Re: Obsolete and awkward software

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Note: This message is from the outliners.com archive kindly provided by Dave Winer.

Outliners.com Message ID: 4756

Posted by subs
2005-12-18 22:51:56

Stephen,
Most people stay with a product because they simply don’t want to change. And why should they as long as it does the job.

>The more complex the product, the less important the appearance of the interface.

The more complex a product the more critical it is to have a very, very good user interface. Intuitive, simple, quick and easy to use, doesn’t get in your way, doesn’t require reading the Help again when you haven’t used the product for a few weeks etc.

>What’s a ‘splitter window’?

I probably should have said something like multiple panes. The splitter is the border between two panes in a Window, that you use to resize the panes.

Multiple panes still have their place, but a better UI often revolves around separate windows. eg. a tree in one window which can be docked, floated or hidden and another window displaying the document. This gives the user greater flexibility in arranging and sizing information.

I’m not referring so much to the “appearance of the interface” but more to its usability. A better looking interface is hopefully also better to use. For example you may have visual clues which aren’t their just to look pretty, but to make the product easier to use. One example of this is displaying the same images you see on a toolbar, beside their matching menu items. Most Windows apps have been doing this for many years.

Re. the name. We wanted a fun and memorable name. BTW. It is Surfulater (e) - as in Surf U Later. Sorry you don’t like it.

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