Palm OS User Interface Guidelines [pdf, 2003]

I'm adding this to my repertoire of HIGs to study for a new desktop environment project I'm working on. I'm trying to synthesize the best parts of every computer interaction method, primarily focusing on desktops but looking at mobile designs as well.

There are 2 principle reasons for this project: 1. UNIX desktops objectively suck compared to their Mac and Windows cousins, either being too complex to learn and bombarding the user with options (KDE, XFCE) or being so dumbed down and rigid to be actually usable (GNOME, to a lesser extend CDE) 2. I'm a massive fan of the GNU project and the way it designs software and none of the current desktops integrate well with it (EG: texinfo manuals, emacs-y keybinds, A wealth of customization if you want it but otherwise easy to pick up and use)

	▲	cosmic_cheese 2 minutes ago \| parent \| next [-]
		I'll be keeping an eye out for your DE. For a long time now, the Linux desktop space as a whole has been rather uninspired in my opinion. A few interesting ideas have surfaced within it but failed to become popular for one reason or another, making for a rather stale environment. That's not to say that it needs to be in constant flux or to be full of radical ideas. If anything, it'd be nice to see more DEs settle into a design and feature set and chase stability, efficiency, and performance over shinies. Rather, I think it would be better if more Linux DEs were built around coherent, opinionated design philosophies that cleanly set them all apart from each other. Even if that design philosphy is "N platform's desktop, refined to its ultimate form", it's better than the "aimless bag of features" direction that's most common.
	▲	jim180 26 minutes ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		would you mind sharing your library of HIGs?

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analog31 20 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-]

To me the best thing about Palm OS was the rule that you’re never more than two taps or a button press away from where you want to be. (I think that’s how I remember it). The beloved early GUIs were all on machines that didn’t do much, comparatively speaking. The problem with modern GUIs is that there’s just too much to learn and remember if it’s presented as symbols rather than text.

	▲	lxgr 13 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		Symbols are already a best-case scenario. Too often, modern UIs require hovering over this button or making that swipe gesture to perform a certain action. The antithesis of affordance.

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SunshineTheCat an hour ago | parent | prev [-]

I still miss my palm treo, the stylus, and physical keyboard. 20 plus years later and I still cannot use an apple pencil on my iphone... >:(

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guide42 7 minutes ago | parent | next [-]

The Graffiti.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graffiti_(Palm_OS)

I remember the Giraffe game to learn it.

https://palmdb.net/app/giraffe

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weezing an hour ago | parent | prev [-]

It puzzles me why there is no proper stylus for an iPhone considering how big some versions are.

	▲	RGamma 38 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		In fact my keyboard is still broken from that "misdetected keyboard button press" bug they introduced some time in iOS26. Gotta see whether that's fixed in 26.3. Embarrassing!