WYSINWYG

Most people are familiar with WYSIWYG- What You See Is What You Get- a computer user interace that displays things in a format that fairly accurately displays on screen what the final output will be, so that (as a simple example) rather than a bit of code:


<b>this text is bold</b>

you get

this text is bold

I’ve spent several hours of my life recently trying to find out why a program I have to use daily was refusing to email people. Here’s the UI:

Skeuomorphic twice over? A web app emulates a phone emulating a slider switch, badly.

Skeumorphic twice over? A web app emulates a phone emulating a slider switch, badly.

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You’ll notice the option to email two people, controlled by sliders. These are a skeuomorph: soemthing that icorporates design features of something it emulates- in this case, a slide switch. In fact, it’s a double skeuomorph: it’s a web interface impersonationg a smartphone impersonating a slide switch.

I’ve got two problems with it. Firstly it’s unneccesary frippery and animation, and secondly, it plain doesn’t work. It’s distinctly What You See Is Not What You Get. I’ll grant you there’s a certain amount of PEBCAK here on my part, but the control is broken.

If you click on the left-hand side of the control, and swipe accross, like you might with the control it imitates on a smartphone, the control changes to YES. It does the same if you click the right-hand end, or if you click and drag, keeping within the boundaries of the control. The difference is that if you use the first method, like I did, it shows YES, but registers NO to the back-end software, and gives you a several-hour troubleshooting session to work out why the email didn’t send. An older version of the software has a simple check-box here, and I suspect that this is a simple case of layering a bit of wankery over the top for effect…

Opinions differ on skeuomorphs: some consider them to be problematic, and some think them great, for the same reason: they imitate familiar technology, and so either make people confused, or make then feel at home. This one definitely left me confused.

4 Responses to “WYSINWYG”

  1. species5618 Says:

    skeuomorph, I have learnt a new word today, now sure if that is an impressive or worthwhile achievement.

    but I now have a great title I can put on this
    http://www.amazon.co.uk/Protelx-Classic-Rotary-Corded-Telephone/dp/B003MACWSS/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&qid=1403532100&sr=8-8&keywords=retro+phone

    looks the part, and actually rotated, but the “stop” is actually a switch, and the dialer play a DTMF tone, when you hit the “stop”
    the tell tale sign is 12 finger holes, as it support “*” and “#” too

  2. stymaster Says:

    That must have some sort of pulse counter too, or is that what the switch in the end-stop does?

  3. species5618 Says:

    the dial does not pulse dial, it is complete fake

    it is a position sensor, and the “stop” switch triggers a DTMF pulse,
    you can hold the dial in position, and flick the switch, and it will dial the selected number

  4. stymaster Says:

    So I guess the dial position makes a contact somewhere, then the stop switch says “dial it”. Does if feel like the old mechanical job at all?