Re: [Usability] Recommended HIG providing additional info/help

[Sean Middleditch <elanthis awesomeplay com>]

On Fri, 2005-01-21 at 15:18 +0100, Age Bosma wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> First of all, I feel that I need to make myself clear about telling you 
> that I'm no linux user. Therefor I'm not able to "know" linux stuff you 
> guys might assume to be known to any linux user. I am however a big 
> opensource fan if that's making you feel a bit better about me again for 
> not using linux ;-)
> The reason I'm contacting you to discuss some matter is because I think 
> it realy good that the HIG is being created. It not only usefull for 
> just linux programmers but for programmers in general.

The GNOME HIG is not for Linux programmers, it's for GNOME programmers -
GNOME runs on Linux, Solaris, HP-UX, Mac OS X, BSD, and even Windows.
The HIG is *not* generally applicable because it describes the GNOME
user interface guidelines, not general purpose interface guidelines.  An
application written for Windows should *not* follow the GNOME HIG, but
instead should follow Microsoft's guidelines (which do exist, but most
Windows programmers don't know about them).

If you think some of the GNOME HIG ideas are good, then you should
perhaps concentrate on getting the interface guidelines for your target
platform(s) updated to a similar quality.  Mac OS X Aqua Guidelines are
very similar to the GNOME HIG in purpose, and they are actually a
selling point for OS X.  The Windows guidelines aren't great, but the
biggest problem there is that nobody uses the ones that do exist;
working to make more programmers aware of those guidelines would
hopefully help get rid of some of the awful user interfaces Windows
programs have.  Even in the GNOME/UNIX world, many programs don't follow
the GNOME HIG.  GNOME isn't so great to use just because its HIG exists,
it's so great to use because we badger the hell out of anyone who
doesn't follow the HIG.  ;-)