uri
David August ❌👑🧑💻 #ux
Jamie@davidaugust stealing to send to my engineers that make programs with three steps to just open it.
x0@devinprater @davidaugust Sounds like basically all of Linux to me anyway. Not gonna mention the editors that shall not be named, but every single one of them has that, probably even nano. They're just capable of explaining themselves.
stevenray@davidaugust @tchambers absolutely right.
Rokosun
Derek Caelin is writing a book@davidaugust oh boy, saving THIS for later.
FirefighterGeek 
@davidaugust I had a computer teacher (the only one I ever had, back in the apple 2 days when I was in school) say once that "If the program needs a manual, it's a terrible program."
`Da Elf@FirefighterGeek @davidaugust And The Industry stopped printing manuals, but not writing bad programs.
100rabh™@davidaugust So you mean, all user interfaces are a joke ? 😂
Disco Sexual@the100rabh
@davidaugust
What, you mean hamburger menus and bento app search modal launchers, without any accompanying text whatsoever, aren't instantly intuitive??
@davidaugust
What, you mean hamburger menus and bento app search modal launchers, without any accompanying text whatsoever, aren't instantly intuitive??
ofa_jeremy@davidaugust THIS…to all the “product first” people.
Stephan H. Wissel@davidaugust and like a Joke UX is geared towards an audience with a context. There is no Joke that works for any or every audience
PJ "Vote Green" CoffeyI'm just going to tag:
#Mastodon #MastodonUX #MastodonDesign #MastodonServer #MastodonQuestions
For... no particular reason. :)
Toby Inkster 
@davidaugust strong disagree.
People often spend years being taught to read, but I wouldn't say the UI of books is bad because of that; it's just not optimized for beginners. Once you become a proficient reader, it's often a more convenient and efficient way to access knowledge than many competing information retrieval systems.
There is a place in this world for interfaces optimized for expert use.
Zach Thomas@tobyink My favorite example of this is a violin.
SlightlyCyberpunk@davidaugust the problem with this philosophy is many people seem to grab on to any excuse they can find to avoid writing documentation. I'll take a crap UI with documentation over a great UI without any day. Firstly because things will always go wrong in ways the developer never expected, and secondly because the end users have a right to know how the systems they are using actually operate. If you don't properly document your project you take away the user's right to be educated about it.
Michael@davidaugust My first #garmin handheld #GPS unit was like that. What you had to do next to navigate with it was so blindingly obvious that I bought it on the spot.
Luna Dragofelis ΘΔ moved to @@davidaugust However, explaining it is better than just expecting the user to figure it out on their own. #ux
Le Monolecte 😷🤬🐧 
Pas mieux ! 👍
Geoff Winkless@davidaugust recommend reading https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2000/04/10/controlling-your-environment-makes-you-happy/
People only think UIs are "friendly" when they are the same as what they are used to.
ScaredyCat@davidaugust Maybe have a word with Apple for us.
TuxicomanIt depends. Ux is related to user's background. In 21th century you are unable to use the first calculators because you have no reference to the https://fr.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boulier
Same with displaying a "hard drive" icon. No baby would understand as he would never see it.
So the UX question is :
- what is the knowlege of the target user?
- target that knowledge.
Same choosing the appropriate language to speak to anybody.
Virginie@davidaugust please no. It might be catchy but it is completely wrong. Some interfaces have to be explained and it is absolutely ok.
The goal is not to make interfaces people don’t need explanations for using, it is more complicated than that. I am talking discoverability, learnability, autonomy, proficiency, accessibility, etc.
The goal is not to make interfaces people don’t need explanations for using, it is more complicated than that. I am talking discoverability, learnability, autonomy, proficiency, accessibility, etc.
David Bruchmann@Maker @davidaugust yes, 3D software, Video software or other applications can't be learned just by a good interface.
Nevertheless a good interface can reduce the efforts and also have some impact on the software's functionality in the kind that functions are built around the interface and not that the interface is just a skin for a predefined set of functions.
Nevertheless a good interface can reduce the efforts and also have some impact on the software's functionality in the kind that functions are built around the interface and not that the interface is just a skin for a predefined set of functions.
Matt Stine@davidaugust nope - bring back manuals please
hazelnot 
@davidaugust I'm a UI/UX designer and I'd like to also add that it depends on the target demographic of the interface as well.
If you're making an advanced/technical tool, it's ok if the UX has to be explained to someone who's never used anything like it before, because your target demographic for designing the tool is already familiar with the UI conventions of that particular niche.
There's a balance between featurefulness and discoverability that can and has to be struck for each individual project.
Just saying this because some people think every UI has to be simple and minimalistic at the expense of usefulness, while others think that every UI has to be advanced and complicated at the expense of usability.
