VALENTINIAN Because as a developer and designer, you are to adhere to the human interface guidelines of the host operating system. UI and interaction design isn't an afterthought, to be papered onto your app whenever you feel like it. An operating system has a distinct set of UI and interaction metaphors, and if you don't follow it, it breaks user expectation. Ultimately, as a Mac developer, you are not creating apps for "Windows switchers". You are creating an app for -Mac users-, to conform to the expectations of Mac users. The fundamental design of Mac OS X makes the installer gratuitous, except when you specifically need to execute some non-obvious, non-file copy task. On Windows, this is precisely the case -- any software installer must write Windows Registry entries to be registered as an application. On the Mac, there is no such thing, and thus the installer metaphor is restricted. The implication of a Mac installer is that you are going do other things behind my back that isn't a straightforward file copy (put something in /Library, install a framework, install a kernel extension, write a configuration file, etc...). Violating this expectation means a Mac user will wonder what you intend to do behind their backs to install a simple decompression app. Follow the UI and interaction standards of the host OS -- any UI designer worth his pay will tell you this. As an UI engineer, I dare say that single-click "drag-and-drop" is a much easier concept for a user to understand than the overused and multi-click, multi-step installation wizard. (Version 13.0.3) |