Long Zheng was briefly overwhelmed by the outpouring of contributions to his Windows UI Taskforce, which I noted earlier this week. But only briefly.
The project is back with its own page and a slick data-driven interface. Oh, and a new name that uses the correct nomenclature: UX (for user experience) rather than UI (user interface is deprecated). Long explains:
The way I originally imagined it was to go through each of the suggestions by hand and add them to my post along with a pretty screenshot. Needless to say, I got tired about 20 entries in and couldn’t imagine doing 140 more. I had to come up with something more manageable.
With PHP in one hand, MySQL in another and some duct tape in my mouth, I’ve put together a voting-centric community feedback portal over at www.istartedsomething.com/taskforce.
It’s not done yet, but it’s at a stage where it’s complete enough for use and I can add functionality (hopefully) without destroying the database. One key functionality missing for now is the ability to edit the entries you’ve submitted, so keep that in mind and double check everything.
You can browse the current crop of Windows UX Taskforce listings and contribute your own if you sign up for an account.
My first reaction is that the current listings have drifted a bit from the original concept. Most of the entries I looked at in “Newest Submissions” mode were actually suggestions for improvement in the Windows UI rather than quirks, inconsistencies, and errors, as in the original concept. For example, the current entries at the top of the Most Recent Submissions list suggest allowing the taskbar to span multiple monitors, allowing the user to reorder taskbar items, and allowing custom folders on the Start menu. Good ideas all, but definitely not mistakes so much as design decisions.
It would be nice to come up with a categorization that separates suggestions from bug reports.
Ed Bott (@ wordpress.com) 