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Desktop UIs were once amazingly consistent and intuitive too. Anyone over 30 probably remembers the standard menu, context sensitive help, standard keyboard sho

by api 9y ago

Desktop UIs were once amazingly consistent and intuitive too. Anyone over 30 probably remembers the standard menu, context sensitive help, standard keyboard shortcuts, etc. This was before abominations like Office "ribbons," skins, themes, and Electron. UIs seem to be like Egyptian monuments. The greatest pyramids were built first. By the new kingdom they just bored holes in the ground. We knew how to design damn near perfect desktop UIs by 1998 and damn near perfect mobile UIs by around 2010. What happened? I think it's because tech is as much fashion as function and fashion must constantly change. It doesn't matter if a UI is excellent if it looks 5 years ago. Each new platform begins with a well thought out UI but then it must change, and change, and change. Good design principles must be thrown out if they might make your product look old.

pcurve 9y ago
I would agree. Been using PC and Mac since 1980s, and I liked Mac OS 7-8 and Windows 2000 the best. Windows XP was great too actually, mainly because it had system restore, but it was already treading towards too much fluff. I think Microsoft Metro on Windows mobile was probably the beginning of UI inferno, because it triggered race among major players to develop their own design language to stand apart; except it was a race to the bottom with Apple's flat UI adding to the already rubbish pile of Metro.
- api 9y ago
  Totally agree about XP being the high water mark for desktop, though older MacOSX was good too. The other side of the equation was dev tooling. Visual Studio in the late 90s to early 2000s was a far superior GUI design system before they ripped that all out for the current XML abomination. I think the real trigger for the fall was the rise of mobile. Mobile seriously cannibalized PCs especially on the low end, so PCs entered this misguided race to try to be more superficially like mobile. Metro resulted from this, as did flat and all the rest of that trash. The new stuff does look a bit better but usability is worse.

by api 9y ago

pcurve 9y ago

I would agree. Been using PC and Mac since 1980s, and I liked Mac OS 7-8 and Windows 2000 the best. Windows XP was great too actually, mainly because it had system restore, but it was already treading towards too much fluff. I think Microsoft Metro on Windows mobile was probably the beginning of UI inferno, because it triggered race among major players to develop their own design language to stand apart; except it was a race to the bottom with Apple's flat UI adding to the already rubbish pile of Metro.

api 9y ago
Totally agree about XP being the high water mark for desktop, though older MacOSX was good too. The other side of the equation was dev tooling. Visual Studio in the late 90s to early 2000s was a far superior GUI design system before they ripped that all out for the current XML abomination. I think the real trigger for the fall was the rise of mobile. Mobile seriously cannibalized PCs especially on the low end, so PCs entered this misguided race to try to be more superficially like mobile. Metro resulted from this, as did flat and all the rest of that trash. The new stuff does look a bit better but usability is worse.