"Invisible" <voi### [at] devnull> wrote in message
news:49e46b49$1@news.povray.org...

> I mean, really, how am I supposed to know if I want to add a new account
> until I've checked what ones are already there? That's just silly. And
> why do I need a 1-page "wizard" to "help" me perform this highly trivial
> task? Give me a break...

Progressive disclosure / wizard based interface are sugar coated versions of
the very old computer paradigm, so old that I don't know if it has a name.
If you wanted to enter a matrix, for instance, the text based interface
would ask you:

Number of rows? _
Number of columns? _
Item (0,0) ? _
... etc

Of course that was due to platform limitations. With windows, there was a
brief push to minimize modal interactions. Now we are coming full circle.

Such interfaces are certainly much less work on the programmer (even though
there may be more windows, UI logic is trivial compared to the alternative)
and work well for novice users, who may not have a clue to what actions are
available with a flat, discover-actions-on-your-own interface. They can also
be an absolute PITA for advanced users. A good design should be able to
accomodate either type of interface. MS does that sometimes (user management
/ advanced user management, for instance) although not consistently and not
in the most fluid manner.

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