Can you believe that Apple Inc, the self-appointed Deans of Great GUI Design – have still come up lame on basic GUI operations . This is even true with Apple’s new Leopard. True with Spaces, Apple finally sees the Linux Light and brings a capability that every design program worth its salt (think diversely of Photoshop, Eclipse, and HySim) has had for at least 5 years – savable and customizable desktop workspaces. And this one example, Spaces finally being implemented by Apple after at least a 20 year history of the idea being available, shows how clumsy and selfishly shortsighted Apple and other OS vendors, have actually been in bringing GUI design to OS/Users and developers.
Lets look at the top 5 Crudites de GUI that afflict’s Apple MacOSX GUI design:
1)Stubbornly insisting that one mouse button is what Jobs and therefore God wanted for all computer screen interfaces;
2)Denying the utility of the NIH-Not Iinvented Here (and therefore to be denied) MDI-Multiple Document Interface and SDI-Single Document Inteface stylings that allow much easier working among many concurrently running programs;
3)Steadfastly ignoring such GUI advances as mouse gestures (see what Opera browsr brings to the table in this regard) that, like the right mouse button, can speed up operations on the OS desktop;
4)And of course treating as frivolous such ideas as snap-to-guides, rulers, and swivel-cube workspaces – again becuase of the NIH-Not Invented Here virus;
5)Stubbornly insisting that HP’s Touchscreen PC Windowing design of 20 years ago was so ahead of the curve of Jobs and Gates such that Jobs, Gates and God wanted for all the computing world to spend 40 years of wandering in the GUI desert of mice, touchpads and a succession of hopeless Windows Tablets and Pens;
In short, Apple, as self-proglaimed Gurus of GUI, leave a lot to be desired. But other OS vendors fare no better.
Now A Few Words About Microsoft Windows GUI Design
These gals and guys are so scared shipless, they are reduced to being copycats.
Bottom Line
Despite 20 years of supposed vigorous competition in the OS Desktop workspace, the only GUI advances might be summed up as semi-transparent windows, tabbed dialogs, and accordion menus. Sounds like a risque version of the Lawrence Welk show for all the “action” of mainstream OS vendors and their “GUI innovations”. So users have to go to old HP Touch Screens, games, simlation apps, advanced 3D design programs and off the PC completely to embedded and mobile devices to find some really nifty GUI ideas. Now tell me – was that what you and I intended when we gave Microsoft a 95% and Apple a 3-4% monopoly on all PC desktops and therefore GUI interfaces 10 or 15 years ago ???