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> But so what? If it sucks, it sucks, and we should call it out as such! How will we ever improve anything if we can't highlight what's wrong with the current s
by munificent 5y ago
> But so what? If it sucks, it sucks, and we should call it out as such! How will we ever improve anything if we can't highlight what's wrong with the current solution?
Declaring an existing solution sucks is not sufficient to improve it. You also need to understand the constraints that led to that sucky solution and have some evidence that those constraints no longer apply. Otherwise, you'll just burn a bunch of time reinventing the same misshapen wheel.
> All that work, all that testing to delude themselves into believing that a UI where elements moved around, and weren't in predictable locations was going to be something that users (especially experienced users) would prefer.
What are you so certain that it's they that are deluded?
> And sure enough, even to this day, I still see users (both new and experienced) struggling with the ribbon.
Sure, but you don't notice when users don't struggle with it. This sounds like confirmation bias.
- elpakal 5y agoI generally agree with the points you are trying to make but > Declaring an existing solution sucks is not sufficient to improve it. Have you ever received poor App Store reviews? In my experience a drop in ratings (for example) can drive a whole lot work. Sure it can help to understand constraints, context, etc but even anecdotal feedback can be helpful.
- munificent 5y agoFair. Feedback that something sucks can perhaps incentivize an investigation into why. And that investigation might turn up ways that it can be improved. But I think people generally overestimate the positive value of just declaring something bad. All the real work lies in figuring out why and how to make it better.
- elpakal 5y agoagreed and good points. this just happened to coincide with an email at my work about a drop in our ratings and it caused quite a stir.
- quanticle 5y agoThe ribbon itself was the result of confirmation bias, writ large, across the entire organization. Microsoft's PMs and UX experts noticed the new users who struggled with the hierarchical menus and forgot about the "dark matter" majority who found the menu structure adequate to their needs and didn't complain.