Future AmigaOS GUI

[SnowBord]

Firstly, great work!  Second, I like the resize idea.
The official screens are an improvement, but in all honestly look pants when compared to a modern OS.

SimoAmi has made a good effort at it..

You can't REALLY blame Hyperion for the look of OS4.. they're practically porting / re-engineering an entire OS!  They have made great strides in improving the 'hidden workings'  of the OS.  This is crucial...
Crucial to make developers consider coding for the OS.

However, indeedy how about getting immediate funds from us, joe public??  Make it look nice, that's the answer.  If it looks pretty, people will want it..

I guess they're prioritising.. but it still looks a bit old and stale... There aren't enough images in e.g. listviews, window titles or tabs.  MUI had it yeeears ago!

Also, here's an OBVIOUS missing detail in OS4's GUI - centering the buttons (save / cancel etc.) at the bottom of the screen!

And a good usability feature - allowing for direct manipulation in the gradient setting pane!
i.e.  rotate a sphere with a line emitted from the center to display the gradient angle... updated in real time!

OS4 looks indeed configurable GUI - wise, but is it enough - will SimoAmi be able to remotely re-create his concept??

Still, as I said, kudos to Hyperion... you have done a lot more, I am sure, than just updated the look of the OS.  I wait patiently for 4.1/4.2 (and 4.0, hehe!).

Thing is, it may have the nicest personality but who goes for personality at first sight?? (and it's personality has somewhat been improved, but still needs more work).
OS4 has had it's first facelift.. now it only needs a few more session with the plastic surgeon to get it looking all curvy and seductive..

Only with future OS releases can Amiga even CONSIDER making a comeback.

Just some ideas.. what do u think??

[SnowBord]

unchartered:

About your footnote.. yes it was on the Music for the Jilted Generation (which ROCKS) but the sample actually came from LAWNMOWER MAN!

[SnowBord]

unchartered:

yepp i am sure.. a quick search on the net revealed this site;

Heres the link

[SnowBord]

Tickly

Actually, Microsoft are one of the worst companies at creating interfaces. Pretty much everything they make has shocking human interface howlers!

I wouldnt say that.  the UI exhibits great affordance, good direct manipulation abilities and mappings, tends to support the human cognitive model in respect to iconic and other pictoral representations (in the right amount too, may I add - not an excess), as well as eploying good attention grabbing techniques (colour changing AND blinking), to name a few.

The UI is consistent with great colour separation, widget layouts generally appropriately positioned (like centered OK / CANCEL buttons, something the amiga lacks, and lets not start on UI consistency..)
i would say it IS user-centric.
I am sure they are not randomly bashing out a UI without thorough involvement from an army of HCI experts and cognitive scientists..

In future, please justify WHY the windows UI is a bad one, apart from the anal 'it's not Amiga'.
Oh, and that some unknown web site written by schoolkids claims it.

Don't get me wrong.. I LOVE Amiga, and it pains me to see it so far behind.  My only hope is that now progress IS being made, the foundations have been laid, and we can only pick up momentum once more!

[SnowBord]

also, is it me or does the screenmode requester totally need a facelift??
amigas no longer have Low-Res and High-Res listed there..
theres no need for one long list of display drivers and resolutions, frequencies, colours etc. in one pane (listview was it on amiga?? heh!)

a list of displays should be one, then a scrollbar for the resolution, and a cycle gadget for the colour depth and another for the monitor frequency..
so much easier!!  i dont understand how they let this blaring omission slip!!

oh, and NewRevolution, don't get ahead of yourself m8  :-) lets just get the UI aspect established, as well as the OS before we start to cater for exceptional cases (in a tiny market like this, i doubt its crucial).
but valid point, one day maybe...

[SnowBord]

my point stands. i know what i'm talking about.

besides.. industrial engineering and system design is all about the underlying 'systems', not the user interface.  so he is from an engineering backgound, not an HCI one.  he seems to be a consultant for 'how to build a good conceptual model of a system' - essentially DESIGN.
i studied Object Oriented Systems analysis and design, and although (these days) the book had some HCI considerations, it was mostly about analysing a set of requirements, developing a system (on paper) then handing this over to the coding team.

again, nothing to do with HCI.  and anyway, your quote is a company slogan, a marketing ploy to draw customers in if you wish.
microsoft claims each windows has no bugs and is faster etc. etc.
the PS2 had an 'EMOTION ENGINE' which was meant to make you so drawn into the game with emotion etc.
all marketing.
judging from the spiel they spout about the interface and their ahem... 'reasoning' behind it, i'd say they made that up on the spot too.

i am not saying the founder is bad at his job.. its just that his job is helping teams turn requirements and specifications into design.

[SnowBord]

1. is not cool, it is creating a more elegant and 'un-chunky' super nintendo cartridge eject style windows 3.1 humungous bordered buttons.  the fact that when you hover over it the border appears is ANOTHER GOOD HCI feature - DIRECT FEEDBACK.  go read an HCI book.

2. The theory being you can get access to your most frequently used commands... hence do stuff quicker.
The goal is to increase the learnability of the package by new users by hiding a zillion potentially confusing options.  Again, increasing learnability is a HCI plus.

