Subject: Re: [X4U] Widgets? - Unrelated

[Jim Robertson]

On 4/13/09 1:55 PM, "Linda" <xpressobean at mac.com> wrote:

> Entire weeks can go by that I don't use them, then
> suddenly I find myself interested again for a while.

I think it's a user interface issue. They're one-trick ponies, but they
don't do the trick the way they should. Those of us with gray or no hair, or
who can remember Guy Kawasaki's mantra "cut me, and I'll bleed 6 colors", or
even the use of reversed angle brackets in the "Apple ][" logo may also
remember Desk Accessories, those little items that proliferated under the
"Apple" menu as the first fruits of independent programmers for the Mac back
in 1984.

As far as the user experience is concerned, those little suckers did their
job BETTER than do Widgets. If you wanted one, it was right there, right
now, and it didn't go away unless you wanted it. With Widgets, you ask for
one, you get them ALL, and as soon as you copy something from one to an open
application, it runs away and hides!

Still, I find it the most convenient way to find out what presentations are
going on at the Apple Store in San Francisco. It's accessible also on the
Apple Store webpage, but it's not obvious and I have to struggle to remember
how to find it each time I look there!

If I could bring up ONE and have it stay in an unobtrusive or unused corner
of my screen until I had no more use to it while continuing my other work,
I'd be much more of a Widgets fan. Amazing to me that a company that spends
so MUCH time on the human user interface hasn't a clue what's basically
wrong with these little code snippets.

Anyone disagree with that?

Jim Robertson
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