On: The GUI should be a lot better [video]

[myoffe]

Watched about 20 minutes. Maybe there's a point hidden somewhere in between his rantings, buts it's quite hard to grasp it. He moves back and forth between actual criticism of the Windows UI and just stuff that he personally likes as an advanced user.

I agree that Windows is far from perfect (I'm mostly a Mac user) but IMO the biggest issue is complexity. For tech savvy users all these are non issues, but for my Mom it would be impossible.

OTOH she can operate an iPhone just fine.

[SllX → myoffe]

Lessons from the video: Simple things should be simple, complex things should be possible.

Fitt’s law is a good guidepost for efficient GUI design.

Don’t break backwards compatibility.

The GUI should immediately show the information the user demands when he commands it to.

Unnecessary UI elements should be hide-able.

Mouse gestures are underutilized and should be standardized.

The UI shouldn’t interfere with the user’s tasks; hitting the Windows key shouldn’t kill your game.

GUI is actually pronounced “Gee-you-eye” and not “gooey”.

Steve Jobs was actually GUI Hitler and Microsoft killed baby GUI Jesus.

[stronglikedan → SllX]

> GUI is actually pronounced “Gee-you-eye” and not “gooey”.

I always thought acronyms were pronounced phonetically whenever possible, like NASA, SCUBA, etc.

Even if that's not the case, "gooey" has become ubiquitous enough to be the colloquial pronunciation.

[frosted-flakes → stronglikedan]

I have always spelled it out in my head, and the first time I heard someone say it I was utterly confused as to what they meant. To me, if I were to try to pronounce it, it would sound like "guy", as in the first syllable of "guide". Unlike Nasa or scuba, there's no universally obvious pronunciation for GUI—and thus I think it should be spelled out.

[SllX → stronglikedan]

I have not changed my pronunciation or any of my own opinions based on this video; I only listed lessons to be learned from watching it in its entirety.

[dredmorbius → stronglikedan]

FBI, CIA, WHO (varies), UN, radar, laser, MWRAP (hybrid), AK-47, DNA, RNA, DoD, DoJ, NIH, NIMH ....

Consistency is not our strong suit.