Pain and Glory from the Trenches of the IT World

Due to a recent topic about Windows Vista on Slashdot, I decided to learn more about it. My first stop was looking at some screenshots.

Now, I want to make it clear that I have not used Windows Vista yet. In all my years, I have very limited experience with Windows in general. So what you’re reading here is my opinion about how it looks, based on my viewing of screenshots. The one screenshot I’ll focus on is this image, showing a variety of applications, what was called the Start menu under earlier Windows releases, and the Taskbar.

The first thing that I notice is the gradient shading of the Taskbar. The top half is of a lighter colour than the bottom half with some blending in between, I presume to give it more of a 3D appearance. I can’t say that I’m too impressed with this. It only appears to be distracting. When I go to look at the applications listed within the Taskbar, I find my vision drawn to the whitish line on top of each button, rather than to the text that is displayed. This sort of distraction cannot be good for productivity! The toolbars and menubars of the applications shown appear to also show this gradient rendering. I believe it is just as distracting there as it is on the Taskbar.

I also see the use of translucency, namely around the window frames and title bars. What I’ll call the Start menu also exhibits some degree of translucency. I fail to see the benefit one can derive from this sort of eye candy.

Like the aforementioned colouring of the menubars, toolbars and Taskbar, this translucency only appears to be distracting. This is clearly shown by the overlap of the uppermost three windows. The window in the middle fuzzily displays the desktop background, as well as the two windows behind it, in its title bar. This appears to even flow down into some sort of a selection dropdown within the application itself, resulting in a portion of the selection dropdown being of a teal colour, while the portion to the left is white. This sort of inconsistency appears, to my eyes, to be distracting and again without benefit.

I’m not sure why the three buttons at the top right corner of the window title bars are only half the height of the entire title bar. I have always preferred it when those buttons are large, as they are thus easier to click on.

Furthermore, I do not understand why Microsoft chose to make the [X] button that closes the application larger than the others that minimize and maximize the window. CDE, as shown here, and Windows 3.11 take a much better approach. It puts the button that closes the application on the far left of the window, away from the buttons that minimize and maximize the window. Thus one usually does not click the wrong button and exit their application or close the window by accident. Even better, CDE requires a double clicking of that button in order to actually close the window, further reducing accidental window closure.

I’m not sure what application it is that is shown in the window towards the bottom of the screen. I suspect that it might be the equivalent of what was called Explorer under earlier releases of Windows, but I’m not completely sure. The title bar of that window neglects to display the name of the application! And within that window, I fail to see the purpose of using such large file and directory icons. They appear to greatly limit the number of files or directories that are shown at one time, potentially requiring one to scroll many times when looking through a directory with many files and subdirectories. That is not good for productivity!

It appears that there is a great degree of inconsitency between the colours used by each application. The Taskbar and Start menu tend to use a greyish colour, while the applications appear use a whites, blues and teals. The window labeled “Windows Fax and Scan” has a toolbar with a blue-coloured gradient. The unlabeled window near the bottom appears to use a teal-coloured gradient that clearly differs from the window above. The window towards the top right of the screenshot uses yet another colour for its toolbar.

I don’t know if those colour differences have anything to do with the layering of the windows, or if it changes depending on which application has focus. Regardless, I don’t see the benefit in using different colours like that. The end result, in my opinion, is yet again confusion and distraction.

I further do not understand while some applications have traditional menu bars, while others do not. The “Windows Journal” and “Windows Fax and Scan” windows appear to follow the convention used on Windows for the past many years. But the windows without a title bar label have no such menu bar. I would have hoped to have seen better consistency between what I imagine are all bundled programs, to the best of my knowledge all developed by Microsoft.

I do not know to what extent the appearance of Windows Vista is configurable. I do not know if it is possible to revert to the Windows 2000-style interface, as was possible with Windows XP. I would have to hope that it is possible, however.

The above are just some of the potential pitfalls I have noticed, all from looking at just one screenshot. Based on its appearance, Windows Vista does not seem to me to be a step forward. I think it may actually be a few steps backwards. Consistency appears to be rather limited, even within what I understand are programs bundled with Vista. Windows without title bar labels are extremely confusing. The gradients on the menubars, toolbars, and Taskbar appear to serve no practical purpose, but instead become rather distracting. The translucency is just as pointless and distracting. The use of large icons wastes screen space, and increases the need for scrolling.

As you can see, I am not impressed with what I have just viewed. After studying those screenshots I am quite convinced that I do not want to use Windows Vista. Thankfully, in my line of work Windows is usually not used. But I feel pity for those who will have to endure the distractions, inconsistency and productivity decreases I fear Windows Vista exhibits so readily.

This entry was posted on Saturday, February 24th, 2007 at 11:17 pm and is filed under Software, Windows. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.