Worst. Interface. Ever.

[Nighted]

You people are going to hate me! lol

I can't think of the worst GUI ever but the worst I can think of right now is Total Commander....YUCK!!!! 

Oh, I think Eudora should use a new set of toolbar icons. I wish it was skinnable like Thunderbird.

I also must defend Winamp. I wish all applications gave the user the option to create their own interface. There are some excellent skins. Some are horribly designed but others make Winamp much easier to use and so much more fun!

[jpfx]

Total Commander is so ugly I could never use it the way it is.

[rjbull]

Total Commander is so ugly I could never use it the way it is.

-jpfx (September 29, 2005, 05:23 PM)

Total Commander's interface is like a Land Rover, or for Americans, an owner-driver Peterbilt or Kenwood.  What you get is ruthless muscularity.  You don't expect it dressed in a pink frilly tutu.

I suppose, for me, the "Worst.  Interface.  Ever."  has to be...  Windows.  Total Commander was the first program I found that made it almost semi-tolerable.

[mouser]

I'm also told by a huge total commander fan that the default appearance can be a bit painful on the eyes, but that you can adjust it to make it more pleasing for those of us who aren't exactly fans of the windows 3.1 look

here's a screenshot of total commander, and to tell the truth this doesn't look as bad as i remember (still a bit cluttered thought):

[jpfx]

fugly; and an insult to Land Rovers.
Dantz Retrospect... that's horrendously over complicated too. It excels in taking 10 steps where another program takes 3. Unresponsive too.

[mouser]

agree, dantz retrospect has a very confusing interface.

[zridling]

I've been working with NewsLeecher this week, and frankly, it's a complete mess (and doesn't include a Help file!). But its longtime users love it.

[Rover]

Alright you guys, lay off total commander...

It really is a powerful tool and I was even thinking about writing a review; which is how I found this thread.
Anyway, out of the box it is a little cluttered, but when you customize it things get better.



This is how mine looks.  It is running somewhere on my system 100% of the time.  It even has a  launch bar you can customize with frequently used apps.  It has a TON of cool features, including some powerful synchronization and file/text comparison.

If you want a really lame interface, try to recall Microsoft Bob.  Can't?  It was so lame, it only lasted about 3 months.  One of the only true Microsoft products (they bought everything that's popular, including the XP kernal) and it was pathetic. 

[Catalin]

There are many mirrors around, like:

http://homepage.mac.com/bradster/iarchitect/

[Hirudin]

Rant time....

but i do have to say i have a personal hatred for photoshop interface

I can't say I'm a big fan of Photoshop/Gimp interafaces... could be because I've only used them a couple times!  They just seem to clutter up the screen.

Me too/eitgher. Every now and then I think "hey, I'll use Photoshop instead of Paint Shop Pro, after all Photoshop is better..." then about 3 seconds in, when I can't zoom using the scroll wheel, I realize that it's not worth trying to deal with. Adobe needs to take every one button mouse in their lab and throw them in an incinerator, then they need to have their memories erased Total Recall style. Having to hold a key and click (instead of simply *Gasp* right-clicking) to zoom out is beyond unintuitive.
Another thing I hate, since we're on the subject, is how zoom out in *Adobe* Photoshop is Alt + Click and zoom out in *Adobe* Acrobat is Ctrl + Click... How stupid can stupid Adobe be?
It seems like The Gimp took the stupid aspects of PS and intensified them by taking the main program window away. I don't want to see my web browser behind the image I'm trying to work on.

[edit]

i'm afraid photoshop users are really just subjects in an mental experiment to see how many hotkeys one person can remember, or how many inconsistent dialogs can a person put up with before they break down.

HAHAHAHAHH!!!!HAHAH!
[/edit]

An Apple representative recently tried to give me QuickTime 7 Pro for free and I declined simply because of the interface.

LOL! Stick it to em! Hey, at least with the Pro version you could maximize the video if you wanted to.

but 6.0 of any of the DivX products makes me feel like I've been lobotomised.  How do I do anything?

HAHAHAHA!!! I've used the 5.2 (or whatever) divx player like once, it wasn't immediately better than BSPlayer (actually, what is?) so I uninstalled/ignored it.

I love skinnable apps! If I don't like the interface I can get a skin to fix it. The old Winamps had this all wrong (winamp 2.x skinning was a HUGE P.I.T.A.!!!!). I don't remember exactly, but the "next track" button was slightly smaller than the rest (in the words of a geek on the Simpsons: "I hope someone got fired over that one"). I think the new one (5.x) has better skinning options though.

here's a screenshot of total commander

Good Lord!

