Should an application look like Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista or Office 2007?

SpamButcher's been around for a while. When it was first released in 2002 - Windows XP was just starting to get market share. Most people were running Windows 98 or Windows 2000.

Windows 95 through 2000 shared nearly identical standard visual "controls" such as minimized and maximize buttons. As a result, an application running on Windows 95, Windows NT 4.0, Windows 98, Windows ME or Windows 2000 looked pretty much the same.

(This is really SpamButcher runnning on XP in "Classic" mode - but it looks roughly the same as Windows 2000)

Windows XP presented a concern. It made some significant changes to graphical elements in the user interface. Everything worked just fine without any modifications - but SpamButcher didn't look right until we added a few "tweaks."

SpamButcher on Windows XP

I recently tested SpamButcher on Windows Vista. The spam protection works just fine, but it doesn't quite look right. The visual issues are very similar to those with XP. Nothing is completely broken, but it clearly has the look of a "legacy" application. With some luck it will only require a dozen or so development hours to have it looking more normal.

Example of a Windows Vista Title Bar

Since SpamButcher will need a little tuning to avoid looking, "old-school" on Windows Vista - it may be time for a general visual update. We're tentatively planning for this in the summer of 2007. Some additional email filtering code may even constitute a 2.0 release.

Unfortunately, any significant changes would require revisiting how things look on all the prior supported platforms.

One might ask themselves - WWMD? (What would Microsoft Do?)

Microsoft was in a very similar situation with Office 2007. While they only support Windows XP and Windows Vista, they still are ultimately dealing with two versions of Windows with two different sets of standard visuals.

Example of an Office 2007 Title Bar

Wait a minute - that doesn't look like a standard Vista or XP title bar!

Like with Windows Media Player, they've now invented a proprietary look and feel for their Office suite. Using Office 2007 feels a lot like running iTunes on Windows.

They would seem to not be following their own "Top Rules for the Windows Vista User Experience."

When I was at Microsoft back in the 90's, they spent a lot of time trying to convince application developers not to do this kind of thing out of concern for maintaining a consistent experience for users.

Will SpamButcher follow Microsoft's lead and simply cook up its own entirely unique set of buttons and controls for SpamButcher 2.0? Maybe not, but we might be a little less shy about breaking with convention.

If those who set the standards don't follow them, why should anyone else?

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