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Old 06-21-2005, 12:22 AM
hamishmacdonald
Thinker
Join Date: Sep 2004
Posts: 455

You know what this comparison did make me think, though? "The icons on the Pocket PC suck."

In terms of functionality, of course I like my current Windows Mobile device (Asus MyPal A730W) more than anything I've used before.

But in terms of graphic design, I think the Newton and the Palm OSes both have a better understanding of icons: They should be immediately identifiable. A hard black outlined iconic object is much easier to see than a soft VGA illustration.

I found the same thing back in my Mac days, when moving from OS 9 to OS X: suddenly the icons became pictures, and I had to think every time I looked for an application or a file. And as web usability expert Steve Krug says in his book, the first rule of interface design should be, as the title says, "Don't Make Me Think!"
 
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