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At some level, I wonder how possible it is for your bespoke software product to be as usable as a door. A door is simpler than most software, and we've built t

At some level, I wonder how possible it is for your bespoke software product to be as usable as a door. A door is simpler than most software, and we've built the same exact door millions of times. We may be spending a lot of time on design when no design will ever help anything. I am instead going to propose what I think software should aim for. 1) Software should be safe to explore. Trying things out is how you learn. Accumulating learning is how you become productive. With that in mind, you should never allow the user run a command that creates a situation where they can't revert to the previous state. When one wrong move can erase hours of work, your users will never become experts. (Historically, software has been absolutely awful here. I think this is the number one reason why people are afraid of software -- the one UI paradigm they've learned throughout every new "UI innovation" is "one wrong move will destroy your work". So they tread carefully, and being careful is slow and painful.) 2) A user that knows the jargon that describes some command should be able to run that command by name. Teaching users the jargon can be hard, but once they've learned the word, they should be able to at least run the command. An example is watching a YouTube tutorial for some operation that was recorded a few versions ago. Sinc the tutorial was made, someone moved every menu item around (hello, Fusion 360). Now the tutorial is useless -- you know the command you want to run and how to use that command, but you have to dig around in the UI looking for it. That's a big fail. (I called out Fusion 360 for this, but they have a command search, so it's not a big deal. The search could be better, like maybe telling you how to do it faster next time ("next time, just press X"), but at least it's there. I'll also point out that Emacs does this, and even tells you the shortcut after the command is over. If a 1970s LISP app can do it, so can your whizbang Electron app.) Anyway, I'm not sure I'd understand how to use a door the first time I saw one. Normally you can't walk through walls, but with this innovation, you can. Weird! But once you see someone else use it, or someone walks you through it (literally), it's pretty easy. With software, we are creating new concepts like that several times a day. At some point, we have to accept that the user will have to try it out and learn how to use it. There is a first time for everything, after all.

octorian 6y ago
> Software should be safe to explore. Trying things out is how you learn. When I was a kid, I was surrounded by computer-illiterate adults. The biggest fundamental difference between their approach and mine, was that they were "afraid to explore" and could only understand things if they were provided in the form of a prescribed set of instructions. Meanwhile, I was comfortable casually exploring, and thus gained a far better intuition for how to actually use things.
TeMPOraL 6y ago
> I'm not sure I'd understand how to use a door the first time I saw one. You wouldn't. You'd see this great, menacing piece of matter in front of you. If the door was closed, that would be it for you. But if you saw it being opened, or better yet, encountered it open, then the fun would start. You'd touch it and it'd move. You'd notice it has inertia. You'd grab it by the side or push, and see it move more. Eventually, you'd close it by accident, and then trying to move the door back would fail. You'd cry. Your parent/caretaker would come and open the door for you. You'd grab it again, and close it again. Then maybe you'd play a game with your caretaker, with them holding you in their hands and opening the door, and you closing it with a strong push, laughing at the noise. Some time later, you'd figure out how the door handle works. Source: I have a 15 month old daughter. This is how she learned how to operate doors. Nowadays, when she doesn't want some thing we want from her (e.g. getting dressed), she sometimes runs ahead and closes the door behind her. She understands the door in more abstract terms now. But it took a lot of trial and error. :).
- robocat 6y ago
  Many doors are really are difficult to first use. Recent experiences: A door I needed to open for an elderly person who didn’t have the strength to open it (fire stop door with strong closing spring - a potentially fatal UI). A door that needs two hands to open - one for key (spring loaded) and one for the handle. My friend with one arm complained about it because they wouldn’t be able to open it. Teaching someone how to use a touch unlock door on a car (great UX once learnt, but multiple weird UI interactions that one needs to learn to use). An automatic door that wouldn’t open even with face up or waving hands (I’m guessing I was close to background temperature, but who knows why? Took 20 seconds) A door that seemed to be locked (needed to push harder? Or push handle harder? Someone else then opened it). Many locks are very unobvious which way the key turns (e.g. on my car anticlockwise unlocks the drivers, clockwise unlocks passenger: I regularly still get it wrong). So many shop doors that are unclear whether you push or pull. A shop door that says “PULL” but I don’t realise I am reading it from the reverse side so I pull when I should have pushed... (I often don’t notice I am mirror/reverse reading something).

octorian 6y ago

> Software should be safe to explore. Trying things out is how you learn. When I was a kid, I was surrounded by computer-illiterate adults. The biggest fundamental difference between their approach and mine, was that they were "afraid to explore" and could only understand things if they were provided in the form of a prescribed set of instructions. Meanwhile, I was comfortable casually exploring, and thus gained a far better intuition for how to actually use things.

TeMPOraL 6y ago

> I'm not sure I'd understand how to use a door the first time I saw one. You wouldn't. You'd see this great, menacing piece of matter in front of you. If the door was closed, that would be it for you. But if you saw it being opened, or better yet, encountered it open, then the fun would start. You'd touch it and it'd move. You'd notice it has inertia. You'd grab it by the side or push, and see it move more. Eventually, you'd close it by accident, and then trying to move the door back would fail. You'd cry. Your parent/caretaker would come and open the door for you. You'd grab it again, and close it again. Then maybe you'd play a game with your caretaker, with them holding you in their hands and opening the door, and you closing it with a strong push, laughing at the noise. Some time later, you'd figure out how the door handle works. Source: I have a 15 month old daughter. This is how she learned how to operate doors. Nowadays, when she doesn't want some thing we want from her (e.g. getting dressed), she sometimes runs ahead and closes the door behind her. She understands the door in more abstract terms now. But it took a lot of trial and error. :).

robocat 6y ago
Many doors are really are difficult to first use. Recent experiences: A door I needed to open for an elderly person who didn’t have the strength to open it (fire stop door with strong closing spring - a potentially fatal UI). A door that needs two hands to open - one for key (spring loaded) and one for the handle. My friend with one arm complained about it because they wouldn’t be able to open it. Teaching someone how to use a touch unlock door on a car (great UX once learnt, but multiple weird UI interactions that one needs to learn to use). An automatic door that wouldn’t open even with face up or waving hands (I’m guessing I was close to background temperature, but who knows why? Took 20 seconds) A door that seemed to be locked (needed to push harder? Or push handle harder? Someone else then opened it). Many locks are very unobvious which way the key turns (e.g. on my car anticlockwise unlocks the drivers, clockwise unlocks passenger: I regularly still get it wrong). So many shop doors that are unclear whether you push or pull. A shop door that says “PULL” but I don’t realise I am reading it from the reverse side so I pull when I should have pushed... (I often don’t notice I am mirror/reverse reading something).