January 18, 2004: In interface design, as in architecture, both god and the devil are in the details, battling things out. Take, for example, the align/distribute palette in Illustrator. The top row provides controls for aligning objects. On the left are the 3 horizontal controls; on the right are the 3 vertical controls. Below this row is a row of controls for distributing objects. On the left are the 3 vertical controls; on the right are the horizontal controls. Why, oh why, didn't they put the vertical controls on the same side in each row?! This is especially problematic because the lower (distribution) icons are nowhere near as successful as the alignment icons above them. If the palette had been better organized, it would be possible to use the top row of icons to orient yourself and then just drop down to the bottom row to distribute objects rather than aligning them. (fwiw, I think Adobe generally has done a remarkably good job with their UI, which makes something like this stand out).