The First Law of User Interfaces: The Principle of Least Action

You have to respect a company that has delivered on its vision --a computer on every desktop-- so successfully that the very meaning of desktop has broadened to include a computer.

So it always amazes me that the same company that helped popularize the very notion of GUI is capable of such mind-bogglingly bad UI decisions. Case in point? Well, I could start with the fact that, 21 years after the first release of Windows, Windows XP still forces me to answer "No" for every single file when I am copying a directory and do not want to replace files that exist already. The answers include Yes, No, and "Yes for all". But symmetry did not cross the designer's mind, and neither did the fact that some people might want to answer "No for all". That alone has bugged me hundreds of times in the last several years. What's worse, it's bugged someone at Microsoft, too, for in rare circumstances, a checkbox bearing the text "Repeat my answer every time this occurs" comes up. Alas, this happens but seldom. That merciful developer's work has gone untapped.

Or I could point to the recently released new version of Hotmail, Windows Live Mail. Virtually every UI decision in Windows Live Mail is misguided. For example, after logging in, you are shown a screen that has not useful information, instead of your inbox, which is the screen that 99% of users want to see virtually every time they log in. Or I could point to the fact that after you click Attach, you need to make yet another click on the only option you have available at that point: File. But it gets worse: those two clicks and selecting the file I want to attach are not enough for them. If I don't click Attach yet again, the file is not attached, and the user ends up sending an empty email. What is it with these guys and repetition? And I haven't even mentioned the fact that it has the slowest login time of any email service I've used.

So here's a common sense approach to user interaction: find out what it is your users do most frequently, and make sure that requires the minimum number of clicks.

The First Law of UI Design, or Principle of Least Action:

The most common action should require the least action by the user.

Corollary to the First Law:

If an action contains no informational value, eliminate it!

For example, if there are no other options but to click, that click is superfluous.

The world really cares about usability --they've even created a World Usability Day!

P.S. Yahoo does not stay far behind --the new Yahoo mail Beta does not show you your inbox upon logging in either. If you click on the word Inbox, it does not show your Inbox. Not if you double-click on it, either. No, you need to think of right-clicking on it, and then your messages appear, as if by magic. And when you're done sending an email, Yahoo devotes a whole page to tell you that the action actually worked --are their failure rates really that high that this conveys information? And then people wonder why Google keeps gaining market share?