On 01/14/2012 09:54 PM, JonasW wrote:
There are 2 reasons why it's bad for usability:
1. It draws your attention from the center of attention (the icons and
widgets) to the background. I remember when I first saw this feature,
I didn't know of the background was really moving or I'm too tired. I
swiped several times looking at the edges of the background. A GUI
that takes your center of attention to something unimportant and lets
you waste time with trying what happens is a very good design for a
game, but a very bad design for a GUI (to cite J. Raskin).
2. When you don't like it, you search, where to turn this off. I was
sure, if somebody implements this feature, there is somewhere the
option for turning it off. I wasted time to find this, because this
option simply doesn't exist. Again wasted time and attention drawn
from what you want to do to something else.
So: these scrolling backgrounds are bad design! But even if some
people want to keep this, it should be an option, that you can turn on
(and off). The way it is today is very bad usability.
Usability is no democracy, but more importantly, a usability expert's
personal opinion have zero value in usability. User studies is the most
important tool for usability, I'd say the majority of users doesn't care
about the scrolling background, while many liked the illusion. The very
small minority that hates it have the **option** to install alternative
launchers; some other OSes doesn't have that option.
I've always been irked by some ebook reader's bookshelves that doesn't
scroll when you scroll the books in it.
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