Today I have mostly been designing a new user interface for a piece of software we have. I like doing this, and I think I am quite good at it. But designing an interface is not trivial, and the more one knows about computers the harder it can be to design a good interface. That is because the more familiar you are with how software works, how different applications are written, and what is going on behind the scenes in the operating system, the more you anticipate how software is going to work. You can know instinctively what will happen when you click a particular button, even if you have never used the software before.
This can pose a problem when one is designing software, because the developer may make assumptions that a user will be able to drive a piece of software because it seems obvious to them that if you click here then whis will happen. But this makes a huge assumption on the users' knowledge and skill level.
You may love them or hate them, and you may be a fan of Vista or not, but the trusth is Microsoft do know how to right software. Whether or not they succeed is another matter, but the do know how to do it. And they have studied it at great length. They have infact come up with guidlines on how to write a good interface, and the things you need to keep in mind.
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