

The condescending UI - superchink
http://www.theverge.com/2011/12/9/2616204/the-condescending-ui

======
lallysingh
The Condescending Author

Talks about how he feels to smart for the UI, but doesn't bother looking up
the substantial body of research explaining why it's useful to any user
(novice to expert).

It's 2011. I thought HCI had some respect. Stuff like this seriously makes my
throat clench a little bit.

Half the complaints cover things that help your subconscious have a better
idea of what's going on, from z-order to spatial changes in windows. The other
half cover adding more useful context to a window. Without the dressing, the
address book is a list pane and a few text boxes. If it and other windows
(say, iTunes) were plain controls-in-windows, you'll have to spend extra time
figuring out which one is which.

But, this story isn't about UIs. He's building himself as a curmudgeon
character (have a look at the author page). It's a new sort of mid-level
ludditery. BeOS? Haiku? Fucking really? There are at _least_ a half-dozen
changes you can make to a stock ubuntu config (mostly turning off unity) fit
that mold today. But it's not about getting somewhere he prefers, it's about
complaining.

~~~
rhizome
He even models his appearance on the late Paul Harvey.

<http://img.timeinc.net/time/daily/2009/0903/harvey_0301.jpg>

------
egypturnash
I feel like I am completely opposite of this dude. He hates dropshadows around
windows. He hates the minimize-to-dock effect in OSX, saying it "wastes time".
I just hit the minimize button and it took all of _one second_ \- one second
in which my hindbrain was given a strong visual cue that _I am switching out
of one context_. I use it regularly and I've never stopped to think about it.

I mean, a lot of the stuff he's saying feels "condescending"? It's all stuff
that has preferences. You can change the size of icons. I mostly navigate my
Mac's filesystem in the 3-column view.

He's bemoaning the fact that the OSX menu fades out when you leave it versus
the System 3ish menus that just popped in and out. And honestly I can't say I
notice the fade consciously either - but subconsciously I _like_ it. It's
instantly responsive when I ask for it, and it's got a nice slow visual effect
as I'm done with it.

But then again, for all that I'm an artist with a bent towards minimalism, the
OSX address book really doesn't bug me either. I quit using the iPad's
calendar - but that's because it had a design directly taken from the revised
OSX one, with that unusable-on-tablets row of tiny buttons for changing weeks.
I really don't _see_ supposed horrid UI sins like Calendar's torn page, it's
just chrome that's vanished into the background.

He basically seems to be saying that all modern polish is crap and we should
be happy with the looks that were pretty much required back in the 90s due to
limitations. He disses new experiments like Metro as well, but really doesn't
manage to articulate what his dream UI would be. Besides "oh god I wish I
could use BeOS". Which looks... god, I feel like I'm using my Amiga when I
look at that screenshot. Which I loved at the time but I've moved _on_.

~~~
richcollins
Where do you draw the line when it comes to distracting details in UI? Is the
level of detail in current Apple products perfect? Should they move towards
more skeuomorphic designs or more typographical designs?

~~~
egypturnash
Honestly I am not a fan of the skeuomorphic stuff - that way lies the hundreds
of ugly-ass mp3 player skins that look like some little physical device
sitting on your desktop - but the Apple stuff has been relatively inoffensive.
The version of iCal that I ditched is the one on the iPad, because it requires
me to poke at tiny buttons on the bottom of the screen to go to next/previous
month/day/week instead of just doing a nice easy swipe like every other iPad
app trains me to do. (Or even like I can do in iCal on my Mac, if I'm
interacting via the trackpad instead of my Wacom tablet!)

I think it's worth noting that the latest version of iBooks on the iPad has an
option to drop the semi-skeuomorphic* borders. It's a thing they tried. I
wouldn't be surprised to see the cute borders vanish sometime.

I'm also not a fan of PURELY TYPOGRAPHIC ui designs, as those require a TON of
whitespace to work. There's a medium to be struck. Usually Apple does pretty
well, I think; OSX as it stands now (Lion) is really, really good at quietly
conveying information without screaming it.

Maybe I just have a different idea of what's pleasingly minimal than the
author of the piece at hand. I dunno.

* I say _semi_ -skeuomorphic because they don't change depending on how far you are in the book - if it did then it would actually be a pretty damn slick way of subtly delivering the same information as a scrollbar.

