Author Topic: avast! User Interface future...  (Read 23584 times)

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Offline Lisandro

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Re: avast! GUI future...
« Reply #15 on: March 03, 2005, 02:42:06 AM »
Since we haven't seen any post, on this topic, from the avast! team, I can conclude that this will remain like it is...

Not exactly...
We started the topic very late in the evening...  :P
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Newton

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Re: avast! GUI future...
« Reply #16 on: March 03, 2005, 03:26:55 AM »
I don't like the Newton...

I don't see what's the problem. ???

I was simply suggesting a solution with the additional shortcut. Not criticizing. I perfectly understood what you meant by UI and not GUI, hence why I wrote that you could adjust almost everything from either place, the taskbar icon or the skin part.

Again, as I also mentioned, different people, different tastes, so you can dislike the software or me if you want.  ::)

I just find weird to get such a negative response after I'm trying to help.

Offline rdsu

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Re: avast! GUI future...
« Reply #17 on: March 03, 2005, 10:36:49 AM »
Since we haven't seen any post, on this topic, from the avast! team, I can conclude that this will remain like it is...

Not exactly...
We started the topic very late in the evening...  :P

 :)
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Offline rdsu

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Re: avast! User Interface future...
« Reply #18 on: March 03, 2005, 10:37:30 AM »
Sorry Newton.

I wanted to say that I didn't liked your suggestion ;)

I forgot to put "suggestion" next to Newton.

I have nothing agains't you...  ;)
« Last Edit: March 03, 2005, 10:39:28 AM by VaMPiRiC_CRoW »
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Newton

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Re: avast! User Interface future...
« Reply #19 on: March 03, 2005, 08:38:39 PM »
That's OK, no problemo. ;D

That's one thing with forums or the Net in general... We can't feel the tone of voice or body language of each other, so just one mistyped word sometimes leads to a big misunderstanding. ;D

Take care.

Offline rdsu

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Re: avast! User Interface future...
« Reply #20 on: March 04, 2005, 11:03:05 PM »
Since we haven't seen any post, on this topic, from the avast! team, I can conclude that this will remain like it is...

Not exactly...
We started the topic very late in the evening... :P

Technical, it seems that I was right ;)

Sometimes, just little word from the developers will be nice and clarify this...

Cya
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Offline Lisandro

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Re: avast! User Interface future...
« Reply #21 on: March 05, 2005, 03:15:50 AM »
Technical, it seems that I was right ;)

WHERE IS ALWIL TEAM?  :(  :P
I'm waiting for an answer in the spyware thread I've started too  >:(  :(
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Offline Vlk

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Re: avast! User Interface future...
« Reply #22 on: March 06, 2005, 12:19:54 PM »
All I can say is that no dramatic changes in the avast GUI are due before the release of avast v5 (which is hardly going to happen before the end of this year...).

I'm personally sort of in love with the Longhorn gui so it's quite likely the look'n'feel of avast 5 will be longhorn inspired...

Thanks
Vlk
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Offline rdsu

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Re: avast! User Interface future...
« Reply #23 on: March 06, 2005, 03:02:12 PM »
All I can say is that no dramatic changes in the avast GUI are due before the release of avast v5 (which is hardly going to happen before the end of this year...).

I'm personally sort of in love with the Longhorn gui so it's quite likely the look'n'feel of avast 5 will be longhorn inspired...

Thanks
Vlk

Thanks for the info, Vlk :)

I hope that you can do the best...

Regards
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Musaran

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Doesn't need to be complicated
« Reply #24 on: April 08, 2005, 03:56:20 PM »
Nice topic.

Copy/paste of what should have been here from the start:

The technically impaired...
...can't spend time reading the documentation, because it would eat more time than the little they allot to get the thing done.
...won't really learn, because they forget between each use.
...don't known "what program you are in" or "what was the title of the window", it is just "it".
...consider unexpected dialogs severe (otherwise why bother them), or routine (and click them away). Content matters little, since they understand it little.

When faced with them, I take a hudge step back, think about it, and realise they are RIGHT.
  • Spending more time learning than using means it is not self-teaching.
  • Knowing it's inward details means it is not serving the user correctly.
  • Re-learning the same things mean it is not intuitive.
  • Fetching the documentation means it is too complicated.
  • Remembering it means it can't work by itself.

It doesn't need to be obscure and complicated.
Often a well-thought and carefull design is intuitive and self-teaching : easy at the start, and the more it is used the more it is understood.

Musaran

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Re: avast! User Interface future...
« Reply #25 on: April 08, 2005, 03:57:09 PM »
It is hard to design one single interface to suit many different users...

