On 2013-02-19 05:18, Adam Wilson wrote:
I have yet to encounter this fabled user confusion during usability
testing, so I am gonna file this one under "myth".
Perhaps not confused. But I get darn annoyed when a widget doesn't work
like I expect it to do or like it look like.
A scroll bar is the perfect example of this. I scroll bar usually have
these components:
* Background
* Slider
* Two arrow buttons
This is the behavior I would expect:
* When I click on any of the arrow buttons it should scroll the view
* When I drag the slider it should scroll the view
* When I click on the background it should scroll the view
* When I use the scroll wheel on the mouse it should scroll the view
I have seen many custom scroll bars when one or more of these behavior
don't work. Even if it has the component graphically.
That has more to do with the fact that MS made it than any technical
limitation.
If it's only run on platform you don't have the problem on having it
look the same on some other platform.
It does with a Silverlight type toolkit. The iPhone/iPad widget
situation demonstrates part of the problem with OS widgets. They are
tied intrinsically to the platform, I am trying to free myself from
having to have multiple UI layouts for each platform. My point about
fracturing is that the same app can have completely different layouts
from iPhone to Android, all enforced by the OS. You don't honestly think
thats a good thing for cross-platform usability ... ? Sure, much of the
difference has more to do with Apple being dicks in the courtroom but as
a third party that doesn't provide any one style, they can't really make
a legal case against it. It's not like I am trying to copy their style
or anything...
There are different widgets of different platforms because the screen
size is very different.
iPad has slightly different widgets because it has a larger screen then
the iPhone. With these widgets one can take better advantage of the
larger screen size.
The tabs in Safari is a perfect example of this. On the iPad it has tabs
that look and behave more or less the same as on the desktop version. On
the iPhone it looks and behaves very different. The reason for this is
that you have a larger screen on iPad then iPhone.
Also on a device with a touch screen you need larger buttons. Using them
same buttons on a desktop application would just be a waste of space
that could be used for the content area instead. You can use a lot
smaller buttons on a desktop application where you have access to a
mouse. Using the same small buttons on a device with a touch screen
would not be very smart.
BTW, what Microsoft is doing with Windows 8, I think that's so wrong I
don't know how to describe it.
I feel like we have had this discussion before...
--
/Jacob Carlborg
