[OT] "The Condescending UI" (was: Do we need Win95/98/Me support?)

[Don Clugston]

On 23/01/12 11:54, Walter Bright wrote:
> Bring up Adobe's pdf viewer. It has a whole row of icons across the top.
> I defy you to tell me what they do without hovering over each. Nobody
> has ever figured out a picture that intuitively means "save", "send" or
> "print". Some icons do have meaningful pictures, like scroll arrows. But
> the rest is an awful stretch that is driven by some ideology
> <shatner>must --- make --- icon</shatner> rather than practicality.

And all those apps made with some Borland toolkit, where 'exit' is an 
icon of a door, with an arrow in it.

Makes me feel like I'm playing Pictionary.

At a previous job, we got new desk telephones. They had 8 function keys, 
each with an icon which was completely incomprehensible. We gave the 
icons names: "two heads are better than one", "fall asleep on book", 
"hand holding an arrow", etc. We never worked out what any of them were for.

The brand of phone was called "Easy". We wondered if they had a more 
advanced model with more difficult icons: "Mastered Alcatel Easy? Try 
Alcaltel Fiendishly Difficult!"