Blogger Long Zheng has set up a Windows UI Task Force to identify the UI inconsistencies that exist in Vista. I think it's great to help Microsoft identify these problems, but I have some ideas on how to make sure Microsoft sees them and fixes them before Windows 7 arrives.A blog and its comment posts is a clumsy way to track all of these UI bugs. Microsoft already has a public bug tracker at the Microsoft Connect site, and has used it to track issues for several public beta programs. If each one of these UI problems had an entry in Microsoft Connect, users could vote for the ones they thought were important to fix and it would be easy to find all of the inconsistencies. And, since it's in their own database, Microsoft wouldn't have any excuse for missing them.

Yesterday, Long set up a Digg-like clone that comes a little closer to a bug tracker. However, many of the newer entries have drifted off course. They describe feature requests or outright bugs instead of user interface inconsistencies. This entry, for example, seems to describe a potential bug but doesn't provide any steps for reproducing the behavior or information about the system setup that may contribute to the problem. Again, these really belong at Microsoft Connect where Microsoft can track them.

When put into the context of a bug reporting system, it's easy to see how UI inconsistencies have survived for so long. Most UI "bugs" are only cosmetic, often in seldom-used corners of the operating system; they don't cause crashes or problems that prevent people from using Windows in their day-to-day work. These are the kind of issues that ship with the OS precisely because they can ship without causing any real disruption.

Yet just because Microsoft can ship the OS with these problems doesn't mean they should. You can't sell someone a Lexus with the fit and finish of a Yugo. Attention to detail matters. Inconsistencies and sloppiness send a signal about the level of care that was taken in building the software. Many of these UI blemishes may be fixable without a lot of code changes, or perhaps none at all; it may be simply a case of swapping out the look of the icons and bitmaps.