My favorite GUI was always IRIX. I know saying Motif looks good sounds a bit silly... but the whole thing looks ugly-good. Like craigslist or reddit before the remodel. It looks bad on first sight and then once you use it for a while you forget it looks like much of anything. It’s just easy to use.
I think Windows 7 and Windows 10 still have very clear interfaces (I mean Win32 GUIs, not the Metro/Modern stuff no one outside of MS really cares about).
I've never understood however the need to disable Aero and switch to Windows Classic, which looks gray, boring and feels like using Windows 98 again.
Ironically, most of the people I know who used Windows Classic mode switched to Linux later using something like GNOME or Cinnamon and then complained how ugly Windows was in comparison :)
> I've never understood however the need to disable Aero and switch to Windows Classic, which looks gray, boring and feels like using Windows 98 again.
Gray and boring is good. IMHO, flashy computer UIs are for movies and other cases where actual usability is secondary.
I've always switched to Windows classic, because the menus and icons are more compact, and I can better arrange things so I can access them more quickly. I'm not deficient in motor skills, so the the one thing I don't need is giant, colorful buttons.
> I've never understood however the need to disable Aero and switch to Windows Classic, which looks gray, boring and feels like using Windows 98 again
I've always disabled it. Not because it's awful or anything (I'm neutral to it) but because it uses up machine resources without giving me any particular benefit. There's nothing wrong with the classic look. I don't need my UI to be all flashy. I need it to be functional.
My definition of superfluous eye candy includes the default green and blue theme of Windows XP, Aero in Vista and 7, and Metro in later versions. What you describe as boring is predictable and usable to me.
You guessed right, I run various Linux distributions with Cinnamon on every computer but the gaming one, and I still envy the clean and crisp look of 2000.
Regarding Metro, the new control panel in Windows 10 lacks most settings a normal power user (not a domain admin) needs so all the useful functionality is hidden behind one extra layer.
actually no, real usability research specifically lacking in flat is how to design for older workers. MD handles this Apple still has not address this in FD
Any sources on this? I'm genuinely interested in how preferred flatness is somehow correlated with younger age. I know that children probably like to click on everything and explore how software works – heck, that's what I still do when I encounter new programs – but it's much easier if basic UI elements behave in expected ways.
I guess it's cognitively harder for the UX designer to create unusual workflows if the UI elements are saying "this is wrong" right in the face.
The Windows GUI usability also peaked somewhere in the decade spanning 2000, XP and Seven, if you disabled the candy themes.