UI Standards ... Endangered Species?
There's a (kind of old, now) post over on the excellent Flow|State blog about Windows Media Player 11 and the new "AERO" style user interface.
If you read through the comments, not everyone thinks WMP11 is as slick and good-looking as I do. That's fine - everyone's entitled to their opinions.
Towards the bottom of the comments, though, the topic of UI standards comes up. A commenter points at IE7, Office 2007 and WMP11 as all having different interfaces. Curiously, another poster agrees with him, saying that IE6, Office 2003 and WMP10 had a common "standard" UI theme. I don't agree with this at all - those three products have a distinctly different look-and-feel from each other.
Anyway, the point of this post is to speculate on the impending death of the "standard UI". Could it be that, come Vista, there will be no such thing as a standard menu bar, toolbar, status bar etc? Windows Presentation Foundation looks like it's going to open up a whole world of new UI styles to developers (for better or worse).
I ask you though ... is the extinction of the standard UI a bad thing? Compare the idea to the real world: My DVD player doesn't look anything like my toaster. My clock radio doesn't have a remote control like my TV. Do applications on a PC need a standard UI any more than real-world devices? Provided the individual controls (buttons, checkboxes etc) are recognisable, maybe it's no big deal if the apps all look unique.
Perhaps it's time we started taking the "right tool for the job" approach to UI design, rather than worrying about whether the "File|Exit" menu item has an accelerator key on the "x".
Comments
# tristan
8/06/2006 4:27 PM
People get too mixed between UI and style. My clock radio and my DVD player both operate using haptic/audio response buttons, they both plug in to the same shaped power outlet, they both display their numeric information to me rather than reading it out to me... they both adopt largely the same type of 'household applicance' UI.
As long as we use a mouse/keyboard/screen/etc setup for each application, we're going to use the same UI. It's just the syle that will change (as you mentioned in your third paragraph).
And we can't rightly standardise style, or we'd all be wearing the same coloured and shaped pair of pants!
So you're exactly right, we should worry more about the right tool for the job (if WMP11 didn't use audio in it's UI, I'd be annoyed), and less about the colours or shapes of buttons.
Having said all that I'll still put in my two cents - I like simplicity in style of interfaces. Action movies are action movies, buttons and menus are just buttons and menus ;-).
# mabster
8/06/2006 5:23 PM
Luckily, MS seem to be taking the "simplicity in style" approach. WMP to me is very minimalist.
I worry, though, that the incredible power of WPF is going to yield some horribly ugly applications. The last demo I saw of WPF involved someone creating a program where a button bounced around the form. God help us.
# tristan
8/06/2006 9:54 PM
It'll happen, no doubt. Remember what happened when the web discovered .gifs and DIY editors?
# crucible
8/06/2006 10:25 PM
oh ye naysayers...
I completely agree with all your points barring those I disagree with.
UI standards? Well if we're talking style, then my WMP looked the same as yours for about 10 minutes... until I skinned it...
And guess what? Come Office 2007, mine may look the same as yours, for about 10 minutes until I skin it...
I get what you're saying with the typical interfaces, but I guess they are going for functionality and a more sleek interface... and heck it worked for Apple and their iPod.
The only common UI feature I've heard about with the new versions of software from MS is the reduction or loss where possible of the File menu system.
They seem to be devoting themselves more to buttons, contextual controls and providing sensible input paths from the user.
So yeah I agree with all that you guys have said, with regards to having the right tool for the right job, but as far as style goes, I think for the most part the programs will be as skinable as they can be and you can give them common style features.
As for buttons and menus being buttons and menus, we'll have to see... I mean drag and dropping can be extended much further to functionality... and lets not forget things like the Matrix and Minority Report and the touchable interfaces and all that... the future isnt that far away.
I don't think Mabster should be worried so much about that demo, but everyones reaction to it... they all seemed very impressed with the button that turned into a mirror image and rotated and flipped around the screen...
I can honestly say I've done my fair share of pittiful animated gifs and stupid onmouseover image changes though ... but you gotta remember, things could look as horrible as they could be in the early days of the web... as long as it was something different it was cool.
And I do think we should have uniform pants... preferably by job function.
With stripes near the left knee to denote rank.
WPF is the beginning of web like design for applications.
Not that you couldnt web skin your apps - but this makes it so much simpler... and hey its also about making your apps work on the web the same as they would on the desktop, the reduction of ground between thick and thin clients.... so ...
I wouldn't worry too much yet about WPF - its unproven how people will adapt it, and be honest there are horrid Windows apps and great Windows apps - and the great ones gain more prominence.
I think that functionality will still rule, but lets face it the app with the better design, the more logical and more intuitive, will be the one that we adapt.
That or we'll all go on myspace and act like complete idiots because although its got a crappy interface thats what all our friends are doing and we're peer pressure sheep.
I'm deviating and waffling, but I dont think uniformity is dead, I just think that you have to look what you're trying to achieve and what interface you'll need.
Hell they got rid of the menu in IE7 too, and made it all button driven (unless you hit alt).
I like it. I can do almost anything I want without that menu. I get that screen real estate back. Other people have complained that they don't like its missing - go figure.
*shrugs* its all personal preference and public opinion will drive
# mabster
9/06/2006 9:39 AM
Some people write comments. Crucible writes theses.
# crucible
9/06/2006 1:19 PM
I have very detailed opinions and the ability to waffle. This is why I did so well at university essays - the ability to waffle around a subject for days.
It's also why people get that "tuned out" look when I talk to them... Mabs?... Hey!