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posts/2010/ui-oddities-1-skype/index #129

Open JonathanGiles opened 4 years ago

JonathanGiles commented 4 years ago

UI Oddities #1 - Skype

https://jonathangiles.net/posts/2010/ui-oddities-1-skype/

JonathanGiles commented 4 years ago

Auto-imported comment, original author: Tbee Comment posted on: June 16, 2010

I understand your suggestions and agree on the second page being useless. However, it may not be wise to move that cancel button to a sixth option; it would be clicked much more than if it is harder to reach down below.

About the white space; a few pixels could be shaved off, but usually having some decent amount of white spaces gives a nice and cleaned-up view. We coders have big tendency to overcrowd screens; "hey, there are 4 unused pixels!" So better a bit too much whitespace than too little.

JonathanGiles commented 4 years ago

Auto-imported comment, original author: Tbee Comment posted on: June 16, 2010

(Note that I'm holding back any wise-ass comments in regard to the "down below" and "harder to reach")

JonathanGiles commented 4 years ago

Auto-imported comment, original author: Jonathan Comment posted on: June 17, 2010

Tom, I agree. My main point was definitely regarding the redundant second screen, and we agree on that. This is what initially frustrated me as an end-user.

The other suggestions (wasted whitespace and moving the cancel button) were certainly less important in my opinion, but I included them nonetheless as points to consider.

As I'm sure you'll agree, the good thing about UI design is that it's so easy to come up with ideas, prototype them, and then test the outcome. Often times you'll realise the idea is not as good as you think it is, and that's perfectly fine :-) . These two changes certainly would need testing to see if they were beneficial or not.

The most important thing is that we can come up with ideas to test out, and that we can discuss these ideas and iterate.

JonathanGiles commented 4 years ago

Auto-imported comment, original author: tbee Comment posted on: June 17, 2010

Yes, it's easy to prototype, but every time I create a screen, I experience that it's also very difficult to "get it right". One assumes that only some labels & fields need to be placed on a square, but there is a fair amount of artistic feeling included to make a screen more that fields-on-a-square; for example the stars add some flair.

Colors, layout, whitespace... For me, a good screen is not trivial to make. So discussion and iteration are very important indeed.

JonathanGiles commented 4 years ago

Auto-imported comment, original author: bobndrew Comment posted on: June 22, 2010

I disagree: Never move any GUI component to a harder to reach position, because you want the user to click somewhere else. It reminds me of Flash (an ancient multimedia system for desktop computers ;-) PopOver-Ads with 3x3 pixel sized Close-Buttons.

I'm constantly annoyed by the Skype GUI and I know the reason for this. It's also the answer to Jonathans questions about the missing "one-third of the dropshadow on the Skype image" and the wasted space: All dialogs are HTML-based and this works (sometimes) in a browser, but not in a desktop application where the HTML gets mixed with native GUI-components.

JonathanGiles commented 4 years ago

Auto-imported comment, original author: Zatzat Comment posted on: April 5, 2011

"it would be clicked much more than if it is harder to reach down below" Annoy the user to get what you want is bad software. You gave the reason why they did it, but Jonathan was precisely complaining about it for it's annoyance.

Altogether, I feel that this window is invasive and a huge lack of respect for the customers. Skype found a free way to get quality control by putting the burden on clients. I always answer randomly this window in protest.