4 ms·

UX is the bane of usability (at least as practiced). E.g. We've had professional "UX" designers seriously contend that "cancel" buttons should be made to not lo

UX is the bane of usability (at least as practiced). E.g. We've had professional "UX" designers seriously contend that "cancel" buttons should be made to not look like buttons. The joke at a certain large company was that if the UX designers had their way every default button would be big and green and every other button would be invisible. True usability is about helping people make the correct decision, not just being smooth and frictionless. (See Don Norman's classic example of fire escapes that send people into basements to be trapped.)

athenot 9y ago
True. But as with any other discipline, it's about thinking about the intent and final goal, not just following a rule book containing arbitrary roles.
scrooched_moose 9y ago
I'm a daily user of some of the most complicated engineering software on the market. Every single release promises "Easier to use!" but all they do is make the most basic beginner-level actions more prominent and hide all medium to advanced level important functionality behind 3 extra clicks. The end result is a beginner can do a tutorial exercise in 20 minutes instead of 30, while any true day to day work in the software takes 4 hours instead of 2.
- mysterydip 9y ago
  From the company's perspective, getting more beginner users on the software (and converting them to regularly paying users) is probably the priority. That doesn't mean they couldn't put an "advanced mode" setting/option that makes the UI streamlined towards users like yourself, though.
- claytonjy 9y ago
  Do you think this tradeoff between easy-to-start-using and power-use-friendly is intrinsic, a scale that designers need to choose where they want their software in it, or is it possible to hit both ends? Does anyone have examples of things they think address both beginners and power users adequately?

4 ms·

UX is the bane of usability (at least as practiced). E.g. We've had professional "UX" designers seriously contend that "cancel" buttons should be made to not lo

by Tloewald 9y ago

athenot 9y ago
True. But as with any other discipline, it's about thinking about the intent and final goal, not just following a rule book containing arbitrary roles.
scrooched_moose 9y ago
I'm a daily user of some of the most complicated engineering software on the market. Every single release promises "Easier to use!" but all they do is make the most basic beginner-level actions more prominent and hide all medium to advanced level important functionality behind 3 extra clicks. The end result is a beginner can do a tutorial exercise in 20 minutes instead of 30, while any true day to day work in the software takes 4 hours instead of 2.
- mysterydip 9y ago
  From the company's perspective, getting more beginner users on the software (and converting them to regularly paying users) is probably the priority. That doesn't mean they couldn't put an "advanced mode" setting/option that makes the UI streamlined towards users like yourself, though.
- claytonjy 9y ago
  Do you think this tradeoff between easy-to-start-using and power-use-friendly is intrinsic, a scale that designers need to choose where they want their software in it, or is it possible to hit both ends? Does anyone have examples of things they think address both beginners and power users adequately?