I think I'll throw in my 2¢...
As it seems like ½ my posts have included either The Godfather or BSPlayer, so I'll start with those.
The Godfather - bad interface, awesome program. I wont get into the details, but for me, it seems like it's several apps inside one window. A function you think might be in one "app" is actually in another, other functions are in both.
BSPlayer - The original skin is pretty bad, but the skins "BladeV1.01" and "G20" fix it pretty well.

Nero - I'm sorry, but Nero 6's interface sucks! I don't know how many times I went to burn a DVD only to realize that I forgot to change the tiny CD or DVD drop down menu from CD to DVD. And WHY do I have to
1. start the program
2. close the "New Compilation" window
then
3. click Recorder > Burn Image
to burn an image file when every other burning option is IN the "New Compilation" window?

One of the "worst / best / worst again" interfaces I've used was Lightwave 7.5! They took normal Windows conventions (like Ctrl + Z = undo) and threw them out the window. On the other hand, it actually worked VERY well (undo is U... that's it, just U, redo is Shift U (makes sense don't it? U for Undo!)).

Maya - Complicated, but usable. In order to use Maya your left hand pretty much can't leave the vicinity of Ctrl / Shift / Alt (you constantly use all 3) AND it requires a 3 button mouse (take that Adobe).

Rant over....

And last but not least:
Rhino 2.0 - has got to be the most intuitive program I've ever used. The repetative tasks that you have to do 5000 times on every image are all on the mouse. Right-click will repeat the last task you did if you tap it, if you're in the middle of doing a task it'll move you to the next step, if you right-click and drag (at any time) it'll drag/rotate the view, the scroll wheel actually zooms (again, how does Adobe leave this feature out?), left clicking does everything else. If you click in an area where 2 or more objects lie it'll highlight the top one, every subsequent click will cycle through the objects, then just right click when the correct one is highlighted (also a menu pops up with the different object types, which you can click if you prefer), if none of the objects are correct you don't have to start the whole task over, just select "None" from the menu and click somewhere else. Rhino restores my faith in the possibilities of computer software every time I use it!

[f0dder]

I hate QuickTime, RealPlayer and Windows Media Player with a passion. I also find the .mov format highly overrated, those mac people should just go divx or xvid

I really hate the WMP (and similar apps) user interfaces - give me the clean and unobtrusive look of mplayer2.exe, thank you. I generally dislike all things skinned, but for winamp it's okay... I'm flirting a bit with MusikCube though, and considering foobar2000 as well.

Total Commander is another good pick - why does it still look like win3.x even in 2005? I used to be a hardcore Norton Commander fan, but that was because of the funtionality, not ugly looks . xplorer^2 (www.zabkat.com) is quite sufficient for my needs, looks prettier, and is stille pretty lean_and_mean.

(they bought everything that's popular, including the XP kernal)

Huh? MS hired (among others) David N. Cutler to design & write the NT kernel, which later progressed to 2000 (NT 5.0) and XP (NT 5.1). How did they "buy" the kernel?

Anyway, here's a screenshot of xplorer^2 customized for my use. Monospace font, no silly toolbars that only waste screen space (<3 shortcut keys), etc. As you can see it supports icon overlays, which is very nice when dealing with version control (in my case, subversion) - but can be turned off for very fast speed.

I think one of the prime examples of bad interface design would be the EMACS editor, but most opensores stuff qualify; at least there's common user interface guidelines for the windows world that a lot of people seem to respect.

[mouser]

hmm.. i like the nice bare look of explorer^2.. might have to give it a try..

[f0dder]

Notice that the lite version is free (although finding the link for it on www.zabkat.com can take a few minutes ), that it supports dual- as well as single-pane, has tree view if you like that kind of thing, has a lot of nice configuration options,  "quick viewer", view filters etc. I'm sure Total Commander has everything xplorer^2 has and some more, but x^2 has everything I need, and doesn't look like crap :-)

[mrainey]

I registered xplorer^2 and spent some time setting up the interface.  I liked the way it worked okay, but every so often all my settings would disappear and I'd have to set everything up again.  After several such problems I complained on the forum.  The developer didn't have a clue.  Another user wrote that he occasionally had the same problem.

The settings can supposedly be stored in a .reg file, which can be double-clicked to restore them when they disappear.  That worked once, then stopped working.  Besides, how klutzy is that?

Directory Opus is ten times the program xplorer^2 is.  It's one of the most useful and reliable  programs I've ever used.

[f0dder]

Draggable and skinned toolbars, lots of icons and gradient colors, and custom, custom non-client area icons... well, not my kind of thing. I like my explorer to be lean_and_mean.

I would be very concerned if I had ever witnessed your loss of settings, though. Especially the part about not being able to import from a .reg file (I'd be worried about the state of my whole system then :-) )

[mrainey]

You can make Directory Opus as lean and mean as you like.  I use about 10% of what it offers, and hide the rest.