~~~
richcollins
Typographical interfaces work well on mobile unless you're not a fan of
navigation hierarchies

------
jjcm
Disclaimer: I'm on a UX team at Microsoft.

Regarding the transitions - often times an animated transition is used to mask
program latency. Unminimizing a program can use an animation to mask the time
it needs to possibly read from an on-disk cache. The use of them is especially
evident on phones, which make heavy use of transition effects. Swoop ins and
other animations will often give the program around 500 milliseconds before it
has to be responsive. It gives the illusion of things working faster than they
actually are. With larger memory stores and SSD's becoming more common, many
of these animations are no longer absolutely necessary, but on older systems
they help tremendously for the user experience.

~~~
grinich
Are there any other UI "hacks" for performance?

I've always thought that watching a bar fill up is much more satisfying than
just a displayed _X%_.

~~~
omn1
> Chris Harrison at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania,
> working with Zhiquan Yeo and Scott Hudson, has shown that animated pop-up
> download progress bars which use visual illusions make the process seem
> around 10 per cent faster than it really is.

Apple already uses a a basic visual trick of this kind in its Mac OS X
operating system, but Harrison's research suggests such techniques could be
used to greater effect.

From: [http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn18754-visual-tricks-
ca...](http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn18754-visual-tricks-can-make-
downloads-seem-quicker.html)

------
atacrawl
TL;DR -- Old man yells at cloud. (<http://www.oldmanyells.com/omyac.jpg>)

I can't believe The Verge, whose tech reviews have quickly become among the
very best on the web, would post such an idiotic, pointless rant.

He doesn't like the genie effect in OS X. _So change it!_ I did! It almost
seems like he thinks that UIs should change themselves to suit him, rather
than the other way around.

~~~
rohitarondekar
"...UIs should change themselves to suit him[the User], rather than the other
way around"

Now here is a novel idea! :)

------
ricefield
These interfaces have millions and millions of users, many of which are by no
means experts with a computer, and may even only use it sparingly. The design
has to be universal, and these cues make the interface that much easier to use
across the general userbase.

Saying you don't like the interface because 'its condescending' is like saying
you don't like your suit because it doesn't fit perfectly on you. The solution
is to just go get it tailored, because that suit wasn't custom made to fit
you. I also use win7 classic theme because I prefer it over the bells and
whistles in Aero.

There's really no need to complain about what companies ship as the default.
That's just the setting they feel will work best for the average user. Fine,
you're not the average user. That's why they build settings to allow you to
change shit. So fucking change it and you're fine.

~~~
chaostheory
> There's really no need to complain about what companies ship as the default.
> That's just the setting they feel will work best for the average user. Fine,
> you're not the average user. That's why they build settings to allow you to
> change shit. So fucking change it and you're fine.

I agree. This is what made the post really annoying for me. If you are really
an expert user, in almost every case he mentioned; you can change the UI
settings to suit your tastes.

------
shallowwater
That's why I hate OSX. I have plenty of real live humans to condescend to me
in my life, I don't need inanimate machines to also treat my like I'm too
stupid to live.

I've only just moved from XP to windows 7, so we'll see how that goes. So far
not too many complaints, but you can definitely tell that they were pulling
heavily from the OSX experience, much to my sadness.

------
ender7
(only mildly related)

God, I wish there was a widely-supported standard for animated PNGs. Those
GIFs look like they're straight out of the 90s.

Yesyesyes, animated GIFs are the devil, but they're shockingly useful for
certain tasks such as loading spinners.

~~~
antimatter15
I think what's cooler is that WebP now has support for lossless encoding and
will soon support animation.

