threehv

In the olden days I used to hold Apple up as an example of great user-interface (and “user-experience”) design. This was down to lots of things – a love of minimalism and simplicity, the high standards that Mac users held Apple to, a feeling that computers were just too complicated.

But overall, this came down to one simple principle – “top-to-bottom, left-to-right“.

Eye-tracking studies showed that people’s eyes scan from top-to-bottom, left-to-right (at least for “western” readers – I don’t know if it applies to Hebrew or Arabic readers). The eye starts and lingers in the top-left corner and stops and lingers in the bottom-right corner, following an across and down pattern as it moves along the page.

Why is the Apple menu in the top-left corner? Because that’s where you start. Not in the bottom-left, as on Windows.

Why is the trash can in the bottom-right corner? Because that’s where you finish up. No in the top-left, as on Windows.

Why is the default button in the bottom-right corner of every pop-up box? Because that’s where your eye lingers when it has finished scanning the box. No point using that valuable scanning time to show you the Cancel button, as on Windows.

Why is the “close” button in the top-left corner of a window? Because closing a window is a “dangerous” action and so should be taken as far out of the flow of normal operations as possible.

Apple started to give up on this with the transition to Mac OSX. Early versions had the Apple menu in the centre of the menu bar. And the Dock breaks the model completely – the application launcher at the bottom of the screen (although I understand why they did it). But after a period of experimentation, Apple settled down into a reasonably consistent pattern by the time OSX 10.5 (Leopard) was released.

The iPhone changed this. For the better. The iPhone could not use the top-to-bottom, left-to-right pattern. Partly because it is less important on the smaller screen. Partly because the bottom two corners are “dangerous” areas – it is extremely easy to hit any buttons there when using the phone one-handed. For this reason, the default button is positioned in the top-right corner in iOS. That, coupled with Apple’s minimalism (if it’s not absolutely essential then get rid of it) makes the iPhone UI, and it’s associated interface guidelines, better than the rest. All good.

But what about the iPad? It’s an iOS device with a larger screen. So should it follow the top-to-bottom, left-to-right pattern or should it use the iPhone pattern? I don’t know and I don’t think Apple knows either. I have to say I find some of the iPhone apps that Apple has built confusing – especially iTunes and the App Store. Not enough to put me off, but enough for me to stop and think. Which is very un-Apple.

And then last night I installed the Facetime beta. Unsurprisingly, Apple has started borrowing from iOS in its Mac designs. This isn’t a problem. But during the signup phase I suddenly got stuck and didn’t know what to do next. It took about a second of searching around before I noticed that the “next” button was actually positioned in the top-right. That’s right – it was positioned out of the ordinary flow because on an iPhone it would be too easy to hit accidentally if it was in its natural position.

There are reasons for things being the way they are. Apple has known these reasons for twenty five years and are choosing to break with them for no real reason. That bodes badly for the upcoming OSX 10.7 (Lion) release.

I’ve just been playing with emacs for the first time in about twelve years. All was good apart from I couldn’t get the meta-key to work. So Ctrl-B works as “move backwards” but Meta-B did not work as “move backwards one word”. Which is really annoying.

A quick hunt through Terminal.app’s preferences though and all is revealed.

Just tick the box and glory in all your meta-goodness.