Re: Stop the bling, fergawdssake!

At 11/13/2011 13:33, Greywolf  wrote:
>On 13/11/2011 1:35 PM, Sailfish wrote:
>>Did you get just as upset that ATT dropped the rotary UI and went to
>>touch-tone? Do you use the Jitterbug phone since it has a simple UI? How
>>about TVs, do you pine over the good ol' days when you could use a
>>rotary dial to change the channel?
>
>You're missing my point. I'm not objecting to new UIs, I'm objecting to 
>changing existing UIs for no reason other than "It's sweet..." or "It's 
>cool..." or some other irrelevant reason.
>
>To use your examples: I would've objected strenuously to changing the 
>placement of the numbers on the rotary dials. I think you would, too.

The touch-tone phone is a perfect example of an arbitrary change to a UI 
that has caused nothing but pain, confusion and a plethora of mistakes:

The layout of the touch-tone phone is completely OPPOSITE to the layout of 
a ten-key adding machine! The ten-key layout had been standard for decades 
and many people had committed it to muscle memory. The arbitrary reversal 
(just to be different?) has caused no end of pain and confusion. The IBM 
keyboard is another classic example of misguided change for changes' sake.

Another example of the costs of opposite arbitrary choices: Go to the UK or 
New Zealand and drive a car (or vice versa if you are already there). Or 
even step off the side walk in traffic and notice which direction you look. 
Here the consequences may be fatal.

Greywolf, I applaud your attempt to bring some sense the madness but as you 
can see the vested interests are in full defensive mode.


Namaste', Art