Subject: Re: [linux-audio-dev] read it and drool
From: Paul Barton-Davis (pbd_AT_Op.Net)
Date: Mon Dec 04 2000 - 05:18:02 EET
>It seems to violate nearly every GUI rule there is. Knobs never belong on
>a GUI.
Oh, and one other thing. These "annals of GUI shame" as well as "howto
make a a great GUI" are all based on the idea that the users are
computer users in general. Whether they are right or wrong, the
designers of GUI's like Reason's are starting from a different
premise: their users don't know much about computers, but they do know
how to use an Ensoniq/Roland/Emu sampler. the lessons i can see at the
isys site and in other similar catalogs of GUI design are all totally
rooted in the idea of consistency and "meeting expectations" where the
world view of the user is primarily informed by *other GUI's*. if
that's not true (and its arguable whether it is or it isn't), then its
quite possible that many (not all) of the "GUI rules" are simply not
relevant. I don't think that the Ensoniq sampler UI is more than a 0.1
on a scale of 0 to 10 for UI design, but man, people who know how to
use that thing can zoom around it like crazy. If you were writing a
GUI for *them* would you want it to pay attention to Windows/MacOS GUI
"rules", or would you want it to work pretty like the Ensoniq ?
--p
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b28 : Mon Dec 04 2000 - 05:46:50 EET