Missing Sync is missing something

The Missing Sync is a great piece of software for synchronizing Palm devices to the Mac. In fact, it's the only decent software for Mac synchronization. However, its interface is clumsy through excessive display of information that is either redundant or useless for the user's needs. For our case study, let's take a look at the synchronization progress bar.

This screenshot highlights how ineffective the interface is (besides the huge ugly icon and the neon-blue background):

1. Why are there two progress bars? Which one shows the actual progress of the process? Users do not care whether each individual conduit is finished synchronizing. They care whether the whole device is done synchronizing. This falls under display of excessive, unecessary information.
2. It's synchronizing, it's using contacts, and, oh, it's synchronizing contacts. This is a great example of something that should be in Jon Stewart's "The Idiot's Guide to Redundancy for Stupid Dummies."
3. Why can't users minimize the window? Unnecessary loss of function.
4. Lack of system status and interface response when cancelling. It is not apparent in this screengrab, but if a user hits the Cancel button on either the Palm or this window, Missing Sync does not respond at all. So, users will hit Cancel again and again. Finally, out of frustration, users will probably force-quit the program.
5. Again, the icon is hideous. But, more importantly, the whole progress bar is unnecessarily large. This dialog box takes up almost 10% of my screen space on my Powerbook 12" G4 (which has a constrained 1024 by 768 pixel display). In contrast, take a look at this nice, compact Copy/Move dialog from Finder:

Isn't it much smaller? It's almost 50% smaller, yet packs much more information in a more visually-appealing manner.

Apple got something right with Finder's interface! This box shows users what they need to know: it is copying something, it's still in the beginning stages, and it will take about a minute to finish. No visually-intrusive neon-blue gradients, and no unnecessary product names in the title, like "Apple Finder for Mac OS X" or "Missing Sync for Palm OS."

I'm a strong believer in user interfaces that show you only what you need to know in a simple, straightforward manner. This makes users happy and feel in control, and less confused and unsatisfied.