[symphonix]

I remember a good article from a few years back - if anyone else can remember the title that would be nice. It was by a computer scientist who was calling for a *real* rethink of the way we design GUIs, and in the context of the article neither Apple nor Microsoft have made one iota of progress in the last 5 years.

The article's first tenet was that interface elements, especially icons, should be designed according to what something is, and not some abstract unrelated idea. For instance, movie file icons should have symbology that relates to movies (for example, a movie camera) and the content of the file (eg: sprocket holes down the side of the keyframe picture). Instead, we have "Q" for most QuickTime files, and "W" for Microsoft Word files. Its little wonder people still find computers hard to come to grips with.

Adobe makes it worse, not just by choosing different feathers for their app icons (pretty much completely unrelated to what the applications actually do), but by changing these unrelated designs with every version.

Yes, I think the GUI looks dated. But I don't think Vista is really any better, just newer. Apple and Microsoft still have a long way to go.