User interfaces
>As for "self appointed UI police", there are no people better qualified
>to judge a user interface than a user. Please remember that.
Not that it applies in the context of the immediate argument, but I beg to
differ. There is a scientific and artistic discipline which concerns
itself with human factors and with human-computer interface, and the
experts in that field argue convincingly that what the user says s/he
wants is not always to be trusted at face value. Note that this is
drastically different from techies who claim to know what is "better" for
the user. One departure from what the user claims to want is made because
of a desire to stick to "what works," "what is easy to implement," or what
is "elegant," while the other departure is made because it comes from
watching what the users do rather than what they say and, in some way,
genuinely makes it easier to understand and to use.
Dale Larson
– An Amiga Software Engineer with some time on his hands.