Design of the Desktop#

Watch these video interviews#

• Bill Atkinson - https://vimeo.com/552500827  
• Larry Tesler - https://vimeo.com/552500554
• Cordell Ratzlaff - https://vimeo.com/552501728  

Questions#

Why were Bill Atkinson’s pull-down menus such a success compared to other proposed designs? Consider the following factors:#

• The speed with which a user can find the option they are looking for
• The danger of overload, the user being presented with unnecessary information when they don’t need it
• The ability of users to recall where an option was. How do hierarchies of options support this interaction?

Consider Cordell Ratzlaff’s discussion of the eject-trash conundrum. Can you think of an alternative design for graphically ejecting a disk? Consider what the pros and cons are of your design versus the Mac OS X solution.