Jason LefkowitzFeb 23
I occasionally help an elderly neighbor get stuff done with their computer. And every single time, I walk away in incandescent rage at how hard we have made this stuff for people who have not spent their entire waking lives marinating in it
Show threadAndrew (Television Executive)Feb 23

@jalefkowit Even when we *have* spent our entire lives marinating in it, so much of modern computing is still impossible to navigate.

Youtube accounts have 4 separate "settings" sections, many of which have identically named settings, some of which control the same settings, some of which are entirely separate from one another.

Show threadJason Lefkowitz
@ajroach42 It's hard for *me*, a professional nerd who gets paid to understand this stuff. I have no idea how normal people haven't come for us with pitchforks and torches yet
Feb 23 at 9:16pmWeb
Show threadAndrew (Television Executive)Feb 23
@jalefkowit I've been sharpening the pitchforks.
Show threadsport of sacred spherical cowsFeb 23

@jalefkowit @ajroach42

For the same reason they haven't come for kayfabe panto politicians with pitchforks and torches. Ego-value is vested in a lifetime of this being something other people are competent at, at least are supposed to be competent at. (Cf. James Scott, Seeing Like a State.)

The complexity and confusion is embraced as proof that, absent those brief inescapable interactions with the monolithic fetish object that is "computers", as broad hand-wavy category, it's largely someone else's problem.

Heck, myself was writing poetic-satirical short stories in middle school, well before AOL was even mailing out free floppies, about how computer touchers we becoming a priestly class, the mystery of the machine serving the interests of both the touchers and those who called on them for exorcisms.

Show threadIan McDowallFeb 23
@jalefkowit @ajroach42 I assume that it's not just because the developers, including people like us, don't test with 'normal' users (which is probably true) but testing UI for error conditions is very hard - you have to generate the errors on demand and then put in the effort.
Also, the rate of change is such that you don't get the chance to do full UI testing for all new versions.
So we're dependent on developers thinking about this - and most minimise thinking about error handling anyway 😞
Show threadAndrew (Television Executive)Feb 23

@imcdowall @jalefkowit This is absolutely not why things suck.

The incentives of capitalism are towards Dark Patterns and systems that lie to you.

Show threadRaven667Feb 24
@ajroach42 @imcdowall @jalefkowit i can deal with normal well-meaning incompetance, but needing to be on the constant defence against Dark Patterns is exhausting and toxic