[pak]

A big part of usability is not sitting around waiting for entire pages to reload every time you interact with them. AJAX has done great things for users by minimizing this delay. You wouldn't like Google Maps as much if you had to click an arrow and wait for a page refresh for the map to move, like MapQuest circa 2003.

Yes, the proliferation of web apps has created a diversity of user interface paradigms. Some would say this is a good thing, however, since the web has spurred all kinds of new UI philosophies, and the fact that JavaScript and HTML isn't compiled allows people to examine and re-work others' code, so good ideas spread very quickly. I for one don't intend on waiting for the HTML5 group to invent every new <input type=""> that I could conceivably need, and then wait some more for browser vendors to implement them all consistently. With JavaScript, you can currently build and deploy just about any kind of 2D client-side interaction imaginable.

In short, the vast majority of users on the internet probably have a different idea of usability than yours, and the numbers tell the rest of that story. You only need to look at the gross casserole of UI paradigms within the applications installed on your mom's PC to see how much users really care about UI standardization.

[codehalo]

Thank you.

[cypherpunks]

Did you read what I wrote? I mentioned Google Maps as one of the two places I found AJAX useful.

The applications on my mom's PC do have much better UI standardization than the web does. Microsoft releases UI guidelines. alt-f4 does the same thing in every application I've used, and the menu structure is roughly the same too. Apple is even better.

[pak]

> Did you read what I wrote? I mentioned Google Maps as one of the two places I found AJAX useful.

Yes, and I was dissecting why you may have found it useful, because the same principle applies to hundreds of other situations that you may not have recognized.

> The applications on my mom's PC do have much better UI standardization than the web does. Microsoft releases UI guidelines. alt-f4 does the same thing in every application I've used

Questionable. About the only key shortcuts you can rely on are the ones that will work in your browser too. Alt-F4 will close your browser--that's what you wanted, right? Cut/copy/paste, print, etc. all work there as well...

> the menu structure is roughly the same too

Ha, you mean the invisible menus on Explorer and IE>8, the mega "office button" menu in Office 2007, the delightfully inconsistent menu bars in WMP>9...

[bad_user]

     Microsoft releases UI guidelines

Microsoft and UI guidelines in the same sentence, something doesn't compile - I would be happy if they used their own guidelines though.

     the menu structure is roughly the same too

Too bad it is getting reinvented; it happened in Office 2010 and it will happen again as people are getting tired of File -> Save; and yet again when touch screens on laptops will become the norm.

So I'm sorry for your mom, but unless she never upgrades, then she's going to have to learn new things.