Comments on: bad user interface practice #2

By: Johnrhopkins

Johnrhopkins — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 17:44:01 +0000

@foxra: please refrain from profanity here. It may lead others to doubt your mental capacities.

If it were perfect, it would likely still exist. Most users don’t see shutting down as starting a process. It is technically correct, but as is the point of an operating system, to remove the processes from the users concers, labeling things as such is countering the purpose.

And just for the record, I use many operating systems, mac, windows, unix variants,… There are elements of each that I like and dislike.

By: foxra

foxra — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 17:24:03 +0000

i hate people who say that this was a bad idea on microsofts part.

if you click on the START button, and go to SHUTDOWN, then you are, in the terms of what is going on, STARTING THE SHUTDOWN COMMAND. having a “start” button makes perfect sense, because no matter what you are doing, if you click that “start” button, you are STARTING whatever is within its menus: starting a program, starting the command to open a folder, starting a music file, starting a video file, starting the shutdown sequence. . . the list goes ON AND ON..

the only people who hate/dislike how there was/is a start button, are the people who do not USE the fucking OS. hence the writer using mac, hence my GUI professor using ubuntu.. stop blaming things that dont need messed with and are in their own right nearly a perfect idea.

By: johnrhopkins

johnrhopkins — Sun, 03 May 2009 21:12:37 +0000

I sure hope they have covered that LOL. Thanks for reading!

By: Jillian

Jillian — Sun, 03 May 2009 20:23:07 +0000

The real question is if they have relabeled the name of the button in the documentation. It should coincide with the ‘Windows’ key on most IBM compatible keyboards. It should be the ‘Windows Button’ in the documentation and not the ‘Start Button’.

By: Tim

Tim — Fri, 01 May 2009 18:25:42 +0000

Ah yeah i missed the bit about macroshaft winblows – but your def right about reusing any sort of interface element for opposite purposes.

By: johnrhopkins

johnrhopkins — Fri, 01 May 2009 14:35:32 +0000

Tim, I know you are a mac guy these days but the pic used in the post is not of the Windows operating system… it is just intended to be something interesting to look at that implies that there is a difference between “Start” and “Stop”.

By: Tim

Tim — Fri, 01 May 2009 14:08:43 +0000

Umm – not sure I follow your logic that they have to hit the button Start? I agree that the buttons – especially in an emergency the stop button should be larger/easier to trigger and further away from the start button.