2 ms·

The seniors on there that are beside themselves unable to use some of their sites is something I think of when designing software. Your users aren't always tec

by junon 6y ago

The seniors on there that are beside themselves unable to use some of their sites is something I think of when designing software. Your users aren't always tech savvy. Sometimes quite the opposite. A single change, even if it isn't a bug, can render your program unusable by some because it's so different.

agumonkey 6y ago
At least communicate. Users aren't stupid but they approach the web with fear most of the time, so anything out of the ordinary is a sign of a problem they don't understand nor know how to restore and most of the time .. they think they caused the issue.
- hrktb 6y ago
  > they think they caused the issue. Which is the underlying cause of the universal “I didn’t do anything” disclaimer before they even start explaining the issue. And the aggressivity if that tension is not defused before replaying their actions to get the context. Solving issues requires way more social skills than people assume.
  - agumonkey 6y ago
    there should be a "if you made a mistake, it means the company did something wrong" message on computers
    - hrktb 6y ago
      Yes, it's really a disservice to have "Please contact your administrator for assistance" messages, putting the user in a "you should get some help" position that rubs a lot of people the wrong way.
sundvor 6y ago
I'm a near 50s guy who grew up on Vic20s and hasn't stopped since. The UX of my son's iPad is almost enough to drive me insane. So many counter intuitive ways to do things, such as completely invisible (ZERO freaking indicators) swipes needed to access extra info etc. My present favourite is how the current keypad for entering extra time on an app (yes I managed to set up parental guidelines for that POS) is cropped in half so that you have to rotate the screen in order to see the full keypad. Plenty of room on the lock screen that's displayed for this purpose, only showing the numbers keypad - they just made it so tiny you can't pick half the numbers some of which are in my parent pin. How they're selling this crap for billions of dollars is beyond me.
- intergalplan 6y ago
  iOS discoverability/usability tanked when iOS7 came out and hasn't recovered. It went from being the only OS I'd happily give to my 80-something can-barely-email grandma, to "um... well, shit, I guess we'll get you a Chromebook... but it's gonna suck." Too many ways to accidentally make crap pop up or get stuck in weird states on iOS, now. Even the old folder behavior, that "split open" the screen to reveal the folder, made it much, much clearer to navigate for non-tech-geeks. Lots of little things like that, plus tons of gesture-initiated overlays and switching-about.
  - sundvor 6y ago
    Thanks, yes it's almost like a cult thing - you're supposed to stab and poke and just _discover_ the hidden features. One example to prove your point was that I needed to disable/restrict the fingerprint auth as he was using that to get himself more time; his old device that died didn't have one. Everything said yeah just go to "Face ID & Passcode" under settings. Except it wasn't there. An inordinate amount of effort later I learned there was a setting knee deep in Screen Time > Content & Privacy Restrictions that would allow it to be displayed. Why TF not just display the Touch settings tab still and then a message saying its use is disabled in that part of their jungle hell? I mean that'd actually be user friendly. (Setting up Docker in WSL2 is a breeze compared to the guesswork that's becoming their new norm.)

by junon 6y ago

agumonkey 6y ago

At least communicate. Users aren't stupid but they approach the web with fear most of the time, so anything out of the ordinary is a sign of a problem they don't understand nor know how to restore and most of the time .. they think they caused the issue.

hrktb 6y ago
> they think they caused the issue. Which is the underlying cause of the universal “I didn’t do anything” disclaimer before they even start explaining the issue. And the aggressivity if that tension is not defused before replaying their actions to get the context. Solving issues requires way more social skills than people assume.
- agumonkey 6y ago
  there should be a "if you made a mistake, it means the company did something wrong" message on computers
  - hrktb 6y ago
    Yes, it's really a disservice to have "Please contact your administrator for assistance" messages, putting the user in a "you should get some help" position that rubs a lot of people the wrong way.

sundvor 6y ago

I'm a near 50s guy who grew up on Vic20s and hasn't stopped since. The UX of my son's iPad is almost enough to drive me insane. So many counter intuitive ways to do things, such as completely invisible (ZERO freaking indicators) swipes needed to access extra info etc. My present favourite is how the current keypad for entering extra time on an app (yes I managed to set up parental guidelines for that POS) is cropped in half so that you have to rotate the screen in order to see the full keypad. Plenty of room on the lock screen that's displayed for this purpose, only showing the numbers keypad - they just made it so tiny you can't pick half the numbers some of which are in my parent pin. How they're selling this crap for billions of dollars is beyond me.

intergalplan 6y ago
iOS discoverability/usability tanked when iOS7 came out and hasn't recovered. It went from being the only OS I'd happily give to my 80-something can-barely-email grandma, to "um... well, shit, I guess we'll get you a Chromebook... but it's gonna suck." Too many ways to accidentally make crap pop up or get stuck in weird states on iOS, now. Even the old folder behavior, that "split open" the screen to reveal the folder, made it much, much clearer to navigate for non-tech-geeks. Lots of little things like that, plus tons of gesture-initiated overlays and switching-about.
- sundvor 6y ago
  Thanks, yes it's almost like a cult thing - you're supposed to stab and poke and just _discover_ the hidden features. One example to prove your point was that I needed to disable/restrict the fingerprint auth as he was using that to get himself more time; his old device that died didn't have one. Everything said yeah just go to "Face ID & Passcode" under settings. Except it wasn't there. An inordinate amount of effort later I learned there was a setting knee deep in Screen Time > Content & Privacy Restrictions that would allow it to be displayed. Why TF not just display the Touch settings tab still and then a message saying its use is disabled in that part of their jungle hell? I mean that'd actually be user friendly. (Setting up Docker in WSL2 is a breeze compared to the guesswork that's becoming their new norm.)