I had a small difference of opinion with a colleague today. It wasn’t anything big, but I was intrigued by our difference in “common sense” when it came to design (application design not graphic design).

My colleague predominately uses Windows (perhaps exclusively), and I predominately use Mac. I realized the difference came from frame of reference. There are very slight, but fundamental differences between the way one interacts with both operating systems. Using either one for an extended period of time seems to make one kind of “think that way” – if you get my meaning.

I, of course, try to design the Mac way. Someone who uses Windows might tend to default their design to the way Windows works. In general when I show someone the small differences in the way Mac works compared to Windows XP they often like the Mac way better. However, they generally say something like “but people are used to XYZ” – which is valid.

So in order to help translate between the two design philosophies (in a very small way), I made this short screencast. I hope it lets Windows only users understand where Mac users are coming from (pretty much all Mac users already know how Windows works). In the screencast I show a few (very few) differences in design between Mac and Windows using FireFox as the example guinea pig.

Now remember, I am Mac biased. However, I am not trying to push anything on anyone, or convince anyone of anything – just highlight some differences. Also, these small things are what really irritate me about using Windows XP so you’ll notice my happy thoughts are more towards Mac.

And lastly, Vista could be completely different than XP (can you tell I am trying not to upset anyone?). Ok, here is the movie:

<

p>To sum up a few of the basic design elements I think are important:

• Modal dialogs only used when absolutely necessary – control of the application stays in the clients hands as often as possible.
• Things happen the moment you click an item (with feedback) – no “Apply” then “OK” then “Yes, I am sure”.
• Control over window display sizes should be given to the client as often as possible (to allow the information to be comfortably viewed by their own criteria).

<

p>

There are obviously many, many other differences between the two system, but these were some of the main ones that were involved in our discussion. Hopefully, this will help teams mixed with Mac and Windows users to see where each other is coming from.

(I should point out that we did not go with my recommendation on this particular UI element. Going with my suggestion would have been inconsistent with the rest of the application which would have been bad in its own right.)