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I was quite early to computers (starting circa 1990 with an IBM XT clone). When GUIs first arrived, they felt massively liberating: they allowed you to discover

by hliyan 2y ago

I was quite early to computers (starting circa 1990 with an IBM XT clone). When GUIs first arrived, they felt massively liberating: they allowed you to discover the computer's functions (mainly through menus), rather than having to flip through the (actual, printed) manual. Then around the mid 2000's, things started to change. GUIs became facades behind which functions were hidden away. All of a sudden, there was no single, logical way (such as browsing through menus) to discover something. You had to keep using the interface until you stumbled onto new functions (or the product team had to breathlessly announce them). And the scripting capabilities, even simple drag-and-drop composable automations, went away. I can only assume that this is due to the ad-driven nature of computing today. Ads depend on human eyeballs. Scriptable, automate-able UIs reduce eyeballs. Uniform UIs with text labels (like the good old Windows 9x interface) reduce eyeballs. Ability to quickly open up an app, get what you want and get out, reduces eyeballs. Paying for software doesn't help either. The moment you pay, you signal advertisers that you have purchasing power, and they will pay your product/service provider even more to get at you and your data. I doubt there will be any change until advertising is regulated in some manner.

paulryanrogers 2y ago
My guess is it's more that software was eating the world. Since so much more was being made there was less care being taken to be consistent, implement automation workflows, and instead focus on visible features. This was also the era of 'skins' for media players and theming the whole OS was falling out of favor. IIRC OS X had no theming and only an invert option for accessibility; not even dark mode.
- hliyan 2y ago
  I was actually thinking of Winamp skins while writing this. It was a lot of fun initially, but then it got old very fast. Still hard to beat the original Winamp interface, warts and all.

by hliyan 2y ago

paulryanrogers 2y ago

My guess is it's more that software was eating the world. Since so much more was being made there was less care being taken to be consistent, implement automation workflows, and instead focus on visible features. This was also the era of 'skins' for media players and theming the whole OS was falling out of favor. IIRC OS X had no theming and only an invert option for accessibility; not even dark mode.

hliyan 2y ago
I was actually thinking of Winamp skins while writing this. It was a lot of fun initially, but then it got old very fast. Still hard to beat the original Winamp interface, warts and all.