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The complexity of software has caught up with the GUI. Getting a generation of people to approach and use computers was great. But the GUI was never "intuitive"

The complexity of software has caught up with the GUI. Getting a generation of people to approach and use computers was great. But the GUI was never "intuitive" unless "intuitive" means that you can be trained to recognize a certain number of symbols. And that number is finite, when they're always changing. Here's how it struck me like a freight train: I was looking at some instructions for installing certain "drivers" for some technical hardware. The instructions for Windows computers was a series of color glossy screen shots, with circles and arrows, and a paragraph under each one. Of course they were particularly hard to follow because they hadn't been updated to the last revision of the OS. In contrast, the Linux instructions were: sudo apt install foo bar blah ... sudo add a line to this file ... And even instructions for Windows computers are adopting this strategy: Press Windows-R+cmd, enter these commands I love the crude palette consisting of pressing the Windows key and typing some gibberish into the search bar, like "device manager" or "bluetooth settings." Much better than trying to remember where those things are located. And incrementally improving the search function will keep making it better. I hope. This could be the backdoor route into natural language computing.

Tagbert 5y ago
I think that there will always be a dynamic balance between GUI interactions and command line interactions. Command line is efficient and good for applications and function that you use on a regular basis, but can be difficult with apps that you are new to or only use occasionally. A proper UI should be able to accommodate both the efficiency of familiarity and the discoverability for a novice.
hunter2_ 5y ago
Conversational interfaces, i.e., chat bots including Google Assistant, take this approach but eliminate the pre-submit feedback that is so handy if you're at a keyboard.
pjerem 5y ago
This have been discussed here but there was a time (Windows 9x/XP area) where GUIs were « intuitive but with some learning curve ». Of course it was a little harder (but not that much) to master the tools of this era but once you understood the basic paradigms (files, folders, windows, menus, toolbars, common discoverability, common keyboard shortcuts, F1 for help…) you could become proficient in any unknown software way more faster than today. Now, there is nearly no transferable knowledge between 2 softwares. For me this looks like « knowledge lock-in » (which adds to the vendor and data lock-in, btw). Well, we still have Linux if we want to learn something useful. But even there if you use it professionally, you’re probably going to be stuck with all those « I’m unique » Electron apps. tbf, I think what we are missing is a truly high quality multi platform GUI toolkit able to work with modern language. Most are still only officially supporting C++ and nobody wants to write a complex application in C++ anymore.
- bmn__ 5y ago
  Using French punctuation in English prose is jarring to read.
omnicognate 5y ago
Just to let you know at least one person appreciated the Arlo Guthrie reference.

Tagbert 5y ago

I think that there will always be a dynamic balance between GUI interactions and command line interactions. Command line is efficient and good for applications and function that you use on a regular basis, but can be difficult with apps that you are new to or only use occasionally. A proper UI should be able to accommodate both the efficiency of familiarity and the discoverability for a novice.

hunter2_ 5y ago

Conversational interfaces, i.e., chat bots including Google Assistant, take this approach but eliminate the pre-submit feedback that is so handy if you're at a keyboard.

pjerem 5y ago

This have been discussed here but there was a time (Windows 9x/XP area) where GUIs were « intuitive but with some learning curve ». Of course it was a little harder (but not that much) to master the tools of this era but once you understood the basic paradigms (files, folders, windows, menus, toolbars, common discoverability, common keyboard shortcuts, F1 for help…) you could become proficient in any unknown software way more faster than today. Now, there is nearly no transferable knowledge between 2 softwares. For me this looks like « knowledge lock-in » (which adds to the vendor and data lock-in, btw). Well, we still have Linux if we want to learn something useful. But even there if you use it professionally, you’re probably going to be stuck with all those « I’m unique » Electron apps. tbf, I think what we are missing is a truly high quality multi platform GUI toolkit able to work with modern language. Most are still only officially supporting C++ and nobody wants to write a complex application in C++ anymore.

bmn__ 5y ago
Using French punctuation in English prose is jarring to read.

omnicognate 5y ago

Just to let you know at least one person appreciated the Arlo Guthrie reference.