Primo@hazelnot @davidaugust also, there's a while host of machinery and programs in a literal "the person using this must undergo training" context.
Dr. Quadragon ❌@hazelnot Jokes are also very dependent on the target demographic. A running gag in one audience might fall flat or in some instances even get you arrested in the other. Because one audience knows or is prepared to accept something that the other can't.
UI/UX of an MRI machine will probably need some explaining to a CNC mill operator.
So, still accurate.
Daniel Freysinger@drq @hazelnot @davidaugust Good design is the big red button that turns them both off in an emergency. :)
musicmatze 
@davidaugust
You know I like that joke a lot, but then I remember my parents complaining because their #android phone came without a manual.
You know I like that joke a lot, but then I remember my parents complaining because their #android phone came without a manual.
@davidaugust
... or apps, fwiw.
... or apps, fwiw.
Håkon O.@davidaugust i kind of like Vim's ui... :)
LisPi@davidaugust Isn't that the case for basically anything new that one encounters?
Very few things other than doors & handles are that simple.
Stuart Celarier ❌👑@davidaugust Because the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle says that you can't know... oh, never mind. Is there anymore Fish House Punch?
Thibaut Sailly@davidaugust @Signez Makes for a great poster, but totally lacking nuance, therefore actually not true. See plane cockpits, video or music editors.
It's true for some user interfaces, but not all :-)
A user-interface-expected-to-be-used-successfully-seconds-after-being-seen-for-the-first-time is like a joke. If you have to explain it, it's not that good.
Closer to reality, but not a great poster!
Grinning Cat 
"A computer should be like a pencil:
simple to use, and leaving the person in control."
Prof. Ben Shneiderman, founding director of the Human-Computer Interaction Laboratory at the University of Maryland, College Park
PeterD 🇩🇪 🇨🇦@grinningcat @davidaugust YES! and it is no longer. #SmartPhones which are computers are definitely not pencils. Too many options and therefore too many #UnintenedConsequences.
Rhode PVD@davidaugust is that bestselling author Alisha Rai’s husband Kai?
@@davidaugust me giving my opinions on the menu at work (our menu is horseshit and whoever designed it needs to be fired)
Joost@davidaugust so, mediocre is what we end up with, all the time.
Pascal 🇪🇺 🇺🇦
fedops 💙💛@davidaugust I disagree. If by "good" you mean easy, intuitive - sure. But categorically excluding powerful, flexible, straightforward is not what I personally want.
⁂ Fish Id Wardrobe@davidaugust Well, I mean, *yes*. But also no. I'm okay with the folks in charge of the boards at nuclear power stations having to read the manual. Better if they did, really. For example.
Black Metal Stu🇺🇦🇮🇱
Roadskater, Ph.D.@davidaugust Sad to say, I may have performed this sin a year+ ago. Not that the old UX was all that great, but I didn't have to explain it.
DROP\ TABLE Hacker of Earthsea@davidaugust get out of my head, get out of my head
Víktor Bautista i RocaAlso, if it's so easy even an idiot would be able to use it, only idiots will use it.
I don't remember the author.
Simon Brooke@davidaugust Emacs and Vi can go and cry, unloved, in a dusty corner of the unvisited museum of obsolete artefacts.
Gabriel Pettier@davidaugust it depends, for some UI yes, discoverability is key, but for others, it's ok to have a learning curve to then be more efficient. Blender is a good example of that imho, as is vim or even excel, not everything can or should be obvious.
But if your typical user is not an expert of your tool, then yes, it should be as obvious as possible.
But if your typical user is not an expert of your tool, then yes, it should be as obvious as possible.
EosOlympus@davidaugust Oh god, yeah. The word 'Teams' and even 'Google account' spring to mind!
JW prince of CPH@davidaugust - and going "it's just because you don't understand it" doesn't help either...
BoneHouseWasps🔶🇬🇧🇪🇺@davidaugust My company's just introduced a new bespoke, online amends/approvals process that we've built. I got my first of the new emails yesterday: "Approval process complete!", the subject line excitedly read.
"Awesome", I thought. I can send that one to print, sign it off and archive the work.
"However, it would be unusual for this client to sign off on a v2".
Suspicious, I opened the email and scrolled down. Sure enough, below the fold, "Amends required."
Guess what my company does. 🙄
Tushar Chauhan@davidaugust lmfao this is what using bad uix like Apple has done to an entire generation of programmers. They think all users are idiots, and have fallen for this very Si valley, hyper consumerist vision of software that assumes functionality is a distant second to form. Gosh I need to find time to write about this.
Why Not Zoidberg? 🦑@davidaugust Anyway, it's time to play Crusader Kings.
Rora Borealis@davidaugust Just spent days trying to get this through some thick skulls. Feeling this so much right now.