5 ms·

My take: Settings are a last resort. The more settings you have, the less likely a user is to actually find the one they need. So some settings are good, but to

My take: Settings are a last resort. The more settings you have, the less likely a user is to actually find the one they need. So some settings are good, but too many are bad. E.g. dark mode is a setting that just makes sense because different users have different preferences. But it's quite easy to measure what settings almost no one is using, and to axe those. In other cases you may be able to figure out a smarter way to offer the functionality without a checkbox hidden away in a settings page

mschuster91 5y ago
> But it's quite easy to measure what settings almost no one is using, and to axe those. The chance is high that the "almost no one" group is actually the ones that use your app the most. Casual users won't care much about some setting five layers deep in the menu, but the ones who are dedicated enough to actually find it will care. The constant "optimization" by taking features away that "no one" uses is what drives so many users away from installing updates. Please stop that bullshit. I'd like to not fear updates again.
- asddubs 5y ago
  Ha, I knew I would get called out on that. To be honest, in my specific case, I doubt it, I've removed some pretty pointless legacy settings which only had minor cosmetic effects. I know this stuff is in the eye of the beholder, but sometimes there genuinely are settings that someone asked for a decade ago that no one else really wanted, or possibly wasn't even what the person asking meant. But the way this usually works on our app is that the setting is just removed for anyone who has it set to the default value at that moment, so people who previously changed it won't have their stuff messed with.
mmis1000 5y ago
Firefox forcely remove the separator between tabs in new design because users won't open too many tab in general, and they won't make the tab too small to differ. And I fxxking hate it. Because I am the user that will open many tab and make the tab small. So does this mean I should not use firefox because I use it wrong? It's really a shitty attitude if you are exactly the one that they claims 'not-important'. Pray for you not being lucky enough to be the one 'not-important' if you don't know the pain yet.
- asddubs 5y ago
  I doubt firefox actually measured how many people use lots of tabs, because I don't think it's actually that few.

mschuster91 5y ago

> But it's quite easy to measure what settings almost no one is using, and to axe those. The chance is high that the "almost no one" group is actually the ones that use your app the most. Casual users won't care much about some setting five layers deep in the menu, but the ones who are dedicated enough to actually find it will care. The constant "optimization" by taking features away that "no one" uses is what drives so many users away from installing updates. Please stop that bullshit. I'd like to not fear updates again.

asddubs 5y ago
Ha, I knew I would get called out on that. To be honest, in my specific case, I doubt it, I've removed some pretty pointless legacy settings which only had minor cosmetic effects. I know this stuff is in the eye of the beholder, but sometimes there genuinely are settings that someone asked for a decade ago that no one else really wanted, or possibly wasn't even what the person asking meant. But the way this usually works on our app is that the setting is just removed for anyone who has it set to the default value at that moment, so people who previously changed it won't have their stuff messed with.

mmis1000 5y ago

Firefox forcely remove the separator between tabs in new design because users won't open too many tab in general, and they won't make the tab too small to differ. And I fxxking hate it. Because I am the user that will open many tab and make the tab small. So does this mean I should not use firefox because I use it wrong? It's really a shitty attitude if you are exactly the one that they claims 'not-important'. Pray for you not being lucky enough to be the one 'not-important' if you don't know the pain yet.

asddubs 5y ago
I doubt firefox actually measured how many people use lots of tabs, because I don't think it's actually that few.