Windows 2001 Sneak Peek
http://www.zdnet.com/pcmag/insites/dvorak/jd.htm
In the "Neptune" interface, we see a clear divergance between Apple's
"empowering tools for creativity" and Microsoft's "simplified computers
for the world" design philosophies. We also see that Microsoft
completely ditched the desktop metaphor with the web page metaphor (none
of which they invented). And I'm not sure what happened to established
GUI concepts such as direct manipulation and overlapping windows,
neither of which seem particularly confusing. It's no longer clear how
you would copy a file or print a document. Presumably with big buttons
and intelligent wizards...
But frankly, Neptune scares me. It demonstrates their deep
understanding of the market, as well as their relentless pursuit of a
given goal. It clearly passes the "Mom test." Perhaps their
condescending "the user is dumb" assumption is actually the best way to
approach the problem?
-- John Chang <John_R_Chang@email.com> School of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh PA JRChang+@CMU.EDU | http://www.andrew.cmu.edu/user/jrc/