Bad design

Windows 8 is an easy target because so many of its design choices were sub-optimal for desktop computers and were even kind of iffy on tablets, which is what the Windows team was bizarrely designing the OS for back in 2012. It is telling that Windows 10 either undid all of Windows 8’s new features or reworked them, often dramatically.

Here’s one example: Closing a Modern app.

Modern (or as they are often referred to before Microsoft changed the name, Metro) apps are programs specific to the Windows Store, introduced with Windows 8. These apps could run on Windows 8 and Windows RT, the ill-fated version of Windows that ran on ARM processors. They were always full screen and as such felt very tablet-oriented. They lacked the usual minimize/maximize/close buttons in the top right corner so it was perhaps not surprising that some people didn’t know how to close these programs.

Microsoft wanted these to be treated like iOS apps in that you generally would never need to close them. Windows would manage memory and shift apps around as needed. But if an app misbehaved or you suddenly decided you really hated the weather app and wanted to kill it–how would you close it?

By moving the cursor to the top of the screen until it changes from a pointer to a grabby hand, then, while holding the left button down, using the hand to drag the app off the bottom of the screen.

If that sounds a bit awkward, it was even worse when you actually attempted the task, especially on large monitors with a lot of real estate to cover as you worked the app down to the bottom of the screen and the dark oblivion that awaited it. If you flinched and released the mouse button early you had to start over.

This is bad design.

Windows 8.1 modified this by having a title bar appear when you moved the mouse to the top of the screen. This title bar had the expected controls in the top right corner, including the coveted close button.

Windows 10 changes Modern apps more significantly, allowing them to run in regular windows that can be minimized, closed and moved around like any other window. If a Windows 10 device is running in tablet mode (new to Win10) Modern apps automatically  switch to full screen mode and behave as they do in 8.1. This is one of many examples of the Windows 10 team both correcting the flaws of Windows 8, while also coming up with new and better ways for the UI to behave.

I’m going to start posting random thoughts on bad design I’ve encountered over the years. Most of these will be tech-oriented but I will occasionally give shout-outs to things like the incredibly heavy and awkward doors on my parents’ 1977 Ford Granada.

In 1998 a recently-returned-to-Apple Steve Jobs ushered in the iMac, a product line that continues successfully to this day. The original iMac was a daring and colorful all-in-one design that did away with a floppy drive (controversial at the time), made an optical drive standard and for the first time included USB ports, allowing Mac owners to use peripherals that worked with the broader PC market.

The iMac came with a keyboard and a mouse. This is the mouse (and I am far from the first to highlight its shortcomings):

It was often referred to as a “hockey puck” for obvious reasons. It is, perhaps, the only round mouse to ever go into mass production.

There is a reason for this.

Look at your hand. Is it round? To be certain, look at your other hand (apologies to any one-handed people reading this). You have probably noticed that your hands are not round. When you grip the original iMac mouse, it is an awkward grip, because its shape does not take into account the shape of the human hand. This is bad design.

Apple did learn its lesson, though it took two full years of people madly trying to keep the circular mouse oriented before it got replaced. Here’s the current (insipidly-named) Magic Mouse that ships with iMacs:

See how it approximates the shape of the human hand? Good work, Apple.

Spoiler: We’ll be revisiting Apple mice at some point in the future.