My system was fine (and still is, six months later).  xplorer^2 is just a buggy piece of software, in my opinion.  Lots of times on their forum, when somebody would talk about a problem they were having, the developer's only answer was along the lines of  "I don't understand, it's supposed to work".

Good luck with whatever you use.

[Innuendo]

Speaking for old MS-DOS curmudgeons everywhere I'll make this vague, sweeping generalization of a statement....If a program doesn't have keyboard shortcuts for at least all major functions then it has a crummy user interface.

Out of the box Total Commander does not look very attractive at all. However, it is very customizable and if you master its potential you will be able to perform file operations tens of times faster than any mouse jockey. It's brilliant.

Directory Opus is brilliant as well. I used the author's programs on the Amiga and he definitely knows what he is doing. I just think he's a little out of touch when it comes to product pricing and pricing of upgrades.

Here's a screenshot of Total Commander as I have it configured & I don't think it looks bad at all.

[f0dder]

Innuendo, that looks a lot better than any other Total Commander screenshot I've ever seen 

Still too much wasted space & icons for my liking - I never use those since I prefer keyboard shortcuts, so they only end up wasting screen real estate. But considering that you've managed to make TC at least relatively decent-looking, I guess it's worth another look. I don't understand why the default install of TC has to be so crummy-looking

[Innuendo]

f0dder,
I can afford wasted screen space as I scaled that down from 1600x1200 and I wanted all that open space so I could see extra-long filenames. However, everything can be customized. The icons, columns, etc. are all customizable & there are hundreds of plugins available that add even more functionality.

Anyone who says Total Commander is ugly either hasn't bothered to customize the interfacer or is not aware that it is possible to customize the interface. People have been trying to get the author to change the default out-of-the-box look for years unsuccessfully.

[jgpaiva]

f0dder i have to agree with you,regardless EMACS  is an extremely powerfull tool,it looks just bad! still,and as you mentioned that kind of apps,i would have to say that the worst interface ever,would be vim! I tried using it once,ran it under Linux on command line,and took me loads of time to even be able to exit it! (i even think i had to restart the machine) I think that nothing about vim makes sense,and i can't see the point of using such editor if you have emacs
Just now,thinking about it,i don't even know if vim can be included in this thread,as there is no interface.. (or is there one and i couldn't find it???)

ps: this is just IMHO,vim users please don't try to send me an anthrax-filled letter or something like that! 

[superboyac]

nikkho i'm with you about total commander,
though in fairness its one of the most beloved programs by a large number of people,
so i think it's one of those programs you either totally love, or totally can't bear to use.

-mouser (September 29, 2005, 06:55 AM)

I don't have a problem with Total Commander.  It's not a pretty interface, but it is highly functional and practical.  I do agree that Real Player and QuickTIme have horrible interfaces.  I also agree that Winamp skins are in general, quite lame.  Real Player and Quicktime are bad interfaces because they have like 5 buttons take up this enourmous amount of space, there's no efficiency!  I hate that.  I hate the bubbly Mac crap, where everything is from happy bubble-yum land, with their shiny aerodynamic look as if it's going to be faster because there's less wind resistance.  Ridiculous.  The screen is rectangular--all buttons, general shape should be rectangular also, that's my opinion.  And keep them small please.  The good thing about winamp skins is that there's always some minimalist programmer who makes a highly efficient, compact skin.  That's a good thing.  Having the option is always a good thing, because of course not everyone is going to agree with me!

And I normally don't like java type programs for windows.  Now, I don't know a thing about programming, but whenever I see something that is Java based like Konfabulator or azureus, it seems to be sluggish, and I like to use the term "viscous".  You know, you click on something and the change isn't instantaneous, but there's that slight delay  that can be annoying?

Man, talk about getting all riled up.

[rjbull]

EMACS  is an extremely powerfull tool

-jgpaiva (January 12, 2006, 03:33 PM)

Be careful, as I heard a rumour that EMACS users are more prone to RSI than most...

[jgpaiva]

@ rjbull:
Sorry, i didn't get what you mean...I'm not very experienced in emacs,actually,but I've seen my professors use it,and i got astonished,for those who know its keyboard shortcuts,(not even all of them,cause i know there is one that gives you the rest),emacs can do some great editing (and not only,since i've also heard it even has a lisp interpreter!),IMHO at least...
I don't know what you mean by RSI..
Just out of curiosity,are you a vim user? Don't you support my opinion that there isn't any less intuitive program than vim?

[Carol Haynes]

RSI - Repetitive Strain Injury

What happens to your wrist when you drink too much beer