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From: zwicky@pterodactyl.cis.ohio-state.edu (Elizabeth D. Zwicky)
Newsgroups: comp.cog-eng,comp.software-eng
Subject: Re: OPEN LOOK
Message-ID: <21787@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu>
Date: 14 Sep 88 20:46:30 GMT
References: <7099@well.UUCP>
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Organization: The Ohio State University Dept of Computer and Information Science
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In article <7099@well.UUCP> shf@well.UUCP (Stuart H. Ferguson) writes:

>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. 

If switching styles has never slowed you down, then you've probably never
used SunView. There's this neat "feature" where it's the button you
press, and not the place you press it in that determines which direction
you scroll in. Takes me several seconds to figure out how to scroll up.
Always. X11 scrollbars have similar peculiarities that interfere a 
great deal with my ability to use them.  

You may just be a person who deals easily with new user interfaces, in
which case you can afford to be into flexibility. I don't, and I
can't. For people like me, who represent at least a significant
minority of the population, a basic, consistent interface is not just
pleasant, but necessary.  Horrible things happen to me in SunView and
X.  I find my windows magically iconifying, or I scroll off the end of
my mail in one leap and can't get back, or I somehow manage to
accidentally select a menu item while trying to click on something... 
I can go back and forth between NeWS and a Mac without killing myself;
I suppose it's good I didn't start by learning SunView, or I might
be permanently crippled on a Mac, and that would be embarrassing.

For that matter, if someone had standardized door handles a little
more, I might be able to lock *both* my front door locks. The one in
the handle just won't lock for me; I know you have to either push
it in or pull it out and turn it one way or the other at the same time,
but I can't remember the right two, so I stick with the deadbolt.

	Elizabeth Zwicky (zwicky@cis.ohio-state.edu)