~~~
SquareWheel
Then all we'll need is WebP support.

~~~
rhizome
It'll be available soon as a plugin for Firefox, with Chrome following
"shortly" thereafter.

------
neutronicus
I'm of two minds about this:

I love emacs, precisely because it doesn't use any space reminding me what it
can do, but I also love having reminders of what all the other software I'm
forced to use in my day-to-day life (but not as often) can do.

In the end, though, I'm much more irritated with OS X's crappy file manager
than I am with anything quite so broad as OS X being "too condescending".

~~~
rhizome
Count your blessings. Nautilus, a Linux file manager, does not have open-on-
hover.

------
dennyabraham
I'm wary of the recommendations in this article. If someone repeating a fact
you've heard elsewhere makes you feel patronized, you're an outlier. The
greater portion of your users, unless you're in a niche field, will need that
repetition. Moreover, if we live long enough to need that help ourselves, we
can count ourselves lucky.

We are not necessarily our users.

------
ugh
Switching Windows 7 to the classic theme is not fleeing condescension, it’s
nostalgia and has little to do with the topic at hand.

~~~
jacobolus
No. I haven’t used Windows 7, but I always switched XP/Vista to the classic
theme because it takes up less space (fits a lot more minimized windows in the
task bar, etc.), is less distracting, and makes it easier to judge colors in
images or graphics (the big areas of blue really messes with fine color
judgement). I also reverted to the “classic” start menu, switched the control
panel wizard off, cut out all the auto helper doodads in MS Office, etc.

Speaking as someone who has always hated everything Windows stands for, I
assure you there was no nostalgia involved

~~~
ugh
Well, then you should actually use Windows 7 and report back. It’s awesome.

~~~
barrkel
I use Windows 7, and I configure the task bar to XP-style non-stacked oblong
buttons, I use Classic Start Menu to get an XP style menu - I absolutely
loathe the Vista and 7 start menus - and I've just about completely given up
on Windows Explorer, and mostly moved my file management to Cygwin bash in the
terminal.

My strategy for dealing with MS changing Windows is to use non-MS software and
isolate myself from them.

~~~
omaranto
Does the classic Start menu have a search box? I don't think I'd willingly
give up the ability to just type what I want and not ha e to navigate those
ridiculously long menus.

~~~
gujk
Yeah it does. It is a relief that the search actually finally works in win7 so
no one has to care about the uselessly horrible menus and dialogs fixing the
control panel.

------
william42
I have to disagree very strongly with one of his suggestions: the differently
sized buttons. The buttons have different sizes because they're used at
different rates. You make things that are more often used bigger because it
makes your interface faster: see Fitts's law.

------
zyb09
Am I the only one who agrees? Obviously going back to something like BeOS is a
little extreme, but fact is OS X Lion made things worse. I don't need
LaunchPad or AirDrop or the AppStore, oh and thanks for hiding my Library
folder and reversing my scroll direction, wtf. Now I'm looking at Windows 8
and the only thing that comes to my mind is: Why the hell would I want to
install that on my PC? Tell me. My PC is not an iPhone! If this trend
continues we all end up using Ubuntu without Unity sooner or later.

~~~
tikhonj
You know, that's the beauty of Linux: you can have your computer however you
want it. Not only do you have more options--Unity, Gnome, KDE, LXDE,
XMonad...etc--but they are also all more configurable. I really think most
people would benefit from switching to Linux.

------
epikur
[my UI opinion] I find Ribbon to be extremely helpful both in having more
functions available at a glance, and for teaching keyboard shortcuts (for
example, hold alt in Word 2010).

~~~
epikur
Oh - a part of OSX that I find condescending is the inability to alt-tab
between browser windows wie Windows(z.B. two Chrome windows, each with their
own set of tabs). Is there a shortcut I'm missing?

~~~
philwelch
In OS X, you command-tab between applications. You can command-tilde between
windows in the same application. Mac OS X distinguishes between applications
and windows; Windows doesn't.

~~~
kstenerud
Except that it behaves in a completely different way from CMD-Tab.

Cmd-Tab once, switch to the last activated app. Cmd-Tab again, switch back to
the previous app.

Cmd-` once, switch to the next window in the current app. Cmd-` again, switch
to the next window (not back to the previous one). This is incredibly
frustrating, because usually when I'm doing this I want to switch back and
forth between two open windows, not cycle through ALL of them! And I'm
certainly not going to remember what "order" 5 windows are in.

Also, having to think consciously about whether a window you're working in is
within the same application or not to decide which keyboard shortcut you
should use makes the whole keyboard shortcut a frustrating experience in OSX.
Windows did it right. Alt-Tab switches to the last viewed window, regardless
of what application it belongs to. Simple. Elegant. Genius.

