

Operating System Interface Design Between 1981 and 2009 - tsally
http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2009/03/operating-system-interface-design-between-1981-2009/

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savrajsingh
What's amazing is there has been no 'crazy revolutionary interface
breakthrough' since the early 1980s. I mean, the UI looks pretty much the same
and contains the same basic metaphors, doesn't it?

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speek
"Intuitive user interfaces often use metaphor as an effective 'vehicle of
exploration', according to David Siegel in Creating Killer Websites. His
examples of metaphors include: 'galleries, TV remote controls, magazines,
tabloids, store environments, museums, postcard racks, amusement pars, going
inside things (computers, human body, buildings, ant farm, and so on),
safaris, cities, and cupboards."

-David Whitbread in The Design Manual

Also... check out Microsoft Bob.

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kaens
Wow, IRIX 3 looks _nice_.

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teej
One ongoing and disturbing trend is having a literal clock included in the
interface. It seems like a terribly inelegant and kitschy way to display
essentially a few numbers, a colon, and a single letter.

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pavlov
It seems like the analog clock widget is the perennial "Hello World" of
slightly more advanced GUI applications. Anyone can implement it (no spec
required), it's somewhat fun to write, and it works as a test for some of the
more essential APIs in a GUI operating system such as vector graphics and
timer events.

I think there's also a psychological aspect involved. The analog clock may be
popular precisely because it's inefficient in the ways you described.
Including it in a computer operating system may be an attempt to communicate
that the system's designers want to respect traditional GUI values like user-
centric design and real-world metaphors; that it's the kind of system where
they don't mind spending CPU cycles on an inefficient information element as
long as it breaks the monotony of text-based interfaces and offers a small
tinge of familiarity. (The analog clock is something that you wouldn't find on
a 1984 IBM system.)

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yan
Thanks for the psychological aspect, Pavlov.

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signa11
i find lack of ubuntu disturbing...

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speek
Ubuntu didn't do anything too incredible (GUI-wise). They just themed gnome.
It's pretty, but there are so many more notable GUIs for linux.

