I often speculate that computers might be universally more loved if product presentations didn't exist. An eye-catching feature is a big win in a short presentation, but in daily use it can be a nightmare. Similarly, in-store displays tend to show off how visually impressive a product is, but simpler interfaces are often better for regular use.

In software design, as in other areas, ideas that seem brilliant at first can be disastrous in practice. In this month's The cranky user, I'll point out software features that are little more than a flash in the pan, and suggest a functional alternative.

Oh, the pretty lights

Too much modern interface design seems to revolve around slapping a visually impressive interface on top of less than impressive technology. Too many desktop applications seem to be built around how great they'll look sitting on the shelf at the computer store, or under bright lights at a trade show, rather than how well they'll perform when you're using them eight hours a day, five days a week.

A visually impressive interface is implicitly there to be watched, not to be used. As the old sign used to say:

		 ACHTUNG! ALLES LOOKENSPEEPERS!

    Das computermachine ist nicht fuer gefingerpoken und
    mittengrabben. Ist easy schnappen der springenwerk, blowenfusen
    und poppencorken mit spitzensparken. Ist nicht fuer gewerken bei
    das dumbkopfen. Das rubbernecken sichtseeren keepen das
    cotten-pickenen hans in das pockets muss; relaxen und watchen das
    blinkenlichten. 

And no, that's not real German.

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Slow for animation

Animated transition effects are quite popular these days. One program I had took a particularly imaginative approach to such transitions: it showed a large marble door grinding shut (complete with sound effects), then reopened the door to reveal the new interface behind it. Impressive? Yes. Pleasant? No.

To see that transition for the first time on a big screen in a darkened conference room with decent speakers would have been awesome. To see it for the first time on a laptop screen with tinny speakers would have been pathetic. To see it 20 times per hour while I tried to use the application was a nightmare.

That said, not every animation is bad. The Classic Mac OS "zoom rectangles" were an example of a well-designed visual cue. They were simple and fast enough to provide necessary information without interfering with more important processes. They didn't look like much and that was sort of the point. Apple's designers weren't trying to get you to stop and say "wow, that's incredible"; they just wanted to point out the window's origin in case you wanted to reopen it later.

Good animations are quick and simple. If an animation slows to a crawl on some systems, it's overkill. The Mac Classic's window-zoom animation was lightning quick on an 8-Mhz 68000. An animation that runs slowly on a 400-Mhz processor using hardware acceleration for graphics is too much.

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I don't need it in THX

Sound effects can be an effective means of communicating with software users. To work well, such effects should be suitable to their application, reasonably quick, consistent, and not too annoying. That shouldn't be a tall order, but judging from what's out there, it is.

One thing I dislike is sound effects that are beyond my control. For example, Windows Update makes periodic "click" sounds. I'd like to stop them but I can't. I think the Windows operating system makes those click sounds under certain circumstances given particular settings, and Windows Update is just trying to fit in. Whatever the cause, it's annoying and inconsistent with my otherwise mostly silent desktop.

When you add sound effects to your applications, take a minute to consider what happens when they multiply. Some years back I was at a college where students had personal startup disks for using the college Macs. The students, of course, all picked different alert effects. You could tell when the printer ran out of paper because the computer lab was suddenly full of a wild variety of shrieks, bells, and whistles. This was annoying but basically useful. At least it was helpful in that users could tell their machine from other machines. Most users also quickly switched to a fairly short alert sound.

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Is my interface really pulsing?

A particularly egregious bell and whistle is overenthusiastic alerts. Unfortunately, these are often entirely unconfigurable. The Mac OS X freeware chat client Adium X uses a cute little duck icon for alerts. It sits in my dock and starts flapping its wings whenever anything significant happens. It will not stop flapping until I activate the window or otherwise do its bidding.

Imagine, if you will, trying to finish a difficult paragraph in an article such as this one while a duck flaps its wings incessantly in your peripheral vision. I've tried. Here's what it's like:

	A FLAP particularFLAPly egregioFLAPus bell FLAP and whiFLAPstle is
	FLAP overenFLAPthusiasticFLAP alerts.

