My recent affair with usability brought me to analyze a somewhat subtle aspect of software, especially the user interface design aspect.
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I have recently discovered a passion for design — especially the kind that can be done in software — and so I have been paying a bit more attention to various concepts and ideas pertaining to the field. Today I was called into a meeting to discuss the changes required to make a particular user dialog more… user-friendly. A great time to put theory to practice¹.
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1. I am a software developer by function and workplace designation [↩]

I gave the OLPC interface¹ a quick run tonight, and I must say it is… intriguing. I understand, now, some of Robert Graham’s arguments as to why the OLPC may be detrimental to third-world countries instead of helping them get access to more technology. While *I* certainly may find the interface interesting, someone that has never been exposed to computers before will be conditioned by Sugar². Take said person and put them in front of even a GNOME Linux desktop and it will take a bit for them to adjust. Put them in front of something as clunky and bloated as a generic Windows interface and they may actually think you are trying to make fun of them³.
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1. The words have been carefully chosen, for I only really analysed the interface thus far [↩]
2. The OLPC’s interface [↩]
3. Though even in the case of GNOME, the shift may be quite strenuous, I am taking into account that the OLPC is a Linux distribution [↩]