90 percent of everything : Usability Blog

Written by Harry Brignull

SitePen Blog » Blog Archive » why splitpane views suck..

He’s got a point and Gmail is a marvel in it’s range of subtle usability tweaks.

But on the desktop splitpane views are pretty much becoming the norm. And as I’ve said before they suck a whole lot less than floating palettes and overlapping windows.

But they still leave too much of the decision making about use of screen space to the user. Jesse Kuhnert praises Gmail for removing those decisions from you and I must say I’ve never wished I could resize bits of the Gmail UI. Could this strategy work for a wider range of desktop apps too?

I’ve read several pieces from Adobe listing the new features due in Photoshop CS3. One of the new features is the ability to “design, preview, and test compelling mobile content”.

Whilst I understand the need to cater to those who want to create compelling content I would like to ask whether Adobe will support those of us who want to produce moderately distracting content or sort-of-OK content?

Surely the new version of Photoshop will not be abandoning a large part of it’s traditional user base?

Update: Here’s another one. From the release notes.

“Adobe Device Central software …[is designed for]… creative professionals and mobile developers who design engaging content for mobile phones and consumer electronic devices.

Is ‘compelling’ the same as ‘engaging’? Does it do both? I’m confused.

Seriously folks. If your marketing department is incapable of sounding like a normal human being when they write then don’t let them near your release notes, help files or even your website. Just let them write marketing material – that’s the stuff that no-one reads and throws straight in the bin. They can’t do as much damage that way…