24 Programmers Working on Shutdown Button

[Jordan]

Choices = Headaches


This item ran on the Joel on Software homepage on Tuesday, November 21, 2006


I'm sure there's a whole team of UI designers, programmers, and testers who worked very hard on the OFF button in Windows Vista, but seriously, is this the best you could come up with?






Every time you want to leave your computer, you have to choose between nine, count them, nine options: two icons and seven menu items. The two icons, I think, are shortcuts to menu items. I'm guessing the lock icon does the same thing as the lock menu item, but I'm not sure which menu item the on/off icon corresponds to.
On many laptops, there are also four FN+Key combinations to power off, hibernate, sleep, etc. That brings us up to 13 choices, and, oh, yeah, there's an on-off button, 14, and you can close the lid, 15. A total of fifteen different ways to shut down a laptop that you're expected to choose from.


The more choices you give people, the harder it is for them to choose, and the unhappier they'll feel. See, for example, Barry Schwartz's book, The Paradox of Choice. Let me quote from the Publishers Weekly review: “Schwartz, drawing extensively on his own work in the social sciences, shows that a bewildering array of choices floods our exhausted brains, ultimately restricting instead of freeing us. We normally assume in America that more options ('easy fit' or 'relaxed fit'?) will make us happier, but Schwartz shows the opposite is true, arguing that having all these choices actually goes so far as to erode our psychological well-being.”



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[xXHalfSliceXx]

Holy frickin cow man... Someone is getting the BOOT after reviews go through the roof.

[Lop]

24 Programmers? And they probably still got it wrong. haha

[TcM]

Wew 24 programmers? WTF! looooool

[DevilsCharm]

It takes 24 programmers to just make a shutdown button? How many does it take to design an OS? 2400?

[TcM]

Rotfl...I wouldn't take that as an exaggeration! hey its Micro$oft m8! alot of programmers and money wasted for a stupid OS full of bugs and exploits for simpler hacking :S

[xXHalfSliceXx]

Originally Posted by Tcm9669

Rotfl...I wouldn't take that as an exaggeration! hey its Micro$oft m8! alot of programmers and money wasted for a stupid OS full of bugs and exploits for simpler hacking :S

I'm sure they pay people to make the bugs

[TcM]

Originally Posted by xXHalfSliceXx

I'm sure they pay people to make the bugs

What you mean pay people to make BUGS? in windows? why would micro$oft want bugs in its OS?

[xXHalfSliceXx]

Originally Posted by Tcm9669

What you mean pay people to make BUGS? in windows? why would micro$oft want bugs in its OS?

I was being sarcastic you nimwhit.

[TcM]

looooool sry but at that time I was bsy that I didnt even notice that.. I was posting posts on automatic rotfl.. I didnt know what I was doing..