UI Predictability
A gripe about Vista shutdown/standby
One of the signs of a good UI is consistency. This enables you to predict, based on previous behaviour, how the interface responds to gestures. F1 for help, Ctrl-V for paste, click-drag, right-click-properties, and so on.
Following a typical early-morning session on my PC before heading out to work, I used a recently-learned sequence of keystrokes to place Vista into standby. “Windows Key” – “Right Arrow” – “Enter”. Imagine my horror then as I watched Vista kill all my open windows and applications, and then completely shut down! Anyone who develops code will know the significance of having many windows and applications open simultaneously, and the effort it requires to get back into that state. This is why hibernation is so useful.
So why the change in UI behaviour? It seems that in the background, Vista had downloaded and installed patches that required a complete shutdown for completion. Vista does not request a final confirmation before shutting down, so the power button had been redefined to do a full shutdown instead of my usual standby.
Lesson learned. Don’t expect the Vista UI to behave consistently.
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