I’d be extremely strongly IN FAVOR of a windowed interface. Skins and other custom GUIs aren’t about being “different”, they are about being attractive to the user. But being “different”, in and of itself, means nothing. If you sawed your left arm off at the elbow, well then you’d certainly be “different”. But would you be “better”? I didn’t think so. So let’s get our terms straight from the start.
The primary goal of an interface should be usability. This is an absolutely indisputable point when held up to the light of common sense. And the plain fact is that the current interface of Weather Watcher is NOT user friendly for those of us who use high resolution. And let’s be relevant here, and realize that large, high-quality monitors and high-quality graphics cards are becoming more common every day.
It irritates me to NO END when people clamor against a windowed interface. Why? Because what those users are saying is tantamount to “Yeah, I know some people can’t really even use this nice application, but it looks spiffy to me, so I want it the way it is! Those other people are simply out of luck.”
Conversely, those of us who have suggested a standard interface are NOT saying “My needs are more important than yours”. We’re not saying “An interface that suits us is more important than anything you want”. What we are saying is that while the current interface works fine for SOME users, a standard interface would work fine for ALL users. This is a simple point of fact.
I don’t want to take away your enjoyment of Weather Watcher, I simply want to be able to USE it, myself, in the first place. And let’s be honest here: Can anyone tell me that (for example) a standard toolbar, with a button that has text saying “Detailed Forecast”, wouldn’t be easier than what we have now?
A standard, windowed interface may not be as “cute”, it may not get “oos” and “ahhs”, but it would be USABLE for everyone. And isn’t the MOST IMPORTANT thing for an interface–and by extension, the application in general–that it works on as many systems, for as many people, as possible?
YES.
