When people critique user interfaces, the talk usually revolves around terms like "visual cues" or uses words like "intuitive." Author and usability expert Donald Norman has written extensively about such matters in both the online and offline world, and I recommend his books, along with those of Edward Tufte.
Sometimes, however, a UI deserves recognition not because it succeeds or fails with regards to the aforementioned criteria, but because it's just plain bizarre. In this spirit, I present to you the 3D Audio Demo from the Realtek HD Audio Manager. This truly amazing interface manages to incorporate into a single display three elements I never expected to see individually:
- Animated flying bumble bee (with buzzing sound)
- Floating torso
- Toilet
But the best part of it all is that it makes sense! For what it's designed to do, namely demonstrate the sound processing and 3D audio capabilities of the sound card, it's quite effective. So kudos to Realtek... Who said hardware manufacturers couldn't write good software?
