Xref: utzoo comp.cog-eng:628 comp.software-eng:809 Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!pacbell!well!shf From: shf@well.UUCP (Stuart H. Ferguson) Newsgroups: comp.cog-eng,comp.software-eng Subject: OPEN LOOK Summary: More like Closed Look. Message-ID: <7099@well.UUCP> Date: 14 Sep 88 01:29:55 GMT Reply-To: shf@well.UUCP (Stuart H. Ferguson) Organization: The Blue Planet Lines: 72 I recently had the opportunity to listen to Tony Hoeber from Sun Microsystems speak about OPEN LOOK(tm) (capitalization is correct) and what it is designed to do. I don't like it. I don't like it at all. The goals are good, and some of the problems they address are real, but OPEN LOOK is not the answer as far as I'm concerned. OPEN LOOK is not a windowing system, it is not a toolkit, it is not software at all -- it is a *specification* for the "look and feel" of graphical user interfaces which fully details the appearance and function of the elements of the interface. The idea is that if different applications running on different window platforms on different hardware all have the same "look and feel," then users will be more comfortable and more proficient quickly. While this valid in principle, and OPEN LOOK does provide some good guidelines to work from, it goes too far in specifying exactly what the interface must look like. Scroll bars are a good example. OPEN LOOK specifies exactly what scroll bars are to look like almost at the bitmap level and how they are to behave. The only user preference is what side of the scrolling area the scroll bars normally appear. Now, there are lots of interface toolkits out there which provide scroll bars, and although they all look and behave somewhat differently, the basic concept is the same. I have used many different styles and looks of scroll bars, and while I like some better than others, I have never had any trouble figuring out how to operate them. Switching styles has never really slowed me down. Scroll bars are a little like door handles. There are lots of different styles of door handles in the world but they all have some basic similarities. They are typically a hand-sized object set about halfway up the surface of the door which, when turned, pressed or lifted operate the door latch. If you encounter a door handle which varies too much from what you expect, it might slow you down a bit, but for the most part, variations in door handle style don't pose a significant impediment to productivity. In fact, doors with different purposes can require different types of handles. Can you imagine if the door to your office, your car and your shower were required by law to use the same standard door handle? I object most strongly, however, to how OPEN LOOK has already made all of the aesthetic decisions. Sun hired a graphic designer and he set forth the look of OPEN LOOK. The appearance of windows, buttons, scroll bars, even the colors allowed are part of the specification. There is no room for innovation, no room for creativity. It's like requiring that everyone wear designer clothes from the same designer -- any other style of clothes are "non-standard." Like an other artist, I want full control of my media. OPEN LOOK takes this away. All of this attention on minor details actually fails to address the real issues behind user interface standardization -- that of how a particular application maps into the controls presented to the user. This very difficult issue is still left up to the programmer. Although OPEN LOOK provides some guidelines as to how certain common operations should be handled, at the level of detail at which it's concerned, it cannot hope to address all of the possible needs that an application may have of its user interface. User interface design is a difficult craft often poorly done. OPEN LOOK attempts to address standardization, but instead imposes dogmatic and arbitrary limitations on the interface designer. What user interface designers need is not a standard "look and feel," but rather a careful look at the art of user interface design, perhaps a definative reference work on the subject so that programmers can create their own user interfaces that are clear, simple and attractive. -- Stuart Ferguson (shf@well.UUCP) Action by HAVOC (shf@Solar.Stanford.EDU)