~~~
isnotchicago
This is probably a matter of preference. Personally, the OS X way is often
more elegant. When I am working with a lot of windows in a particular program
(say, five text files) and have another application I want check in on (say,
an instant message conversation), the OS X way is wonderful. Not having to
worry about the IM window getting in the way of my documents saves me from a
lot of confusion.

The OS X way definitely does add complexity to the UI, but I just think it is
worth the trouble.

~~~
kstenerud
Usually when I'm doing work, I'm switching between different apps,
copy/pasting stuff (graphics, sounds, text), moving files or just referencing
something. I do this far more often than switching to an IM client (for which
I just click on the bouncing icon in the dock, then alt-tab back to my work).

The problem is that I want to switch between a few windows that are not
necessarily in the same application. In Windows (and Linux), it's a no-
brainer. Alt-tab and I'm done. In Mac, I end up changing within the app when I
want to change between apps and vice versa. I don't care if they're within the
same app or not. I just want to do stuff between windows A and B and maybe C.

Example: I'm writing some code. I look something up in my browser. I also have
a second window in my IDE with some more code I'm using as a template for what
I'm building. In Windows or Linux, it's very easy to alt-tab between those 3
windows. Alt-tab, Alt-tab-tab. In Mac, I'm always fumbling with which is the
right key combination to get the right kind of window switching and is this a
text wrangler window or an xcode window? Aargh!

------
protomyth
I do miss the older NeXTSTEP interface, and am finding Lion to be a real pain
at times (e.g. Duplicate instead of Save As). It seems like adding the
Launcher has also been a pain (no real improvement over just putting the App
folder in the Dock set to List, Folder, Sort by Name). Some stuff is nicer
like the Mission Control.

I often think of what OS X would be like if Apple assumed only Pro users would
use it and everyone else would be on iOS.

~~~
Dejital
"I often think of what OS X would be like if Apple assumed only Pro users
would use it and everyone else would be on iOS."

It's an interesting thought but quite feasible. Open up any Apple "Pro" app
like Logic Studio, Aperture or (more recently) Final Cut Pro X. The look and
feel is quite different than the rest of OS X. Things are smaller and far less
intuitive (they are hidden away). Apple knows that amateurs will stick with
Garageband, iPhoto and iMovie, all of which feature large, intuitive
interfaces. I like that they are not afraid to make their "Pro" apps heavy-
duty.

------
jbellis
I feel this guy's pain every time I have to wait half a second for a dialog to
"scroll" into place on OS X instead of just appearing, damn it.

~~~
js2
I think you mean the Lion animations. Disable them with:

    
    
      defaults write NSGlobalDomain NSAutomaticWindowAnimationsEnabled -bool no
    

Other tweaks:

    
    
      defaults write com.apple.dock no-glass -bool yes # disable 3D dock
      defaults write com.apple.dock no-bouncing -bool yes # disable bouncing dock icons
      defaults write com.apple.screencapture disable-shadow -bool yes # disable window shadows on screenshots

------
saulrh
This is the foundation of my primary complaint with Apple's interfaces: by
constantly assuming that you don't know how to use a computer, they make it
impossible to learn. We here are all fine with our OSX boxes, because we
already know how to use computers, but there are millions of people out there
that started knowing nothing and have ended up knowing nothing.

~~~
gyardley
You really shouldn't have to 'learn' anything to do routine tasks on a
computer - it should be intuitive.

If the normals can do everything they want with their computers while still
'knowing nothing', that's a success, not something to grouse about.

~~~
quanticle
The only intuitive interface is the nipple. After that, it's all learned. We
should be making it easy for the users to learn, rather than forcing them into
a stilted, toy-like environment.