Control labels:
-Basic users need verbose desciption to understand who, what, when.
-Advanced users prefer concision because it is unobstusive.
-Power users prefer brievity to roam faster in controls.

Feature access organisation:
-Basic users need assistants: few choices at a time, lot of help and advices.
-Advanced users prefer to be in control: menus and windows.
-Power users want as little actions as possible: mouse move/click, keypress, keyboard/mouse change, window spawn/dismiss.

Settings:
-Basic users need little choice. The program decides for them.
-Advanced users prefer more.
-Power users want control over everything.


A powerfull aproach would be to track user level and adapt interface accordingly.
But this raises it's own problems:
  • User can't be asked his level.
  • The easily offended would claim to be expert, the beginner would not know.
    This would have to be deduced from other choices, such as custom install, remote configuration or assistant cancelling.
  • Support and help would have to account for the differences.
  • Several interfaces would have to be designed.

A way out here would be to design interface in an abstract way (purely logical/organisational), and then automatically spawn control layouts from it:
Menu item=Action button=Ok/Cancel dialog.
Chekmark menu item=Chekbox=Yes/No dialog.
Grouped exclusive menu items=Radio buttons=Pick one and validate dialog.
Submenu=Fieldset=Button spawning other dialog.

Such unified interface system could adapt to any environment: extra-small display, text mode, remote control, voice interraction, automated management...

Going this far is clearly overkill and is rather a job for the operating system, just "keeping it as simple as possible" works great too.

And this is my point : to make interface simple, context menus and windows should have the same organisation.


I also made a topic about Systray layout opinion.
« Last Edit: April 08, 2005, 04:18:52 PM by Musaran »

Offline bob3160

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Re: avast! User Interface future...
« Reply #26 on: April 08, 2005, 04:55:54 PM »
Musaran
You sure do like to beat a dead horse. IMHO ;D
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neiby

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Re: avast! User Interface future...
« Reply #27 on: April 08, 2005, 07:33:12 PM »
Bob, he may be beating a dead horse but I'd like to point out something. Everyone has opinions, but there are different types of people with opinions:

1. Non-technical user
2. Average user
3. Advanced user
4. Advanced user with specific knowledge of the application
5. Advanced user with expertise in interface design

Based on his posts, I think musaran is type #5. We should respect everyone's opinions, but I think we should lend a little more weight to the opinions of those who have an apparent expertise in the subject at hand, which is actually interface design, not whether or not Avast is a good application or not.

Avast is a wonderful application but is does demonstrate a few poor UI design choices that could be corrected.

Earlier in this thread someone mentioned that NAV and McAfee were resource hogs. That may be the case, and I like Avast better than both of those products, but have you seen their UIs lately? They're spectacular and VERY easy to use. They look great, have a consistent look and feel, and are very easy to understand. With a bit of effort, Avast's UI could rival those interfaces.

John

Offline szc

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Re: avast! User Interface future...
« Reply #28 on: April 09, 2005, 02:22:07 AM »
.
.
.
Avast is a wonderful application but is does demonstrate a few poor UI design choices that could be corrected.

Earlier in this thread someone mentioned that NAV and McAfee were resource hogs. That may be the case, and I like Avast better than both of those products, but have you seen their UIs lately? They're spectacular and VERY easy to use. They look great, have a consistent look and feel, and are very easy to understand. With a bit of effort, Avast's UI could rival those interfaces.

John

I agree 100%

Musaran's posts don't look to me as attack on avast!, I look at them like this... he is rather a guy with huge UI knowledge behind, desperately trying to point how to improve avast's usability in many ways. Why not listen ? We all can have much better and much easier to learn (for new users especially) antivirus. We all want to be one step ahead of the Norton, right ? Well, we better do something about it... Just my 2 cents (Canadian btw, not US  ;D  ;D  ;D )
« Last Edit: April 09, 2005, 02:28:55 AM by S.Z.Craftec »
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Hopismum

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Re: avast! User Interface future...
« Reply #29 on: April 09, 2005, 03:24:49 AM »
my US 2 cents agrees with Sasha on this one.       Ive not taken any of this as an attack either and feel "some" are getting abit defensive.   Hey, we all LOVE this program.   Whats the harm in suggesting it could be made better?       INMO :)   I see this happen often here.   Someone new comes along and makes some suggestions and some people take it has trashing Avast.      He sees some things that could be made better and maybe, justmaybe,  thinks this program is WORTH the time and effort on his part to make some very good points about it.   I see it as HELP   :)

Bob  :)    the horse isn't dead ...   we just need to kick it abit   ;)