Friday, October 12, 2007

Open Letter to Visual Studio: Please, Please, Fix This Window

Dear Sara, Scott, Scott, and Redmond,

VS2005 made great strides in UI usability for developers. VS2008 makes even more. Microsoft clearly gets this stuff now, and is cranking out don’t-make-me-think UIs like Steve Jobs’ mama. But, somewhere deep in the halls of Redmond sits a developer on the Visual Studio project who answers to no UI Guru, no Usability Cop, no Design Guideline. He wires up his beloved window to SqlDataSource -> Select Query -> Query Builder…, ensures no pane is left usable, turns off ‘maximize’ and ‘persist size’, then clocks out and goes home.

Sara, as a fellow Mississippian, and .NET dev, you owe this to the Magnolia State. Scott and Scott, you’ve thrown yourselves under the train in the community as champions of us little morts banging away code the best we know how. Microsoft, you invented the GUI and Ribbon Interface. Please, Please, Fix This Window:

Sincerely,

Daniel

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