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Why does Microsoft hate menus?

Okay, so in developing the last few websites I’ve been playing with Internet Explorer 7 Beta 1, and after a few weeks of using it (not as my primary browser… scoff), I think I can say: what the hell, Microsoft? What’s wrong with having a main menu? Eh? I can understand Microsoft wanting to make the address bar more prominent–it is the way most people input a website address–but that doesn’t have to come at the expense of user experience. And I think I’ve figured out what the problem is…

Microsoft has forgotten that Apple’s menus are up top. Simple as that. IE7 is a direct ripoff of Safari’s visual layout, and it’s not terribly surprising: it’s a good layout. Back, Forward, Address, Go, and Search, all right underneath the window title. Punchy, brief, and provides the user’s most comment UI elements all in one quick package. Not more than 75 pixels tall, either, leaving plenty of room for content display.

So Microsoft is biting Apple’s style; in the industry, that’s called “best practices,” and while it might merit a blog post, it certainly wouldn’t merit further attention. What turns it into a real losing proposition for users is the fact that the environment for IE7 and Safari are radically different. To wit: Safari’s got the menus up top, and IE7’s got the menus… uh… right… over… um… there. Underneath the tabs, just like… um… well, just like nothing else in the world.

In a nutshell, here is why this is a horrible UI paradigm: the File menu, which is inside the tab for a particular website, has an item labeled Exit. Guess what it does.

Fundamental to the working of modern operating systems is the idea of scope; applications which are functionally separate are displayed as visually separate–in different windows, for example. Within each window, other scopes of action are suggested visually: typing within one field doesn’t automatically spill over into another. Tabs denote a scope of action, and widgets within a tab are usually interpreted as applying specifically to that scope alone. Having widgets in a tab which affect elements outside of the tab is a mistake. The fact that it is a common mistake does not magically transform it from being a A-class blunder. Internet Explorer 7 shows us that Microsoft has forgotten the mistakes of Word 6.0.

Oh put on some clothes, man…

From my friend Jeremy:

So a artsy-hipster fixed gear rider girl whom I know tangentially from mass stopped me outside kroeber today and gave me a flyer for her website, saying I should “send in a pic.”

I guess that’s a compliment…

The website? http://www.thefge.com

And what’s there? Naked male hipsters on bikes.

Are you a woman who rides a hot track bike or a sexy singlespeed? Are you sick of catcalls and being “objectified” while riding your bike or because you ride a bike? Has someone ever said “I can see your kitty cat” while riding your bike in a skirt and being clearly covered up? Well fear no more. This site is dedicated to girls who love biker boys and are sick of all this s**t. Time to strike back.

We are currently accepting photos of men in their undies or commando (if you insist) riding some sweet wheels. Sorry, only fixie and SS photos will be posted. Please see the Submission Information page if you would like to submit photos.

Words fail me.

“This brings a smile right to my face!” says The Girl, whose words obviously didn’t fail her.

I’d post a picture, but I see they’ve got the “twenty-something in boxer-briefs with a beer belly on a fixie” category pretty well nailed down. Plus they’ve got fancy bikes, and mine’s more like a crazed, postapocalyptic warrior bike. A bit like this guy.

New version of Ultimate Tag Warrior

Christine Davis, author of Ultimate Tag Warrior, has released a new version which fixes the minor problems I had with it, and adds tag unions and intersections, in a minor version release (2.8→2.8.1), no less. I have no idea what kind of feature transcendance would necessitate a shift to 3.0. ;-)

Cheers, Christine!

Authenticity vs. Self-reflexivity

From Slacker Manager: Authenticity at work:

Authenticity gets a lot of play these days. Seems like everyone talks about it, especially in terms of blogging. “Good bloggers gotta be authentic–gotta have an authentic voice.” I don’t dispute the truth there, but I think the concept of authenticity is getting diluted.

The way I see authenticity coming into play as a Slacker@Work is pretty simple and it plays well with that last definition. Authenticity says “this is me, who are you?“. Authenticity is neither passive, nor aggressive. It seems like a lot of what gets passed off as authenticity these days is more along the lines of “this is me and if you don’t like it, screw you.“

I realize that I’m tipping my “college boy” hand here, but I’m reminded of Adorno’s critique of authenticity: that the idea of authenticity cannot be communicated without a reference to ideology, thus perpetuating said ideology.

I know that in order to process my inbox, I need some external motivation, and that knowing is authentic. It would be inauthentic for me to say, “well, I just a have schedule of cleaning my inbox and only I know when I need to do it” rather than acknowledging my actual external motivation. Being an authentic manager then, is both knowing yourself and acknowledging your motivations.

I’m going to get super geeky here. This brings to mind not so much “authenticity” as Giddens’ location of self-reflexivity as central to the modern project of personality. Authenticity assumes an objective connection to the essential nature of a thing, and that any distance between appearance and essence is due to ignorance or duplicity. Giddens’ reflexivity is less an analysis of an objective condition–the ontological seperation of experience from truth–but rather a state of introspective mindfulness about internet and external influences.

The difference is that, given the question “Why am I doing this?”, Slacker Manager suggests that we can and should know the answer, while Giddens would say that the answer is not meaningful but the process of asking is illuminating.

As you were.

Wicked sweet devil teapot

I defy you to make sense of this:
wicked sweet devil teapot!

Update:
New domain name! http://www.wickedsweetdevilteapot.com/