8 ms·

>Instead of using live websites, the participants attempted the tasks on simulated software on the test facilitator’s computer. I wonder if this really lowered

>Instead of using live websites, the participants attempted the tasks on simulated software on the test facilitator’s computer. I wonder if this really lowered all the scores, because the test UI may have been very non-standard/outdated/etc. "Simulated software" could be literally anything and could have caused a bunch of confusion among people who are used to certain icons and usage patterns.

userbinator 7y ago
I wonder if this really lowered all the scores, because the test UI may have been very non-standard/outdated/etc. ...or, as may as likely be the case, very "modern". I'm confident to say that I'm far in the "advanced user" category, also having been a developer for a few decades, and yet I still get perplexed often by UIs with lots of hidden functionality and confusing hieroglyphics instead of descriptive text.
- taneq 7y ago
  I find touchscreen UIs to be particularly bad at this. Icons only have meaning if they're familiar, and beyond simple point, drag, tap and pinch, touchscreens have devolved into an often-arbitrary muddle of secret handshakes. Example (as a recent iPhone user): If I want to open an SMS from the lock screen notification I swipe right, if I want to clear or respond to the notification I swipe left then select from the options that appear, but if I swipe left from a little further across on the screen it opens the camera, from whence swiping right again switches to video or slow-mo instead of going back to the lock screen. Swiping up from the bottom of the screen gets a neat little toolbox thing with commonly used options, whether or not the phone is locked. Swiping down from the top brings up notifications if the phone is unlocked but doesn't seem to do anything on the lock screen (I guess because it already shows notifications?). Double-pressing the 'home' button gets you a list of open and recently-used apps, but double-tapping the same button without triggering the physical button gets you some empty tray thing at the top of the screen which I'm still not sure the function of (maybe makes it easier to swipe down and get to notifications?) This is random and fiddly enough for someone who writes software as a day job. I can see how it would be confusing as hell to anyone who doesn't usually use computers.
  - throwaway413 7y ago
    > but double-tapping the same button without triggering the physical button gets you some empty tray thing at the top of the screen which I'm still not sure the function of (maybe makes it easier to swipe down and get to notifications?) This is correct. Soft double tapping the home button cuts the display window in half, to make it easier to operate one-handed.
- cmroanirgo 7y ago
  > UIs with lots of hidden functionality and confusing hieroglyphics A simple example would be the keybase android app which actually has a hamburger icon rather than 3 lines that we devs call 'a humburger', which in itself is supposed to represent a 'menu' of some sort. Classic. As a dev, I loved it. As a UI for the masses...probably not the best idea.
- baroffoos 7y ago
  Its also interesting how much of what we consider an "easy to use UI" actually just means "Its what I already know". I have been using linux with gnome for years and I recently had to use a macbook. I wanted to change the sound settings so I opened the global app search thing and typed "Sound" got nothing so I searched "Audio" still nothing so I tried to find the settings app and tried "Settings" still nothing until I remembered the settings app is called "Preferences" The OSX UI is not hard to use, its just not the same as what I had been using for years so even simple interactions seem difficult.
  - deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]
  - sedachv 7y ago
    Jef Raskin wrote about this 25 years ago: https://www.asktog.com/papers/raskinintuit.html https://www.asktog.com/papers/raskinintuit.html
    - paol 7y ago
      Thank you for posting that, its nice to see an "authority" validating something that I've often felt the need to point out: people tend to misattribute to ease of use what is merely familiarity.
  - asdff 7y ago
    How long ago did you try this? I just tested and searching for "sound" gets me the system preferences sound window. Searching "settings" returns system preferences. There was a time where apple and windows both seemed pretty stubborn with their semantics (trash vs. recycle bin, both do the same thing, solely for brand identity), but I think that must have died a couple versions ago.
    - baroffoos 7y ago
      This was last week but I haven't used this macbook since about 2017 so its quite out of date.
nextlevelwizard 7y ago
This shouldn't matter. If the task wasn't timed, then computer literate people would still be able to find the required features, while the illiterate people wouldn't feel comfortable clicking through menus and trying to figure out how to use the program in hand. If you want to be pedantic about this then using GMail or Outlook would probably have increased the scores some what, because a lot of people already know how to use them, but that probably doesn't answer the questions posed in the study since even most illiterate computer user can perform complicated tasks if they were shown how to do it (assuming they are of about average intelligence)

userbinator 7y ago

I wonder if this really lowered all the scores, because the test UI may have been very non-standard/outdated/etc. ...or, as may as likely be the case, very "modern". I'm confident to say that I'm far in the "advanced user" category, also having been a developer for a few decades, and yet I still get perplexed often by UIs with lots of hidden functionality and confusing hieroglyphics instead of descriptive text.

