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It's the tools that suck, not the users. If you have two folders open in Microsoft Windows, and drag an item from one to the other... there are 3 possible acti
by mikewarot 3y ago
It's the tools that suck, not the users.
If you have two folders open in Microsoft Windows, and drag an item from one to the other... there are 3 possible actions (as of a decade ago) that might happen according to an set of rules the user can't be expected to know....
It might copy the file
it might create a shortcut to the file
it might move the file
This is just a tiny example of the inconsistency of one of the oldest and most stable parts of the UI on a desktop. To coounteract this, I always taught about right-click and drag/drop to actively select which was to happen.
Throw in a phone, or the internet, and the UI de jure force through the web... how dare they cast aspersions on the users.... it's not their fault.
- aeturnum 3y agoThat's fair to say! But I think the takeaway is less about "who is to blame" and more about "what should you ask of users?" No matter what the precise cause, most users will struggle to do anything complex, and you should design your products wi†h that understanding.
- archgoon 3y ago[dead]
- falcolas 3y ago> there are 3 possible actions (as of a decade ago) that might happen according to an set of rules the user can't be expected to know.... At least the icon changed based on which action was going to happen. Knowing to look for that icon change, on the other hand...
- compressedgas 3y agoYou can also force a specific action by holding shift, ctrl, or alt before dropping.
- Tijdreiziger 3y agoOr by dragging with the right mouse button.
- kwhitefoot 3y agoHow does someone who is not interested in computing supposed to know this?
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- verve_rat 3y agoThat interface isn't designed for them. Not everything has to be for everyone. The attitude that an interface has to work for novices as well as experts is one of the reasons that interfaces keep getting worse.
- falcolas 3y agoI found it by accident. Either by noticing the icon changing as I hit modifiers, or by coming across it in a thread just like this one. As noted above, discoverability of this function sucks, so “accidentally“ is about the only real way to find it.
- qball 3y ago>according to an set of rules the user can't be expected to know This is consistent, it's just never properly communicated. If the source and destination are on the same drive, dragging executes a move by default; if the source and destination are on different drives, dragging makes a copy by default. macOS has this problem too, where you just flat out can't cut/copy/move files with the same shortcuts and verbiage you'd use for text (or the option in the menu is greyed out for no reason).
- kwhitefoot 3y agoWhat's a drive? And how, and why, can a user be expected to understand this?
- linuxftw 3y agoUp until about 2010, this was basic user knowledge. That's like asking 'what's a web browser' which, ironically, in 1995 more people would have known what a drive was than a web browser.