I blame Apple at least partially for this trend. Its bouncing alert icons have proliferated to other applications and operating systems. You cannot disable this behavior. You cannot put a silent flag or even an annoying beep in its place. You just have to accept constant animation in your peripheral vision, demanding immediate attention.

Windows doesn't escape this one either, although it prefers flash to bounce. Window titlebars and other components flash constantly until they're tended to. There is no obvious way to disable this so-called feature.

Desktop animation isn't just for alerts, either. The default buttons on Apple's Aqua interface literally throb for your attention. Gone are the unintrusive borders highlighting a default action: today's default button has to constantly shimmer so that you feel like clicking it before it escapes.

Demanding little icons that shimmer and bounce are just obnoxious. I imagine they seem impressive when you're idly gazing at a computer screen at some computer store. Having your attention so readily called to certain features must make them seem exciting. But trust me: these visual cues don't seem nearly so cool when you're trying to get work done. They get in the way. Alerts are sometimes important but it's rare that they're urgent. I should be able to decide when I want to deal with the actions on my desktop. Remember, alarm clocks have snooze buttons for a reason.

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Is that a virus or a help system?

I can summarize this topic in one word: Clippy. Do a search and you'll find dozens of Web sites that describe ways to shut off Microsoft Office's infamously annoying "help agent." Serious analysis of the paperclip's persistent tendencies suggests that its behaviors are more typical of a virus than of a help system.

Clippy was bad, but my absolute least favorite help system ever is Apple Guide. This so-called help system required that you complete a procedure before you could read the instructions for it. You couldn't review a procedure to see whether it was actually what you were looking for without first trying it. You also couldn't use a machine on which Apple Guide was configured to look up instructions for use on another machine. It was a beautiful concept -- a help system so closely integrated with the rest of the system that it could open and close windows, draw circles around UI elements, and so on -- but I never once had a positive experience with it. It also seemed to make any machine on which it was loaded detectably slower.

Help systems that actually provide good documentation are rare. Many systems have no documentation at all for core system functions. Software creators focus so much on elaborate features that most have forgotten the importance of documenting the features. I would find it helpful if developers spent at least as much time writing the help system as they do making it sing and dance for me.

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In conclusion

Bells and whistles draw you in at the store -- oh look! this program has bright red swirly things! -- but they don't often help you get your work done. Even video games, where bells and whistles are more useful, can suffer from an interface more visually impressive than usable.

Unfortunately, as long as computer software is marketed as a consumer item developers will be expected to deliver flash along with functionality. The key is to make these features optional, so users can turn them off after the "oooh factor" has worn off. Users will promise to be very impressed in the store, as long as you developers let them get some work done when they get home.

This week's action item: Try disabling some of the animations you've simply learned to live with. Do you miss them?

Resources

Learn

• Drowning in Aqua (Peter Seebach, developerWorks, April 2002): What went wrong with Apple's second-generation UI?
  
  
• What I learned at the arcade (Peter Seebach, developerWorks, June 2002): Even video games sometimes go overboard on the bells and whistles.
  
  
• "Death to Clippy" (David Karp; O'Reilly & Associates 2004): The little blinking paperclip was so annoying he made it into the big book of Windows XP Annoyances.
  
  
• developerWorks Web architecture zone: Find the Web development solutions you need.
  
  

Get products and technologies

• The Blinkenlichten poster: See it for yourself!
  
  

Discuss

• Participate in the discussion forum.
  
  
• developerWorks blogs: Get involved in the developerWorks community!
  
  

About the author

Peter Seebach has been using computers for years and is gradually becoming acclimated. He still doesn't know why mice need to be cleaned so often, though.

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Table of contents

• Oh, the pretty lights
• Slow for animation
• I don't need it in THX
• Is my interface really pulsing?
• Is that a virus or a help system?
• In conclusion
• Resources
• About the author
• Comments