1

I haven't posted on UX before. I have a question that has always puzzled me. Is UX the place to ask the following?

Question

Many generations of Windows right up to the present have had non-resizable windows for some of its system information. Here's an example:

enter image description here

Why? It's really irritating that the columns are too narrow and to read all the information one has to play around with scroll bars and resizing columns.

Can anyone suggest any kind of reason that Windows have stuck with this convention so long? Am I missing something?

I'm not asking for an answer to the actual question here. Simply whether I should post it. So, would the above make a good question for UX or is it too open to opinion?

Many thanks.

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
3

On general questions starting with "Why did Google/Apple/Microsoft/[X] design product [Y] like this" isn't really fit for this Q&A. On general this is because it's very hard to find credible sources on the reason why. Often, you have to work at the company/department responsible for the design, which is very limiting.

This is not to say the answer doesn't exist, just that it's hard to find. This leads to speculative answers which we want to avoid.

I know I have asked a few of those questions too, with sometimes real answers back, but often just guessworks back. With this in mind, I hope you now have a better understanding of whether or not to post the question.

1
  • Thanks. Yes that is helpful. I suppose the (faint) hope is that someone on here would know the real reason (assuming there is one!). I suppose I could add a proviso that says, "If you don't know the answer as a fact, then please don't give an answer at all", however that might come across as impolite so I'd be reluctant to do so. Do you think specifically excluding guesswork would (a) have any effect or (b) make my question more acceptable ?
    – chasly - supports Monica
    Commented Sep 20, 2015 at 12:11

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .