Apple updates the HIG

Apple have updated the Human Interface Guidelines for Leopard. When I say updated, I mean it’s more like an act of necromancy. The HIG was largely neglected during Tiger times, with a great job being done by the Indie HIG, though that hasn’t been updated in a while.

The idea of a unified interface still appeals and Apple have got closer with Leopard, but is there a need for uniformity? With the web everywhere and each site having it’s own style, it’s obvious that a lack of uniformity isn’t hampering usability. People aren’t stupid, they know what a button is.

A lot of what’s in the HIG could be just as well served in SDK documentation, the HIG itself could easily be summed up as a guide line that makes developers and UI designers simply ask ‘Is this simple and beautiful?’

Sadly Apple has a problem complying with the HIG itself…

Make sure you do not change the behavior of standard elements. When you need a new behavior, design a new element for it.

Which hardly explains the behaviour of hierarchal folders in the dock since Leopard. At least give us a preference we can change.

Fake Steve on the Stevenote

I stayed in and followed the keynote live, had a feed from Ars going and Macworld but the best, a day later it must be said, came from the real ‘fake Steve‘. This part had me laughing out loud…

The reaction to the glowing reviews in today’s press have been astounding, beyond anything we could have imagined when we wrote those reviews several weeks ago.

If you’re not reading FSJ everyday you’re missing out. There’s also a brilliant cartoon on Joy of Tech. No, I won’t be buying a MacBook Air, purely because it’s the worst name for it I can imagine. Even if I had a need for one.

Hilarious

It seems Microsoft does have a sense of humor. I wish this a real book. Money quote

Offices are why big people get grumpy and say bad words.

The original link doesn’t appear to be resolving correctly, but aboutblank, a site well worth a visit, has a compilation for you. Check it out, very funny.

Nerg takes a battering

The best advice I heard for a successful blog was ‘turn up’, damned if the link can be found. During November I was busy helping out with this. Then in December an extra helping of suck was delivered to add to the already huge pile of suck that was 2007… More on that in a later post.

Still trying to remove some of the suck before a complete disaster occurs.

Smoking alive and well in the UK

A great many people undertake to stop smoking in the new year. Yet despite the ban on smoking in public introduced on July 1st in the UK last year, it doesn’t appear to be having much impact.

A little before midnight last night the bar was full people getting a drink to see in the new year. Shortly after midnight those same people were out in the garden of the pub, breathing deep on the first smoke of the year.

The way in which the law was implemented is a little odd, because liability does not lie with smoker… If you are the perpetrator of a crime you can reasonably expect to get punished if you get caught. Not so if you’re a smoker. If a smoker is caught smoking in a bar, the bar owner is fined. Just doesn’t seem right.