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From: norman@sdics.ucsd.EDU (Donald A. Norman)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Poor Mac Design Philosophy (was blinking apple)
Message-ID: <400@sdics.ucsd.EDU>
Date: Fri, 9-Oct-87 09:39:24 EDT
Article-I.D.: sdics.400
Posted: Fri Oct  9 09:39:24 1987
Date-Received: Sun, 11-Oct-87 14:33:24 EDT
References: <1076@houtz.UUCP> <21205@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU>
Reply-To: norman@sdics.UUCP (Donald A. Norman)
Organization: UC San Diego Institute for Cognitive Science
Lines: 36
Keywords: Mac design blinking apple
Summary: Lack of visibility a common culprit

Every N months someone posts a note saying, help, my apple menu icon
blinks and I can't shut it off.

Others patiently explain that this means the alarm clock is ringing:
find it and shut it off.  Everyone feels stupid (but they shouldn't --
it is a sign of poor design).

This is yet another example of how Macintosh design fails to follow
its own guidelines.  How should anyone ever know this is an alarm? Yes
it is in the manual, but buried. And manuals are unread.  And even if
it is read, who remembers 6 months afterwards when the alarm first
goes off?.  The proper design is self-explaining.  Example: when the
alarm goes off, the Apple icon should change to the phrase ALARM ON
and then it can blink.  (Not perfect: some will think this means that
the power supply will explode unless they immediately turn off the
machine and clear the building -- a not unreasonable interpretation).
If the menu line or screen space were not so limited the better idea
is to put a new icon on the desk that explained things and provided a
place to click it off (without the clock DA).

The same madness is responsible for the proliferation of "power keys."
shift control option command double-click. The mouse is simplified
with only 1 button, but because this is really inadequate, we must
memorize undocumented secret keys.  An alternative would be to add a
few LABELLED keys to the keyboard. Or to make reminders readily
available, perhaps a context sensitive pop-up menu.  Suppose
shift-option-command-? always brought up a context sensitive listing
of what power keys were available at the moment. Make learning easier.
And if you liked, you could use the menu and bypass the contortions.

Donald A. Norman
Institute for Cognitive Science C-015
University of California, San Diego
La Jolla, California 92093
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