Five UI Inconsistencies That Annoy Us

5.  FILE SIZES ARE SHOWN ONLY IN KB

Does your car display its speed in furlongs per week? No. That makes as much sense as showing how many kilobytes a 2.5TB file is. Geez! I get this feeling to become so lazy using the calculator for that matter.

4. THE PROGRESS BAR IS A COMPULSIVE LIAR

Whether you’re copying files or installing patches, the progress bar is always wrong. That is why, when someone ask me to copy files to their portable storage devices, I always tell them that the progress bar is not telling the truth, good thing though that when you are installing, it never really ask you to read, I mean really read the terms and condition before getting to the next step.

3.  Application Splash Screens Are Universally Useless.

What is that for? Why they dont just made these software to load directly to its workspace. I dont recognize any splash screen of any software though. I just see it but never did I read whatever it says there.

2. NEXT/PREVIOUS PAGE CONFUSION

Why does clicking “next” take us to older content, while “previous” takes us to newer content? Talk like a human, not a machine!

1. THE SAVE ICON IS A FREAKIN’ FLOPPY DISK!

We haven’t owned a PC with a fl oppy drive in the better part of a decade. Why is the icon still a 3.5-inch disk? Do you have any idea, what should it be the save icon? Tell me. Do you a clever idea for that? What do you think it could be?

An exerpt from Maximumpc magazine, May 2009 issue.

Mars Cureg

Web designer by profession, photography hobbyist, T-shirt lover, design blog founder, gamer. Socially and physically awkward, lack of social skills, struggles to communicate with anyone who doesn't have a keyboard. Willing to walk to get to the promised land. Photo and video freelancer, SEO.

2 Responses

  1. ghino says:

    you’re confused of those “ui inconsistencies” because you’re a new comer in computer technology, you’re a designer not a software/application programmer, if you know computer history maybe you’ll understand why save icon still use floppy disk, and why KB are shown in file sizes, next/previous page are often used in emails and what is their concept (FIFO or LIFO), and maybe you’ll know why programmers put such splash screens on their software/applications, likewise you will know how do progress bar calculates file sizes and time remaining;loading time;differences of fake progress bar and true progress bar.

    Look back and learn!

    • Mars says:

      thank you for pointing that out, I appreciate it. I agree I am a new comer in computer technology, got a lot of thing to learn 🙂 thanks