping files into a temporary directory then leaving you to tidy up after you’ve installed your program/data files.)
I like the idea of having a single on/off switch, as long as there’s a visual indication of the system’s current status: I’d prefer a rocker switch or a slider to a button that turns the system on the first time you press it and off the next time. It’s true that a power light in or next to the power switch can communicate the system’s status, but I like a tactile indication of the system’s status, which would give me one more opportunity to think again before applying pressure and changing said status.
On the wider issue, I suppose that one of the traits of a good designer is knowing when you need to stop mollycoddling users by giving them what they think they want and show them a Better Way. Of course, this implies illuminating that particular path well enough that users don’t wander off and get lost, which isn’t always easy when 90% of people who use personal computers have only ever used various versions of Windows and a fair percentage of them get nervous when asked to use a word processor that isn’t Microsoft Word or a spreadsheet that isn’t Excel.