@Asst The issue is the consistency. The fact that OS-X has tabs-as-buttons in the center, is pretty random. If they want to properly copy OS-X, they have to copy the guidelines, not the screenshots.
The guidelines, just a guess, decided that document-tabs and application-section-tabs have to look different, because they behave different. Then, whatever random solution was chosen to differentiate those two different types of tabs, it was applied consistently throughout the desktop. The issue people have have with these buttons as tabs, is that it's the only place in the whole Ubuntu desktop that uses them. People are conditioned to think twice before pressing a button. In the visual language, a button means 'action'. You do something destructive to the model. (which in this particular case would be the account setup of Ubuntu One). A tab button however, communicates an update to the viewer. People click on tabs out of curiosity, even when they don't know what the word means, or what it's exactly about. It's always safe to do. Buttons not so much. You wouldn't press a button you don't understand. Now changing the interface to consistently use buttons as tabs for application sections, can be a choice. But only if that decision is applied throughout the desktop, will the user be properly conditioned that it's pretty safe to click those, and look around. And being able to look around and browse the full functionality of an applications, helps the user get a mental model about the interface. In this particular case, the user-interface is simply horrible. People just speak out about the buttons-as-tabs, because it is the biggest violation. But it's definately not the only one. The fact that user-interface breaks the consistency of the desktop is bigger problem, than the actual choice. I don't think anybody would mind, if this applied consistency. But it isn't at the moment. Together with Unity, which doesn't use GTK itself, i think the designers have made it very difficult for them to make the user feel in control. All these different interfaces differ too much to look so much alike. In the end you get the typical 'pop & mom' windows user, that use muscle memory to interact. It's like when you go a French bar and learned the phrase 'Je voudrais une bierre'. You've been told this will get you a beer, but you don't actually know what you are saying. In the case of Windows, this is overcome by people taking 5 to 10 years to learn how to do pretty mundane tasks. I don't think people will ever have that kind of patient with the Linux desktop. So, yes, this is micro issue. Who really cares about just the Ubuntu Control Panel. But it's also an artifact of a much larger issue. The design teams, needs to start setting up strict guidelines. Perhaps even publishing them, so it's easy for external application developers to stick the same conventions. And as has been states on OMGUbuntu; this design was based on a pixel- perfect design. ( a print design ). That might not be the most successful way to design a consistent user-friendly interface. -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu Bugs, which is subscribed to Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/729531 Title: tabs do not fit with rest of the system and are unituitive -- ubuntu-bugs mailing list ubuntu-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs
