6 ms·

Almost everything on computers is perceptually more rich, useful, and intuitive than it was in 1983.

marcofiset 7y ago
There's no reason we can't make rich, useful and intuitive software that's crazy fast with today's tools.
collyw 7y ago
Disagree. It looks prettier but its often not more intuitive. Not 1983, but Windows 95 all the icons had text underneath them, so you knew what they did. More recently it took me a couple of years of seeing hamburger menus to make the connection "it's an icon to give you a menu". Those are everywhere but are in no way intuitive.
- nimajneb 7y ago
  Google has been dropping the hamburger menu, now it's your face, lol. (Google Maps 10.34.4)
AlexandrB 7y ago
Almost everything on computers is more deceptive, user-hostile, and tracked than in 1983.
- thsealienbstrds 7y ago
  And increasingly, everything _with_ a computer too. I literally cannot use the laundry machines in my apartment building without an app I need to get from Google/Apple app store.
benrbray 7y ago
That may have been true circa 2010, but in the past decade we've seen rich settings menus and compact, information dense interfaces stripped away in favor of "mobile first" designs. Typically, whenever a website / program I use gets a UI update, the only change is that all padding on buttons, text, etc. has been increased by 50% meaning I need to scroll in order to see a 5-item list! Windows 10 control panel is an example of this phenomenon.
- superdisk 7y ago
  Damn do I hate this. One specific example that pops out in my head is when I upgraded from Sony movie studio 12 to 13, and the only difference between the versions was that every button and menu had been expanded in size to be enormous with tons of whitespace. Why the fuck would they do that to a desktop program in 2014, it wasn't even for mobile.
sproketboy 7y ago
Citation?
karatestomp 7y ago
Maybe than 1983 but versus 2003 the main positive changes have been greater bandwidth and storage. Everything else useful we have now we had then, pretty much. Some of it was a much slower, some of it was much faster. The only OS & environment I've seen that was significantly more intuitive than anything around in the 90s and 2000s is iOS up to version 7, at which point its intuitiveness started going to hell.
carapace 7y ago
The screens are better, for sure.

There's no reason we can't make rich, useful and intuitive software that's crazy fast with today's tools.

Disagree. It looks prettier but its often not more intuitive. Not 1983, but Windows 95 all the icons had text underneath them, so you knew what they did. More recently it took me a couple of years of seeing hamburger menus to make the connection "it's an icon to give you a menu". Those are everywhere but are in no way intuitive.

nimajneb 7y ago
Google has been dropping the hamburger menu, now it's your face, lol. (Google Maps 10.34.4)

AlexandrB 7y ago

Almost everything on computers is more deceptive, user-hostile, and tracked than in 1983.

thsealienbstrds 7y ago
And increasingly, everything _with_ a computer too. I literally cannot use the laundry machines in my apartment building without an app I need to get from Google/Apple app store.

benrbray 7y ago

That may have been true circa 2010, but in the past decade we've seen rich settings menus and compact, information dense interfaces stripped away in favor of "mobile first" designs. Typically, whenever a website / program I use gets a UI update, the only change is that all padding on buttons, text, etc. has been increased by 50% meaning I need to scroll in order to see a 5-item list! Windows 10 control panel is an example of this phenomenon.

superdisk 7y ago
Damn do I hate this. One specific example that pops out in my head is when I upgraded from Sony movie studio 12 to 13, and the only difference between the versions was that every button and menu had been expanded in size to be enormous with tons of whitespace. Why the fuck would they do that to a desktop program in 2014, it wasn't even for mobile.

sproketboy 7y ago

Citation?

karatestomp 7y ago

Maybe than 1983 but versus 2003 the main positive changes have been greater bandwidth and storage. Everything else useful we have now we had then, pretty much. Some of it was a much slower, some of it was much faster. The only OS & environment I've seen that was significantly more intuitive than anything around in the 90s and 2000s is iOS up to version 7, at which point its intuitiveness started going to hell.

carapace 7y ago

The screens are better, for sure.