3. I understand the picture resizing, but personally have had no bug experiences.  You can make the picture fullsized by pressing the button that appears on top of it.. no big deal.  This feature can be annoying for some, but for some it may not.  Personal preference I guess.

4.  No idea what's going on here.  Personally I do dislike most of Word's 'friendliness', and I am sure I am not alone here.  This is more of an application-specific function than a general GUI trait.

But the point is, I am talking about the GUI mainly... and quite frankly Office GUI wise is genrally great.  The application functionality is a completely different point.  I am purely talking about the GUI experience.

I am sure you're glowing with delight reading the site's obviously biased view.  I am NOT pro MS... I just respect the GUI efforts they have made.  This is NOTHING to do with the crashability, features etc. of the OS or APPS, just about GUI performance.

[SnowBord]

Calen:

Where did you get the atavar?  Have you got a bigger version of it?? its hilarious!  :-D

Oh and incidentally at university they preach at us NOT to take info from web-sites.  If I cite web-stes, I will fail any coursework.  Only academic papers.
I don't trust them (Isys) and consider their biased facts as mere points of view.

I can't access the site.. but am sure I am not missing anything...  They can claim the moon is cuboid and say they are accredited, and thus it is true.

[SnowBord]

And here's an interesting little bit of news..

Hi,
 
SnowBord (edit - I am a wanted man in many states for my HCI skills) wrote:
> theres a glaring omission in my opinion, and thats to group all the save /
> use / cancel etc buttons in requesters TOGETHER, say in the middle of the
> window.
>
> Otherwise, the user has to hop too far from button to button, which is
> rediculous, if you ask me!
 
Interesting thought. I'll forward that idea to the team.
Regards,
--
   Thomas Frieden
   Senior Developer, Hyperion Entertainment

Makes you wonder indeedy if they have any HCI professionals even consulting them...

[SnowBord]

Just about the only thing that tells you that there is a button in Windows is that you know the general location for it. With a quick glance, it is impossible to differ between buttons and ordinary text/imagery.

ok but tell me this.. what imagery in windows does not afford some sort of function after you left or right click it??  Why should it be labelled a 'button' anyhow??  It is (in most cases, something amiga can't pray for any time soon) a pictoral representation of a function.

Sometimes you can't get away from traditional buttons, and this is not a bad thing..  But where the UI can be made more pleasant and decrease the time ncecessary to locate items, the end result is a positive one.

is it people like you who are tree-hugging old concepts and an outdated OS that have the functionality they deserve from their OS?
or is it OS's developed by companies who have done, and continue to invest millions in their User Interfaces?

The Amiga OS is the outcast don't forget.  Lots of borders and frames STRESS the eyes and can work AGAINST the goal of finding what you want quickly...

Why should a button look like an old button??  You like it purely because you have been conditioned to accept it, and now find an alternative approach far too shocking.

As for the keyboard reference - it is not a feasible one.  Removing the borders of the buttons would make everything highly confusing, as there are TOO MANY letters, and.. THEY ARE LETTERS!  Humans remember and locate image references far faster than textual ones (in the right application ofcourse).
I mean, spreadsheets don't remove their cell borders just because the UI is upgraded..  in their case it is not applicable, just as in the keyboard example.
And here's one that IS an improvement - If you have a hotplate for cooking food which is an old electric design and a new one.
What do sane rational people prefer??  The flat glass surface hotplates over the traditional 'you can see the heating element and a hole beneath it' approach, complete with borders and separation of hotplates'.
Flat elegant glass or lots of ridges and exposed bits?
you decide.

Either way, I'm done arguing.
Why do some Amiga users feel so threatened by UI advances??  AmigaOS doesn't have it yet but big deal.. learn from the research of others.

[SnowBord]

the pointer colour change is a neat idea that indeed should be explored..

[SnowBord]

mdwh2:
- Scrollbar arrows being the complete opposite end of the scrollbar. It means that if I want to 'fine-tune' the position, I have to move the mouse a long distance when I overshoot.

- Also on scrollbars, the fact that the window/scrollbar reverts to its original position if you move the mouse too far away from the scrollbar. I never understood why they did this. Countless times I've scrolled through a large amount of data, and then had to redo it because I had moved the mouse a bit too far just as I release the button.

couldnt agree more with these points.  This has long pissed me off too...

Except that when you've used an interface for a while, many people I would say (at least, I do) find their way quickly to the menu option (or button come to that) based on the position. If the position is likely to change randomly, then I either have to carefully read each item everytime I choose an option, or risk clicking on the wrong items.

very true... i just brought up the theory behind it... personally im not 100% sure it's for me (well definately not the reordering of menus).
either way, they're trying to find new ways of doing things.. no doubt their ideas will not be to everyone's taste..  they're on a whole different level from AmigaOS - AmigaOS is struggling to get a coherent modern look for it's UI (and has finally begain to achieve it), while M$ and Apple are pushing the boundaries forwards.

As for menus, valid point... perhaps they are keen to make it obvious that the menus are associated with a window, and like for them to be visible..  I personally prefer Amiga's approach (with MagicMenu ofcourse..)
Hell, even JAVA with it's latest SWING GUI engine looks sweet (1.3 and less didn't look too hot)..

as a whole though, there's far more positives in their GUI than negatives.