4 ms·

You may be correct that "most people" don't love settings, but I think we underestimate how many power users there are in the wild. I personally prefer software

You may be correct that "most people" don't love settings, but I think we underestimate how many power users there are in the wild. I personally prefer software to be customizable and give me a lot of options to configure and get what I want out of it. There are a lot of people who are willing to engage with your software and use their critical thinking skills in that process. I think we're losing something valuable by dumbing down all software and all interfaces to the lowest common denominator in the pursuit of "no friction" for users. Some friction is totally fine.

somehnguy 5y ago
It doesn’t even have to add friction. Optimize away for the common use case, that’s great and benefits the power user just as much. Just let people make changes if they really feel the need.
nerdponx 5y ago
I find it weird that people think settings are only for power users. Good defaults are very important for non-power-users. But if a non-power-user can Google their problem and change a setting to fix it, then that's a lot better than said user being left with no options at all.
- vkk8 5y ago
  By some definition, a person who does anything besides swearing when a piece of software doesn't work as expected is already a power user. I see this in many of my relatives. Googling the problem or checking the settings menu is something I do when asked to fix a technical problem in a piece of software I have never seen or used before and this more than they did before handing the problem to me.
supreme_berry 5y ago
xmprt 5y ago
I believe that the way forward isn't complex UIs or things like ribbons. Command palettes [1] solve most of the problems of discoverability while also helping power users by giving them quick access through shortcuts or highly configurable settings. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29373536 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29373536
paulcole 5y ago
> I personally prefer software to be customizable and give me a lot of options to configure and get what I want out of it. In my experience doing support, this is a give them an inch and they’ll ask for a mile situation. Power users are the worst when it comes to asking for more features or more settings. I had better luck with very limited settings and saying take it or leave it. Would just tell them straight up “What you want has a 0% chance of happening. Happy to refund your money.” Hardly anybody took me up on it and it greatly reduced ongoing support conversations that went nowhere.
- maccolgan 5y ago
  Were you supporting closed source software? Because that's exactly why it sucks, you have no right to disagree.
  - paulcole 5y ago
    Yes, I was supporting closed source software! I'm not sure I understand the rest of your comment, but of course the user has a right to disagree with a company's choices. They express their disagreement by not using it. If somebody hated our product, I'd send a link to our competitors who I was confident they'd hate more.

somehnguy 5y ago

It doesn’t even have to add friction. Optimize away for the common use case, that’s great and benefits the power user just as much. Just let people make changes if they really feel the need.

nerdponx 5y ago

I find it weird that people think settings are only for power users. Good defaults are very important for non-power-users. But if a non-power-user can Google their problem and change a setting to fix it, then that's a lot better than said user being left with no options at all.

vkk8 5y ago
By some definition, a person who does anything besides swearing when a piece of software doesn't work as expected is already a power user. I see this in many of my relatives. Googling the problem or checking the settings menu is something I do when asked to fix a technical problem in a piece of software I have never seen or used before and this more than they did before handing the problem to me.

supreme_berry 5y ago

xmprt 5y ago

I believe that the way forward isn't complex UIs or things like ribbons. Command palettes [1] solve most of the problems of discoverability while also helping power users by giving them quick access through shortcuts or highly configurable settings. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29373536 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29373536

paulcole 5y ago

> I personally prefer software to be customizable and give me a lot of options to configure and get what I want out of it. In my experience doing support, this is a give them an inch and they’ll ask for a mile situation. Power users are the worst when it comes to asking for more features or more settings. I had better luck with very limited settings and saying take it or leave it. Would just tell them straight up “What you want has a 0% chance of happening. Happy to refund your money.” Hardly anybody took me up on it and it greatly reduced ongoing support conversations that went nowhere.

maccolgan 5y ago
Were you supporting closed source software? Because that's exactly why it sucks, you have no right to disagree.
- paulcole 5y ago
  Yes, I was supporting closed source software! I'm not sure I understand the rest of your comment, but of course the user has a right to disagree with a company's choices. They express their disagreement by not using it. If somebody hated our product, I'd send a link to our competitors who I was confident they'd hate more.