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ArtistA picture in four comix-style panels, showing various Graphic User Interfaces. At the top of the picture, in a large Comic Sans font, is the title "Diversity Saturday, May 2nd, GUI Diversity".
There is an ongoing conflict between the familiar standard user interface, and the apparent desire of humans to keep changing everything (often to invoke addiction to novelty). I remember as an Apple //e developer in the early 1980's attending an Apple meeting where they said something along the lines of "The Mouse shall be the User's main input device, and the Keyboard only used for the input of text and numeric data". Well, look how many vendors disobeyed THAT guideline :)
Even Microsoft attempted to standardise its MS-Windows interface, with its Scrollbars and Menubar, and once all the users got comfortable with it they deleted the Menubar and changed the way Scrollbar worked. Nowadays it appears that every Win app is mutually inconsistent and thus difficult to use! (I for one have given up on both MAC and MS-Windows, and am writing my own OS ::SHE+ILA::)
And now for the worst part -- Web Page Design. Originally there was a standard layout with blue and purple links, HTML tables, titles, etc. Unfortunately the HTML interface was too restricted to make web pages look like Application screens, and were too static, so along came the likes of JScript and VBScript which let web authors build intelligence into Web pages. However they ignored the Preferences of the User, and made web pages look like cheap glossy magazine articles. Users got even more frustrated when continual updates kept de-familiarising and changing the way users could interact with the Web pages, deliberately overcomplicating them in a race for novelty like a supermarket sales spree. (Example: the recent DDG generate page -- now resolved). Wouldn't be nice to be able as a user to optimise your own layout instead of putting yourself under the control of Web designers! I certainly am not under the control of local supermarkets when it comes to my weekly shopping -- I wisely ignore "special offers" and other such spam, and stick to my shopping list within reason. Have fun everybody!
