Design Principles
I believe that we must be pragmatic in our design. Things that are too
revolutionary usually don't succeed. Extending the familiar and building on
what's already there seem to be better options.
"Embrace and Extend" Windows 95
In spite of our opposition to Microsoft's domination of the computer world,
we must give the devil his due in acknowledging that Windows 95 has the
simplest, most consistent and relatively most intuitive interface available.
More importantly, the overwhelming majority of computer users today are
familiar with the Windows 95 interface. To gain their acceptance, our new
interface must appear similar to Windows 95 with some easily-learned
extensions.
Our windows must look like Win 95 windows, with the minimise,
maximise and close buttons in their expected places. Mouse
behaviour must be similarly consistent. The semantics of a click, a
right-click and a double-click should remain the same. Shortcut keys should
be provided for all menus and buttons.
Don't throw away the command line
There are many in the Unix world who oppose the GUI way of doing things. To
be fair to them, many things that are possible on the command line simply
aren't possible using any existing Unix GUI. While trying to provide those
features through our new GUI, we should also allow command-liners to stick
to their familiar interface. Our interface should have both GUI and CLI
components, and it should be possible to move back and forth between them
seamlessly.
Incorporate the Web style of navigation
Hyperlinks have suddenly become household items, with everyone surfing the
net. We should use this familiar and intuitive technique wherever relevant
in our interface. 'Help' is an obvious candidate, but there are other
candidate areas as well...
Make things configurable...
... but don't make a fetish of configurability. Users appreciate structure as well as flexibility.
Configurability at its worst means that nothing looks familiar when you work on someone else's
computer.
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