March 18, 2006

Non-negotiable rules of UI design #2

Posted in development at 11:52 am by lugnuthorsefly

For Pete’s sake try and cope if the network is down.

Due to a recent relocation of my home PC I’ve been experimenting with a wireless router. This experiment is not going well but I won’t go into details because apparently my mother-in-law reads my blog and I find myself unable to describe the experience without using language more suited to the Bile Blog.

Anyway, it seems that any number of programs I use assume I have internet connectivity and completely fail to behave when I don’t.

Take iTunes, for example (the Windows version), which flat-out refuses to run at all unless the internet is up. I just want to listen to some #%!&’ing mp3’s for !@#$’s sake!