Re: Some thoughts for the future

From: Richard Kelsch (rich_at_csst.net)
Date: 06/30/05

  • Next message: Richard Kelsch: "Re: FC4 good new tech, bad legacy support" 
    Date: Thu, 30 Jun 2005 13:14:03 -0700
To: For users of Fedora Core releases <fedora-list@redhat.com>

    Brian Mury wrote:

    >On Wed, 2005-06-29 at 18:12 -0700, Richard Kelsch wrote:
    >
    >
    >
    >>This may annoy the command line or simplicity die-hards out there, but
    >>eye candy is desirable in a GUI. Anyone saying to the contrary never
    >>enjoyed the movie "Hackers."
    >>
    >>
    >
    >Well, I've never seen that movie, but anyway... I disagree that eye
    >candy is desirable in a UI.
    >
    >Eye candy looks cool. I've had various pieces of eye candy on various
    >platforms over the years. I've eventually removed them all. My
    >experience is that what looks cool and what is usable is usually not the
    >same. Give me a nice clean UI without the candy, thanks. Eye candy might
    >make for cool screenshots to upload to some website, but if I'm going to
    >spend a significant amount of time using a machine, usability trumps
    >aesthetics every time.
    >
    >Function over form, ya know...
    >
    >
    >
    You can have function and form, and I think it should be something
    people can turn off or on. Good eye candy, implemented properly should
    not detract from functionality, and should, in fact, increase
    functionality as not all eye-candy is for special effects, but can be
    part of function. For example, the simple bouncing icon of a program
    loading in Apple's Aqua is, in my opinion, eye candy improving
    functionality. It shows me the system registered my run request and is
    attempting to start the application. What does Gnome do? It sits there
    as if nothing happened, and some time later the app pops up. Of course
    I don't think Aqua is a gold standard, as it sucks in many ways, but I
    do like that part of it.

    Besides, I think for those (the 1 or 3 of you out there) with a wife or
    girlfriend, the "function over form" claim may just get argued over
    quite vehemently by them. You can have both without sacrificing the
    other. Also, the "function over form" perspective is one of the reasons
    why Linux is not marketable to the average computer user; and never will
    be until programmers finally get together with artists and designers.
    Both would be surprised what the end result can do. 

    


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  • Next message: Richard Kelsch: "Re: FC4 good new tech, bad legacy support"

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