March 14, 2001
Untitled
Enough With Themes Already
The ability to change the appearance of an application or operating system through themes or skins has reached the apex of stupid. I’m starting to understand why Steve Jobs kiboshed the inclusion of the alternate themes like Gizmo, Hi-Tech, and the arguably gorgeous Drawing Board in the final versions of Mac OS 8.5. For all the additional flexibility themes and skins afford the user in terms of personalizing their environment, ultimately they get in the way of the standardized means of accessing controls and information. I’m all for tailoring the user experience to suit my needs and habits, but not if it means that someone else can’t find the freakin’ File Menu when they sit down at my workstation. “Just click on the yellow animated fish and scroll down past the chrome skull icon until you hear the sound of screeching tires…”
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