Grumpy WebsiteDec 6

How UI degrades over time.

Top (Windows 95): great contrast, obvious shapes. Instantly readable.

Middle (Windows 11): shapes are still self-explanatory, but contrast is gone.

Bottom (Windows 11 Insiders): what am I even looking at? The only shape I can understand here is the Run button. Barely visible, though.

Then, on the left, there’s another something that says Run and has an icon. What is it? A window title? Another button? Why does it have to say Run twice?
... 1/3

Show threadGrumpy WebsiteDec 6

... Shell:startup looks like a header but from what I understand is actually your previous command. Also, why is it aligned so poorly? Text to icon, bottom padding?

Finally, the text input. Do you see it? I don’t. But it’s there. The only hint is a barely visible white (???) cursor before the placeholder. How do we know it’s a placeholder? We don’t.

The original Windows 95 interface is _functional_. It has a function and it ... 2/3

Show threadGrumpy WebsiteDec 6

... executes it very well. It works for you, without trying to be clever or sophisticated. Also, it follows system conventions, which also helps you, the user.

I’m not sure whom the bottom interface helps. It’s a puzzle, an art object, but it doesn’t work for you. It’s not here to make your life easier.

Bottom image source: https://x.com/phantomofearth/status/1996660509027062148

#Windows #Affordance #Contrast #Run #Dialog #Microsoft 3/3

phantomofearth ☃️ (@phantomofearth) on X

Windows 11 is getting a modern Run dialog! Build 26534 ships with bits for it, here's a first look:

X (formerly Twitter)
Show threada1Dec 6
@grumpy_website You are absolutely spot on. May I add, that the elderly (pre-boomers) who grew up with printed newspapers and paper forms to fill out where the lines were drawn so you could write script on them are completely lost with today's forms, where you have no idea where to edit them. They would n't want to open the "little black window", but all web forms are equally bad, plus they have the fields at random places, checkboxes all over the place and miss any logic or helpful explanation.
Show threadDitol

@ar1
Just one correction: people "who grew up with printed newspapers and paper forms to fill out where the lines were drawn so you could write script on them" applies to all generations up to and including millenials.
Pre-boomers must have been born somewhen in the 1940s at the latest. They are in their 80s or older now.

@grumpy_website

Dec 7 at 1:58amWeb
Show threadKevin RussellDec 8

@ditol @ar1 @grumpy_website

Boom is post war baby boom, is '45 onward until someone decides it ended, because it's shorthand, a crude construct

"We can group all these people like this."

Show threadDitolDec 8

@kevinrns
Yep, it's even weirder with other generations labels.

@ar1 @grumpy_website

Show threadKevin RussellDec 8

@ditol @ar1 @grumpy_website

Yes.

It's a picture, you can make out shapes and shadows, but its very low resolution. And its in three colours.

Show threada1Dec 8
@ditol @grumpy_website all that may be, but bad UX is bad UX, independent of age. I am an old grumpy post-boomer and hate screen estate waste, large blobs of white where info is needed, the smallest typefont for important information, yuuuge useless graphical assets that disallow getting a good overview of info and fields that don't look like they expect anything written in them- as per the OP or e.g. an iPhone phone dial screen. It might be an error 60, but I still can't...
Show threadDitolDec 8

@ar1
Yes, ok, I agree with everything you stated, I just don't get how you arrived at the conclusion pre-boomers were the ones among us who grew up with newspapers and paper forms. If you are older than 20, you should remember the world largely analog until at least mid 2000s. ;)

@grumpy_website

Show threada1Dec 8
@ditol @grumpy_website it's just meaning the ancient ones. Like you need an incantation to get them out of R'lyeh. Withered faces, grumbly expression, waging sticks at you when you pass by, always Fox news on full blast, what do I know....