~~~
kylemaxwell
Anyone who believes that the nipple is an intuitive interface and doesn't
require learning time has never been with a mother trying to breastfeed a
newborn in its first weeks of life.

There is no such thing as an intuitive interface, only some that are easier to
learn than others.

------
underwater
I've found the OSX alternates between being overly childish (the shiny dock)
and hiding functionality behind overly complex "shortcuts". You want to copy a
section of the screen to the clipboard? Why, that's ⌘^⇧4! Never mind that my
keyboard lacks symbols on the keys, so I'm left guessing what rubbish like ⌥
means.

~~~
zdw
That command has been around since OS 9 and probably before. Have similar
commands with the same level of utility (copying a selectable section of the
screen) and the same keystroke been around in Windows/X11 for that length of
time?

Would you also suggest that vi change it's commands so that they're easier to
use?

Historical inertia matters, especially with muscle memory things like key
combos.

~~~
daeken
You can keep the old one while putting new ones in place. I'm sure no one is
jumping at the opportunity to reuse ⌘^⇧4 once Apple moves away from it.

------
jsz0
This whole article just comes off as tech hipsterism to me. It's like being
nostalgic for cassette tapes and conveniently forgetting how bad they sounded,
how quickly they wore out, or how often a tape deck would ruin them for you.
Put BeOS, NeXT or Windows Clasisc side-by-side with Windows 7 or OSX and let
people choose which one they prefer. My guess is the vast majority will opt
for the more modern, condescending, GUIs because they look nicer and are
easier to use. The author should probably check out GNUStep or blackbox if he
wants something less mainstream. Is CDE still available?

~~~
shard
I have to disagree with your assessment of cassette tape technology. Having
overlapped the usage of tapes, CDs, and MP3 players for about 5 years, I can
say that yes, tapes sound worse than CDs, but it takes a lot of effort to wear
them out, and it was rare that a tape deck would eat your tape.

------
tipjoy
This is a better article about skeuomorphism for those interested:
[http://www.andymangold.com/skeuomorphism-the-opiate-of-
the-p...](http://www.andymangold.com/skeuomorphism-the-opiate-of-the-people/)

PS - Skeuomorphism definition: "Strictly speaking it means retaining design
features from earlier designs when those features previously had a specific
reason for being that way, but do not any longer." -
<http://madebymany.com/blog/apples-aesthetic-dichotomy>

~~~
mannicken
I like the brochure thing. I think it takes into account the human nature of
the users and their feelings. It's design that lets us feel connection with
the program.

I much rather prefer comfortable textured armchairs than soulless straight
chairs of Bauhaus' spirit. I think what Metro and other "minimalists" forget
to remember is that computer screen is a canvas, a medium. You shouldn't force
user to think like a machine, but rather force the machine to think like a
human.

------
akashkgarg
I just wonder when there will be someone who creates usable interfaces for
everyday products like microwaves, dvrs, and thermostats. Well I guess Nest
(www.nest.com) actually designed a pretty decent thermostat, is this the next
revolution?

------
artursapek
He has some points to make for power users, but I like reactive buttons and
just an animated UI overall because it lets me know things are working. I
would hate a UI that doesn't seem different when the computer is frozen or
sluggish.

------
VictorZ
Nothing wrong with what Paul said - he is just not the targeted user.

------
kijin
I think the author is going over the top criticizing drop shadows and such.
But I can see what he means when he talks about minimize animations and the
godforsaken Windows troubleshooting wizard. I've never experienced a single
instance where the Windows troubleshooting wizard helped me solve a problem
any more complicated than "Is the printer really plugged in?" If it wants to
hold my hands, at least it should steer me in the right direction!

It's OK for software to act like a kindergarten teacher from time to time, if
it actually delivers enough value to justify it. For example, painting the
chrome of a focused window in brighter colors helps the user tell which window
is in focus. But when the "childish" feature adds nothing but inconvenience,
that's when people start getting annoyed.

Disclaimer: I'm quite fond of Windows 7 Aero, though I always make those
oversized, over-detailed icons way smaller than they are by default.

