Why isn’t “Do Nothing” a choice?
Apple software insists on doing things automatically. Fine, but give me the choice to “Do Nothing” automatically if I don’t like your options.
- 17 Jul 07
- apple, interaction design, software
This is Joshua Kaufman, an interaction designer living in San Francisco. I write about design, technology, products and getting things done. I also occasionally publish articles, presentations and projects. Shinier things can be found on my tumblelog. You can contact me via email at or otherwise.
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Comments
Yes agreed. Most of the time I would like it to do nothing and do it myself. I feel like in the past you had more control over what your computer does. The more they try to automate the little things the more frustrated i am. And the less my computer does what i want it to.
Kyle Koski on 9 Jan 08
The main reason a “do nothing” option is desirable and is included with Windows is because all of the things it wants to actually do by default when you insert a CD involve waiting seconds or even *minutes* for some useless bloated application to launch (I include Windows Explorer, by the way, in that category), potentially destabilizing some other activity you are up to.
Most of the options in the Mac menus above, by comparison, are utterly benign. The simplest option in each menu (Open Finder and Show CD) serve as confirmation to the user that the CD insertion and mounting was successful, which is not only useful information, but is a UX standard practice for any major user interaction.
I am a recent convert to Mac, and I am often delighted when I realize that what at first seemed frustrating turns out to be a blessing. In this case, Macs often lack preference options where Windows has them because Windows *needs* preferences to permit users to work around other systemic annoyances.
Christopher Fahey on 21 Feb 08
FWIW, you can actually change this if you’re a power user by going to your system prefs > CDs/DVDs and choose “ignore”. The in-app options, however, are probably best for most regular users.
Christopher Fahey on 21 Feb 08