Principle of Least Surprise

I'm constantly surprised by my computer, and that's not a good thing. A folder that last time showed as 'list' suddenly shows as 'icons' (the 'printers' folder is especially guilty of this). Sometimes 'new folder' is the top item on the File menu, sometimes it's 2/3 of the way down. Sometimes when I search for a word, MS Word/Adobe/any browser you can name will display it at the top edge of the view, sometimes at the bottom edge.

I think this sort of thing is at odds with the way the human brain works. If you perform the same action repeatedly, part of your brain stores that motion and you get so you don't have to think about all the details of an action, you just do it. Also, the brain seems good at remembering where things are in space. If your computer kept your icons where you last left them, you would be able to find them faster. The way things are with software today, you just can't make use of all this neural circuitry you have; every time something isn't where you left it, you have to bring in your full attention and puzzle it out. If software writers want to enable their users to be more productive, they should try leveraging the human ability for fast reactions by making reliably predictable interfaces.

Well, this is clearly not a very big problem, but it's my opinion that it would be nicer if computers were just a little less animated.