taneq 7y ago
I find touchscreen UIs to be particularly bad at this. Icons only have meaning if they're familiar, and beyond simple point, drag, tap and pinch, touchscreens have devolved into an often-arbitrary muddle of secret handshakes. Example (as a recent iPhone user): If I want to open an SMS from the lock screen notification I swipe right, if I want to clear or respond to the notification I swipe left then select from the options that appear, but if I swipe left from a little further across on the screen it opens the camera, from whence swiping right again switches to video or slow-mo instead of going back to the lock screen. Swiping up from the bottom of the screen gets a neat little toolbox thing with commonly used options, whether or not the phone is locked. Swiping down from the top brings up notifications if the phone is unlocked but doesn't seem to do anything on the lock screen (I guess because it already shows notifications?). Double-pressing the 'home' button gets you a list of open and recently-used apps, but double-tapping the same button without triggering the physical button gets you some empty tray thing at the top of the screen which I'm still not sure the function of (maybe makes it easier to swipe down and get to notifications?) This is random and fiddly enough for someone who writes software as a day job. I can see how it would be confusing as hell to anyone who doesn't usually use computers.
- throwaway413 7y ago
  > but double-tapping the same button without triggering the physical button gets you some empty tray thing at the top of the screen which I'm still not sure the function of (maybe makes it easier to swipe down and get to notifications?) This is correct. Soft double tapping the home button cuts the display window in half, to make it easier to operate one-handed.
cmroanirgo 7y ago
> UIs with lots of hidden functionality and confusing hieroglyphics A simple example would be the keybase android app which actually has a hamburger icon rather than 3 lines that we devs call 'a humburger', which in itself is supposed to represent a 'menu' of some sort. Classic. As a dev, I loved it. As a UI for the masses...probably not the best idea.
baroffoos 7y ago
Its also interesting how much of what we consider an "easy to use UI" actually just means "Its what I already know". I have been using linux with gnome for years and I recently had to use a macbook. I wanted to change the sound settings so I opened the global app search thing and typed "Sound" got nothing so I searched "Audio" still nothing so I tried to find the settings app and tried "Settings" still nothing until I remembered the settings app is called "Preferences" The OSX UI is not hard to use, its just not the same as what I had been using for years so even simple interactions seem difficult.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
- sedachv 7y ago
  Jef Raskin wrote about this 25 years ago: https://www.asktog.com/papers/raskinintuit.html https://www.asktog.com/papers/raskinintuit.html
  - paol 7y ago
    Thank you for posting that, its nice to see an "authority" validating something that I've often felt the need to point out: people tend to misattribute to ease of use what is merely familiarity.
- asdff 7y ago
  How long ago did you try this? I just tested and searching for "sound" gets me the system preferences sound window. Searching "settings" returns system preferences. There was a time where apple and windows both seemed pretty stubborn with their semantics (trash vs. recycle bin, both do the same thing, solely for brand identity), but I think that must have died a couple versions ago.
  - baroffoos 7y ago
    This was last week but I haven't used this macbook since about 2017 so its quite out of date.

nextlevelwizard 7y ago

This shouldn't matter. If the task wasn't timed, then computer literate people would still be able to find the required features, while the illiterate people wouldn't feel comfortable clicking through menus and trying to figure out how to use the program in hand. If you want to be pedantic about this then using GMail or Outlook would probably have increased the scores some what, because a lot of people already know how to use them, but that probably doesn't answer the questions posed in the study since even most illiterate computer user can perform complicated tasks if they were shown how to do it (assuming they are of about average intelligence)