3 ms·
"If you pop up an error box of any sort, they simply will not read it. This may be disconcerting to you as a programmer, because you imagine yourself as conduct
by teddyh 4y ago
"If you pop up an error box of any sort, they simply will not read it. This may be disconcerting to you as a programmer, because you imagine yourself as conducting a dialog with the user. Hey, user! You can’t open that file, we don’t support that file format! Still, experience shows that the more words you put on that dialog box, the fewer people will actually read it.”
— Designing for People Who Have Better Things To Do With Their Lives <https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2000/04/26/designing-for-people-who-have-better-things-to-do-with-their-lives/ https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2000/04/26/designing-for-peop...>
- Jiro 4y agoReading through that site, I see some things that... aged poorly. Like https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2006/11/21/choices-headaches/ https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2006/11/21/choices-headaches/ which tells you to avoid giving users choices, which is hiw you get problems like what's happened to some Linux desktops that keep hiding useful functionality. Or https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2004/09/06/its-not-just-usability/ https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2004/09/06/its-not-just-usabi... which promotes the idea of not giving feedback to abusive users, which is an ancestor of the Kafkaesque policies where Youtube or Facebook or Google Play bans you with no explanation of what you did wrong and no way to appeal.
- teddyh 4y agoI don’t agree with your examples. In the first one, he describes a specific problem, and I agree with his description and proposed sketched solution. I see no explicit connection with the later problems of modern programs removing options. In the second article, he describes a method for fighting spam, not abusive users, and it was a reasonable idea in 2004. And I seem to recall that even this very forum currently uses that method, so it must still be very effective, which in turn points to Joel being correct. The negative aspects you describe I feel lies more with the centralized monolithic nature of those actors. Of course, a tool can be used badly, but I’m not sure the article has aged that badly.
- YeGoblynQueenne 4y ago┌[ATTENTION!]────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ │ │ DISK WIPE INITIATED - PRESS HERE TO CANCEL --> [X] │ │ │ └────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ Then tell them what you want them to know when they press the X. Edit: No box drawings allowed ... :(
- teddyh 4y agoNobody is going to read that text, either. People see a box, they immediately close it. Also, even if they did read it, people don’t know what a “disk” is, nor what “wipe” means.