I feel for Steve Pratt. Full disclosure: I've met him, in passing, at various handheld events over the years, but he wouldn't know me from Adam.<p>What I've found, and what he's caught in, is that data-entry applications for very specific problems, tend to get ugly. And that's ok, because the users are very, very savvy. If you look at the software his company builds, you'll find that 90% of it is for savvy, specialized users.<p>I spent hours agonizing over how 'ugly' an early iteration of a handheld app was after the users came back and said to make certain buttons and text bigger. Multisize buttons!? Different font sizes on the screen!? Crazy! And BAD!<p>But Fitts Law says (paraphrased) that big buttons are easier to hit. So make that button that everyone needs to hit 20 times an hour BIG. Even if it is ugly.<p>Some text you want to be able to see from a device lying on your desk. Some you don't care about until you need to squint at it. So size it differently.<p>I've come to believe that's all good.<p>What isn't defensible is the parts of this app that are just plain sloppy. The size of buttons not being the same, but being off by a few pixels. Spacing being wonky. Fonts for the sake of fonts.