Are you a user?

One of my favorite topics is how Microsoft have forgotten to design user interfaces over the years, even though they published some books early on which defined the correct way to create a UI.

When I really feel “in the mood,” I go back and browse Vincent Flanders’ Web Pages That Suck site.  I’m constantly reminded from MS about some of their stupid interface design, usually executed for the sake of marketing flair, is not necessarily confined only to web UIs.  It’s prevalent throughout all their products, if one simply looks for five minutes.

Here’s one that always gets me, and it’s possible I’ve written about it in the past. 

This is an innocent tool ribbon (don’t get me started…) in SPD 2010 that has three items in a group called Manage, that don’t operate the same.  Can you tell, “which one of these things is not like the others…which one of these things just doesn’t belong?”

I’ll give you a hint.  It’s the one in the middle, which is an action button, while the ones on the outside are push buttons. 

This is what happens when programmers grow up without the benefit of ever having used a pushbutton car radio (not exactly, but you get the point).