{"id":217,"date":"2007-09-12T16:42:46","date_gmt":"2007-09-12T15:42:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nivas.hr\/blog\/2007\/09\/12\/importance-of-conistency\/"},"modified":"2007-09-12T16:42:46","modified_gmt":"2007-09-12T15:42:46","slug":"importance-of-conistency","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nivas.hr\/blog\/2007\/09\/12\/importance-of-conistency\/","title":{"rendered":"Importance of Conistency"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>So anyways, I am in Sweden for the past 2 weeks, and as such, I got to work on a few occasions on Microsoft Windows XP localized for Sweden. Basically I had to fix half dead Win XP by removing some crap software, installing some good software, and see how are the things under the hood. I do not speak a word of Swedish, so it was pretty hard doing that by using just:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>intuition<\/li>\n<li>memory<\/li>\n<li>reflex clicking<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Now, what I came to realize after few sessions with Swedish Windows is that Consistency is mother of all complex design. I am not talking just about visual design, or just about graphics, I am talking about logical placement of objects in menu, placement of buttons on applications, order of menus, and things like that.<\/p>\n<p>Let&#8217;s hit the examples.<\/p>\n<p>When you Right click an application on your task bar (hello Mac &#8220;my-mouse-has-1-button&#8221; users), or in your system tray, the first link from the bottom should close the application.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.nivas.hr\/blog\/wp-content\/photos\/01_killing_messenger.gif\" width=\"450\" height=\"228\" alt=\"01 killing messenger\" class=\"centered\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.nivas.hr\/blog\/wp-content\/photos\/02_killing_ps.gif\" width=\"450\" height=\"232\" alt=\"02 killing ps\" class=\"pp_image\" \/><\/p>\n<p><\/br><br \/>\n<\/br><br \/>\nHowever, working with some crazy applications here localized for Sweden, I often got completely dazzled. Right click on it, click first link from below, and BOOM, something happens, and application is still running.<\/p>\n<p>Next thing is the location of buttons. The most common location for the most common buttons should be like it is in the Properties of your Desktop (right click desktop > Properties). So, it is [OK] [Cancel] [Apply]<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.nivas.hr\/blog\/wp-content\/photos\/03_ok_cancel_apply.gif\" width=\"450\" height=\"46\" alt=\"03 ok cancel apply\" class=\"pp_image\" \/><br \/>\n<\/br><br \/>\n<\/br><\/p>\n<p>Yet however, I was surprised how many times developers play with those buttons and reorder them. By clicking the further most right button I managed to, on few occasion, screw up my work, since it was not Apply button, it was Cancel button. Hooray!<\/p>\n<p>Same goes for the buttons during installation or removal of software. Most softwares have this layout for buttons:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.nivas.hr\/blog\/wp-content\/photos\/04_installation_a.gif\" width=\"450\" height=\"95\" alt=\"04 installation a\" class=\"pp_image\" \/><br \/>\n<\/br><br \/>\n<\/br><\/p>\n<p>On occasion, the [Help] button is not present. And again, it does not fail to amaze that some developers think this system is too old fashioned, and reorder buttons, remove little Arrow > marks on Next, and similar. I had trouble removing some of nVidia&#8217;s software because I could not find the proper button on it&#8217;s designated logical place.<\/p>\n<p>Also, one of the problems I encountered is finding &#8220;Accessories&#8221; in the Start menu. Since I use English version of Windows, that folder is always on top and I just never thought that it can be anywhere else. Until I found out that in Sweden &#8220;Accessories&#8221; are &#8220;Tillbeh\u00f6r&#8221; and are placed god-knows-where in the Start menu. System tools should be separated from other software, not blended in. Like this:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.nivas.hr\/blog\/wp-content\/photos\/05_accessories.gif\" width=\"450\" height=\"95\" alt=\"05 accessories\" class=\"pp_image\" \/><br \/>\n<\/br><br \/>\n<\/br><\/p>\n<p>I know it is not often that you have to work blind, but trust me, once you have to, you learn to appreciate Consistency of design.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>So anyways, I am in Sweden for the past 2 weeks, and as such, I got to work on a few occasions on Microsoft Windows XP localized for Sweden. Basically I had to fix half dead Win XP by removing some crap software, installing some good software, and see how are the things under the&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nivas.hr\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nivas.hr\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nivas.hr\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nivas.hr\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nivas.hr\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=217"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nivas.hr\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nivas.hr\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=217"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nivas.hr\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=217"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nivas.hr\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=217"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}