[openbeos] Re: Patch: Prettifying the default decorator

> >         Why is this [blinking] really needed? Is there a better way 
> > to achieving its
> > purpose? Are they assuming the user is too stupid to realize what 
> > they
> > selected?  Isn't that quite insulting? How often does a user even 
> > pay
> > attention to the blinking?  What kind of delay does it have and how 
> > does it
> > interrupt the flow of the user's tasks?

I always felt that the blinking mimics tactile feedback. A slight 
visual buzz, if you understand. It was never obtrusive, in that it was 
so short that after using it for a few minutes you never perceived it 
as a distinct 'blink', it sort of became part of the action - so much 
so that turning it off (or setting it to one or two blinks instead of 
the default three, as was possible) made everything seem ever-so-
slightly out of order, like changing the mouse speed or the colour 
scheme.

MacOS 7/8 (not much personal experience with 9, I must say, though it 
seems fairly close to 8) is something all UI designers should spend 
some time with, simply cos it got so many things right, big 
(spatiality, consistency, menu bars where menu bars belong) and small 
(menu blinking, item sorting).

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