Hi everyone, We are charged with the redesign of a cross platform (Windows, Mac and Linux) application. From data we've collected, we know about 93 percent of users are Windows users, 6-7 percent are Mac and the remaining 1 percent are some flavor of Linux.
The application was originally written to have a native look and feel and users have been used to that for the past 6 years. We have moved onto the visual design phase and we are torn between going completely native, or doing a non-native feel across platforms. Certain windows applications like Picasa have a non-native look and feel, but they can get away with this very easily because it still follows a lot of windows conventions like the primary color being a shade of grey and using soft borders around buttons, etc... Then you have the polar opposite like iTunes on windows or even more extreme, some Adobe Air applications like eBay desktop, where the look-and-feel deviates so far from the platform it just feels awkward to use it. What I find interesting is that web applications have a non-native look-and-feel (gmail, facebook, etc...), but they are no less usable and don't feel awkward to use. Maybe it's because it's wrapped in a native browser? Does anyone have any research or experience about the usability of non-native look-and-feels across different platforms? Thanks! ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
