Failed UI Design
// May 19th, 2009 // Comments Off // Life, Random Thoughts
Sitting here using my computer thinking about user interfaces got me thinking that of all the user interfaces… what do I use the most?
No its not software… its hardware. In fact the keyboard and mouse are my most used interfaces.
The Mouse:
For years I’ve had a mouse with an odd middle button that never was used because it activated a scroll feature that seemed to be more trouble than it was worth. I also had a mouse that had 4 extra buttons and 2 scroll wheels. I ended up only using one of the scroll wheels and one of the extra buttons as a back button for browsing the internet.
Its silly that the middle mouse button by default doesn’t really do anything useful. It would be cool if it did a function like "minimize all windows" or "mute audio", "double click with a single click". I feel like no one has considered utilizing the current UI before just adding buttons.
The Keyboard:
I don’t know where to begin with all of the "Internet" and "Media" keyboards. They all add functional buttons like "My Documents" "Play, stop etc" "volume up, down and mute". I don’t think I’ve ever used the favorites, my documents,mail or web browser buttons. But I have used the volume and play/stop a ton!
I then see the classic keyboard and wonder why we still have the "Scroll Lock, Pause/Break, Print Screen, and Insert" keys!
For my earlier days I didn’t use the home, end, page up or page down keys but I’ve found them useful over the years… so they can stay haha.
Apple did a great job adding innovation to their keyboard design but their one button mouse just seems like apple fired the wrong person at the wrong time.
What would make this world a better place?
For the PC to drop the middle button because no one uses it and for apple to take all of those extra middle buttons and add them to their mice to give them two buttons… then I will be happy using either system because as you know I like both Windows and Mac.
