UI Design in Windows Software

[Hope Cascio <hcascio -at- GTE -dot- NET>]

Techwhirlers,

I've recently had a wonderful opportunity within my company to be a part
of a MSF (Microsoft Solutions Framework) team developing a new interface
design for our product.  MSF teams are very neat things which pull
together people from programming, development, testing, support, and
user ed to solve a problem.  Reminds me of the Quality Improvement teams
I used to take part in at a former employer.

Anyway, I've found a difference in opinion among the team members that
seems to take (and this is, of course, my very subjective viewpoint) a
divide between the user advocate types (support, user ed) and the
programmer/developer types.

The product we're designing for is a few years old, and this is going to
be the first time it's offered without its DOS counterpart, which was a
very popular workhorse.  Our user base is for the most part almost
completely inexperienced with Windows, and often is only familiar with
the computer as that thing they have to turn on to use our old DOS
program.

In designing the new interface for the Windows product, the programmer
types seem very concerned with doing things that are less likely to
confuse the Windows-newbie-- like, for instance, keeping tree metaphors
very short so the user doesn't ever have to use the scroll bar to
discover more folders at the bottom.  Their workarounds, inevitably,
cause the design to veer further from the Windows metaphors we're trying
to emulate. Don't get me wrong-- some of their ideas I think are good--
like always making sure there are keyboard navigation alternatives, not
just for DOS types who don't like mouses very much, but for
accessibility to the disabled.

The idea first presented to the group, and the one we're all laboring
under, is that the new interface should be MSIE/Windows Explorer-esque.
My argument pretty much from the beginning has been that we should stick
fairly closely to the standards set up by MS Windows and the various MS
products.  I can give several valid reasons for this.  I can also see
the other side, which is, that our user base is very DOS-oriented, used
to the old product, resistant to new technology, and "just want to get
their job done."  This is probably more of an opinion poll than anything
else, but if anyone could provide a response with logical arguments for
one way of doing things or the other.  If you want to keep it all
offlist, I'll compile and organize the responses and post them when the
flow trickles.

TIA,
Hope Cascio

--
"Just because a network architecture has been designed to survive
 nuclear holocaust doesn't mean it is immune to WebTV or a bunch
 of sociopathic 12 year olds." -Lon Stowell, alt.folklore.science