Consistency of User Interfaces

Though I pride myself on being technologically forward-looking, back in the day, I never owned a TiVo. I didn't want the hassle of having two channel guides — one that came with my cable box and a second one for my TiVo. I waited until the TiVo functionality was integrated into my cable box — one guide for both watching and recording. This functionality is now so prevalent that it is simply referred to as a Digital Video Recorder (DVR).

Today I have satellite television instead of cable. My Dish Network DVR has a really handy feature. It records prime time shows by default. Actually it doesn't. It's really providing prime time shows on demand. I can tell this is so because the recording of prime time shows doesn't occupy one of my channel tuners when it is happening. In addition, deleting an automatically-recorded prime time show does not increase the amount of available space on my DVR. Automatically recorded prime time shows have a feature that automatically skips commercials. So what is going on?

Dish Network simply models the prime time recording capability as if the shows are recorded by my DVR so I can use the same user interface for watching shows on demand as I do for shows I record myself. So this means that playing, fast forwarding, pausing, reversing, and deleting shows are done using the same remote control buttons for everything I watch. It really is a blessing instead of having two separate user interfaces for similar functionality.

This got me to thinking. Are there features of AutoCAD, Fusion 360, Revit, or Maya that are similar but currently have vastly different user interfaces? You can share your findings at [email protected].

The quest for consistency and convenience is alive in the lab.