Friday, November 03, 2006
I'll be Back
(1)
Oooo, naughty! I think I was a bit too hard on the folks at Microsoft. (I just attempted to upload a screen shot of the 737 cockpit but it failed. Oh well.)
What I meant by the criticism is that the working cockpit is too close to real-looking. The result is that the various 'controls' are too small, making them difficult to read and to use. This sort of cockpit is more functional (user-friendly) when it is created 'in caricature' with oversized control switches and oversized readouts.
I also found very little continuity in the keyboard commands. Knowing the commands for the most recent version does not help you very much with the new version.
The first flight was a near disaster: the airplane was badly out of trim for takeoff (wanting to dive) and had to be flown to a safe altitude before the autopilot could be engaged. Efforts to manually retrim the airplane failed, although the trim wheel seemed to be functional. Totally disgusted by the experience, I left the damned thing hanging in the air at three or four thousand feet AGL, where it hangs today...
Microsoft seems to have reinvented the wheel here in the shape of an ellipse. What the design team needs is a philosophy: If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Improve it.
No booze tonight therefore no writing. May be back Saturday or Sunday night.
Oooo, naughty! I think I was a bit too hard on the folks at Microsoft. (I just attempted to upload a screen shot of the 737 cockpit but it failed. Oh well.)
What I meant by the criticism is that the working cockpit is too close to real-looking. The result is that the various 'controls' are too small, making them difficult to read and to use. This sort of cockpit is more functional (user-friendly) when it is created 'in caricature' with oversized control switches and oversized readouts.
I also found very little continuity in the keyboard commands. Knowing the commands for the most recent version does not help you very much with the new version.
The first flight was a near disaster: the airplane was badly out of trim for takeoff (wanting to dive) and had to be flown to a safe altitude before the autopilot could be engaged. Efforts to manually retrim the airplane failed, although the trim wheel seemed to be functional. Totally disgusted by the experience, I left the damned thing hanging in the air at three or four thousand feet AGL, where it hangs today...
Microsoft seems to have reinvented the wheel here in the shape of an ellipse. What the design team needs is a philosophy: If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Improve it.
No booze tonight therefore no writing. May be back Saturday or Sunday night.
