Improving the aesthetics and usability of Squeak

John Voiklis voiklis at redfigure.org
Mon Jul 8 14:34:26 UTC 2002


I happen to like the Squeak user interface (the lack of halo buttons, when I
work outside of Squeak, drives me insane); in fact, as the friend of several
visual artists, I find that much of the Morphic-centered interface bears the
mark of a graphic designer. All you have to do is look at any
design-oriented Web interface to realize that graphic designers think that
the Windows-like UI is ugly, inefficient, and counterintuitive.

I'm not saying the interface is perfect (Squeak's system tool could use an
overhaul), but it improves with every iteration. In addition, I was under
the impression that the development trajectory of Squeak was taking us
toward the goal of the Dynabook: a user-programmable media-authoring tool
for children 0-110. While I understand the need for a traditional
(non-cutesy) look in business applications, I believe the many excellent
(though, I guess, unofficial) implementations of such an interface should
prove more than adequate to the business developers needs.

Best,

John




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