Alan Kay wrote:

> But, Henrik, what is the "rational argument" for having color or even
> gray scale or different fonts in the developer interface or any
> interface? Or flowers on your desk? Part of UI is ambience.... If you
> don't like rounded corners, then you should be able to turn them off,
> etc.
> 
> Cheers,


You are clearly talking about aesthetics. But when I taught graphic design
for user interfaces, rounded corners was not part of any principle or
textbook I ever saw. The basic rule is "form follows function" even if that
is somewhat simplified. You are absolutely right that gratuitous color and
so on are redundant and that's basically what is taught. This is why
multi-colored windows are also well known to be bad design (not to mention
colored window pane backgrounds!). And so on. They like rounded corners on
windows and menus are gratuitous decoration.

When I buy a desk, it doesn't come with garish flowers that I can turn off
if I don't like them. You *add* these things if that's what you like. The
basic options are simple and clean, and if you want to clutter things up
then you may do so.

But to think that user experience is about "whatever you like" or arbitrary
choices is completely wrong. Many people think that UI is just a matter of
opinion, and last week Don Norman said that when he coined the term "user
experience" he didn't have in mind what people mean by it now. He would have
a field day with the sausage scrollbars btw.

There are well established principles for good graphic communication. What
else would they teach in graphic design? "Dream up an ambience that you
like"? Good books in this area are actually pretty hard to find. The book by
Mullet & Sano is the best one out there, at least for computer-related
things. I really recommend it.

There was a guy on the list a month or so ago that clearly knew graphic
design and offered help, and the first thing he suggested that New York be
replaced, which is an obvious point since it is well known that sans serif
typefaces are the best choice for cases like Squeak.

You are right in that Squeak does have an "ambience". And for anyone with
graphic design training (etc.) who know how to "read" such things, Squeak's
ambience reads "amateurism". There have been several people who know these
things who have offered help. But Squeak will probably always be ruled by
the programmer's aesthetic.

Henrik