6 ms·

Maybe the Gmail team should realize we're all not children.

by mbrownnyc 10y ago

joshmanders 10y ago
Maybe you should pay attention to what buttons you click.
- cytzol 10y ago
  Or maybe the buttons I click shouldn't suddenly change without warning? This isn't a case of a user ignoring an important dialog box then wondering why their computer doesn't work anymore; the button just suddenly started to do something different, which is terrible user interface design. To put it another way, how am I supposed to get anything done when I'm spending all my time making sure the interface doesn't change beneath my feet?
  - joshmanders 10y ago
    > Or maybe the buttons I click shouldn't suddenly change without warning? From what I seen, the buttons didn't change, send has always been where it was, just another one was added.
    - cytzol 10y ago
      > From what I seen, the buttons didn't change It replaced the Send And Archive button that lives next to Send. (Adding a new one is still a bad idea, imho, but would have been borderline forgivable)
      - raverbashing 10y ago
        Mine just says "Send", I don't remember seeing a "Send and Archive" button
        icebraining 10y ago
        You can enable/disable it in the settings, maybe you have it disabled?
      - hudell 10y ago
        Send and Archive is my default button, which is triggered when I press Ctrl+Enter on a reply.
- overlordalex 10y ago
  There were several problems with the implementation so it didn't matter if you pressed the correct button. As @Mithaldu mentioned above: Nah, the bug is that it actually triggered on the normal send button as well, for some people. https://twitter.com/waxpancake/status/715770400555315202 https://twitter.com/waxpancake/status/715770400555315202 reply
- omginternets 10y ago
  And here I thought UI/UX was all about "not making the user think"...
whack 10y ago
First off, yes, Google messed up here. They even acknowledged it themselves and took it down asap once they realized it. But second, people need to cut Google a little slack here. We all make mistakes, or errors in judgement, and Google is no different. Do we really want to live in a world where companies are afraid to innovate and try anything new, because people are going to jump on their backs if things don't work out? Part of the reason why Google was able to create so many great products, like Maps, Mail and so on, is because they've created an environment that's very conducive to creativity and experimentation. As a consumer, I love the fact that Google has given me so many awesome productivity tools, with great features, completely for free, and I don't want them to ever lose the creative/experimental culture that made it possible. If you're not a fan of such a culture, if you just want a no-nonsense humorless stable suit-driven product, well, Microsoft has you well covered.
- Mithaldu 10y ago
  No, pranks gone wrong, of any kind, deserve zero slack and even zero tolerance. And make no mistake, this has hurt people, seriously. Unless Google actually seeks those out and rights the wrong they did them, there is no sympathy or forgiveness they deserve in any way whatsoever.
- Manishearth 10y ago
  There's a difference between being blocked from innovation and having UX engineers look at something. It is the job of these folks to find out things like this; they don't have blinkers on when it comes to knowing about how the app gets used and how people can fail at things. It's quite likely that this was just directly shipped given that it's a one-day thing. Nobody's asking them to stop innovating; you can be more rigorous in your shipping process (which they usually are) without affecting innovation.
- mizzao 10y ago
  Microsoft is actually trying out all sorts of stuff lately. Ubuntu for Windows? VS Code? OSS, cross-platform build tools? Lots of interesting things.
  - 10y ago
Godel_unicode 10y ago
So you're saying that this is all getting a little too silly? I hereby award you the first ever HN Colonel prize. It may not have come off exactly right, but it was still pretty funny. If we stop getting April fools pranks from Google, the internet will be a materially worse place. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Colonel_(Monty_Python) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Colonel_(Monty_Python)

Maybe the Gmail team should realize we're all not children.

joshmanders 10y ago

Maybe you should pay attention to what buttons you click.

cytzol 10y ago
Or maybe the buttons I click shouldn't suddenly change without warning? This isn't a case of a user ignoring an important dialog box then wondering why their computer doesn't work anymore; the button just suddenly started to do something different, which is terrible user interface design. To put it another way, how am I supposed to get anything done when I'm spending all my time making sure the interface doesn't change beneath my feet?
- joshmanders 10y ago
  > Or maybe the buttons I click shouldn't suddenly change without warning? From what I seen, the buttons didn't change, send has always been where it was, just another one was added.
  - cytzol 10y ago
    > From what I seen, the buttons didn't change It replaced the Send And Archive button that lives next to Send. (Adding a new one is still a bad idea, imho, but would have been borderline forgivable)
    - raverbashing 10y ago
      Mine just says "Send", I don't remember seeing a "Send and Archive" button
      - icebraining 10y ago
        You can enable/disable it in the settings, maybe you have it disabled?
    - hudell 10y ago
      Send and Archive is my default button, which is triggered when I press Ctrl+Enter on a reply.
overlordalex 10y ago
There were several problems with the implementation so it didn't matter if you pressed the correct button. As @Mithaldu mentioned above: Nah, the bug is that it actually triggered on the normal send button as well, for some people. https://twitter.com/waxpancake/status/715770400555315202 https://twitter.com/waxpancake/status/715770400555315202 reply
omginternets 10y ago
And here I thought UI/UX was all about "not making the user think"...

whack 10y ago

First off, yes, Google messed up here. They even acknowledged it themselves and took it down asap once they realized it. But second, people need to cut Google a little slack here. We all make mistakes, or errors in judgement, and Google is no different. Do we really want to live in a world where companies are afraid to innovate and try anything new, because people are going to jump on their backs if things don't work out? Part of the reason why Google was able to create so many great products, like Maps, Mail and so on, is because they've created an environment that's very conducive to creativity and experimentation. As a consumer, I love the fact that Google has given me so many awesome productivity tools, with great features, completely for free, and I don't want them to ever lose the creative/experimental culture that made it possible. If you're not a fan of such a culture, if you just want a no-nonsense humorless stable suit-driven product, well, Microsoft has you well covered.

Mithaldu 10y ago
No, pranks gone wrong, of any kind, deserve zero slack and even zero tolerance. And make no mistake, this has hurt people, seriously. Unless Google actually seeks those out and rights the wrong they did them, there is no sympathy or forgiveness they deserve in any way whatsoever.
Manishearth 10y ago
There's a difference between being blocked from innovation and having UX engineers look at something. It is the job of these folks to find out things like this; they don't have blinkers on when it comes to knowing about how the app gets used and how people can fail at things. It's quite likely that this was just directly shipped given that it's a one-day thing. Nobody's asking them to stop innovating; you can be more rigorous in your shipping process (which they usually are) without affecting innovation.
mizzao 10y ago
Microsoft is actually trying out all sorts of stuff lately. Ubuntu for Windows? VS Code? OSS, cross-platform build tools? Lots of interesting things.
- 10y ago

Godel_unicode 10y ago

So you're saying that this is all getting a little too silly? I hereby award you the first ever HN Colonel prize. It may not have come off exactly right, but it was still pretty funny. If we stop getting April fools pranks from Google, the internet will be a materially worse place. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Colonel_(Monty_Python) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Colonel_(Monty_Python)