On Fri, 19 Apr 2002, Jon Hylands wrote:

> On Fri, 19 Apr 2002 10:06:43 +0100, goran.hultgren at bluefish.se wrote:
> 
> > Don't let all these gray-stripe-Windows-users drag us down to the boring
> > bottomless pit of white backgrounds! :-) Who knows, the next thing they
> > may come up with is removing the mouse logo! Stop this nonsense right
> > NOW:

My sentiments exactly!

> Heh heh.

Well, these too, of course :)

[snip]

> The point is to make something that welcomes new users in, which means
> something that is not to radically different visually from what they're
> used to. 

Well, surely this *is* the point of contention? I don't think you get to
just assert it.

First of all, we do have to specify *which* users. Users who've never used
computers before are use to...well...lots of things.

There's a contrary argument that making it *too* much *sorta* like what
they already know sets them up to be dissappointing when it turns out to
be *not* what they know. VisualWorks is often that way for me. (This
needn't require the current colors, but I'm just *leary* of your arguments
in support. I actually know some people who are initially *intrigued* by
the colors. The look over my sholder and think it's neat. Personally, I
give *more* weight to your lone, brute preference than to undocumented
appeals to what sells derived from general but vague laws of psychology
:))

> Squeak has enough stuff inside it that sets it apart...

In the UI even. AFter all, what is *up* with the little x and o? :)

To take another example, the Aqua interface is resoundingly bashed on
similar grounds, yet it seems to pull in new users. (Of course, tha Aqua
bashers are largely *right*, which makes a difference...:))

Cheers,
Bijan Parsia.