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About this siteFor six years, the Internet Nexus served as my technology blog, but I've since started blogging at the SuperSite Blog instead. If you're looking for the blog, please head there. --Paul Saturday, October 04, 2003XP user interface (task-based, iterative) vs. OS X user interface (1985 desktop GUI)Mac-using readers continue to confuse what I mean by XP's task-based, iterative user interface and why it's superior to the basic desktop GUI used by Mac OS X, a UI that hasn't changed appreciably since 1985. Here's a response I provided via email to such a reader, who noted that OS X has stand-alone apps, not "things that are trying to be part of the OS." I think he missed the point... The iApps are pretty good overall (I love iTunes; iPhoto is OK). But there are no task-based or iterative interfaces in Mac OS X. You're thinking at too low a level. In fact, you're thinking like a Mac users, about applications, and not about the system as a whole. On the Mac, you have to connect applictions with tasks in your head. As an experienced user, you do this without thinking. But this can be confusing to many people, especially computer neophytes. For example, you want to print a photo. How do you do it? Do you manually find the photo in the shell and double-click it, hoping the app that launches can print, and that you can find that functionality? Or do you "think" of an app you want to use, launch that, and then find the photo from the app? (I realize you know how to do this. I'm considering the wider range of computer users out there.) In XP, there are special folders exposed through the Start Menu that make handling photos, music, and other documents simple. When you launch these (and other) folders--directly from the Start Menu that Mac users think to be so silly--you'll see good examples of the task-based aspect of XP in action. Select a photo, open a folder full of photos, or whatever, and you'll see a list of tasks applicable to those file types. Including print. You don't have to worry about the app. There's nothing like this in OS X, which make you think app first. An odd approach: Shouldn't the computer do the heavy lifting? The other side of the interface difference is iteration. XP's UI is also iterative where possible, which means it presents step-by-step lists, or wizards, to help users accomplish tasks. The Scanner and Camera Wizard is a perfect example: Simply plug-in a camera, scanner, digital memory card or CD with photos, or a similar device and the wizard appears, stepping you through the process. You get wonderful fine-grained control over which pictures you import, whether they're deleted from the source, where they're put on your system, and how their named. Now compare this to OS X, where an app, iPhoto launches. What now? The "import" button is highlighted, but there's no information at all about what you're doing, and no step-by-step help to guide you through the process (iPhoto also has other limits; you can't easily import only certain photos for example). By default, you must be sophisticated. This makes OS X harder to use than XP for normal people. I've only highlighted the differences between a specific activity on both systems, but it's an obvious one (and one where Mac users always assume their experience is somehow better, when it isn't). But a task-based, iterative UI has nothing to do with bundling applications, it has to do with helping users accomplish the tasks they need to do, both frequently and infrequently, regardless of which apps they want to use. [ Posted at 12:21 PM | Permalink ]
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