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Every time I help someone with a computer, it's usually a very smart person I consider more generally capable then me. Sometimes I get the impression that they

Every time I help someone with a computer, it's usually a very smart person I consider more generally capable then me. Sometimes I get the impression that they are so used to understanding things, and doing things based on that understanding, that they don't have experience and confidence with systems that no human likely even can understand fully. These are people who can process input from their entire body at once while riding a skateboard. They can draw or sculpt or carve. They can play instruments and drive cars... But they're terrible with computers. They are afraid to touch anything thinking the settings panel is full of instantly catch fire buttons. They touch the mouse with uncomfortable body language, like it's a pocket knife that has an overcomplicated spring mechanism you don't trust. They don't try to solve problems themselves because they have lots of anxiety when they go near one. In real life it doesn't work to say "Yeah I have no idea how any of this works but there's an undo button". These highly capable people also seem to have boredom issues too. They can physically build something a faster than they can design and 3D print it. It probably doesn't feel as exciting when you can already do everything the machine can. Apple is considered the top company for n00bs, but they rely heavily in gestures and your own memory. I suspect that it's not an easy system for "idiots" as some think, it's a system for people who aren't comfortable with indirection and like direct control. Everyone always thinks users are idiots, but they can all do so much that I can't. I suspect they're just used to freedom living in the moment, and are strongly tactile and connected to their body, so that they don't really feel the artificial abstractions as real things they trust, plus they have active minds and are distracted by not understanding how something works, instead of just accepting it as probably some nonsense that a drunk coder made up that can't be changed because legacy.

andrepd 3y ago
>Apple is considered the top company for n00bs, but they rely heavily in gestures and your own memory I think this is so much more unintuitive and frustrating than what we had before...
- Dalewyn 3y ago
  Apple is considered top dog for usability because: * They have a CONSISTENT user interface. I am emphasizing this in caps despite going against style guidelines here because this is such an important thing that has gone out of style outside Apple. Everything in MacOS and iOS look and behave the same. Users worship consistency. * They know and respect how humans behave. Ever seen those Windows desktops filled to the brim with icons? Well that's how most users use computers, and so that's how iOS presents itself to its users: All the icons on the screen, scrolling probably necessary but they're all on the screen. * Following on the above, they know and respect that humans abhor complexity. Apple's mice have one/zero buttons because I can't tell you how many users simply do not understand nor care about left- and right-clicks, let alone middle-clicking the scroll wheel. Apple knows and respects that. TL;DR: Apple is top dog because Apple is the only computing company that knows how to human.
  - fragmede 3y ago
    > They have a CONSISTENT user interface Using the default clock app, a timer has finished. How do you make it stop? Quick, an alarm has gone off. Which button is snooze and which button is stop? I know it's minor, but if they can't even get that right, do you seriously think the rest is as consistent as you want it to be?
    - Dalewyn 3y ago
      Considering anyone can pick up a random Apple gadget and immediately know how to use it (assuming some prior Apple experience)? Yeah, it's consistent; the most consistent user interface known to mankind today, even. You know what really blew me away? When I found MacOS works practically identically to iOS and vice versa. Apple succeeded where Microsoft Fucking Failed and still Fails with three capital Fs. A consistent, single user interface transcending form factors and entirely different use cases that is also intuitive to most people on the planet. Apple is fucking amazing at human'ing.
      - RhysU 3y ago
        If Apple products were so intuitive, I would intuit them. Instead, anytime I touch any Apple product, the original iPod notwithstanding, I want to throw the Apple product out an adjacent window in under 2 minutes. They have trained generations of people in their weird ways, just like every other vendor. How? Well, no one wants to admit they're too stupid to learn the first luxury-branded iProduct they just bought. If they can't use their first iProduct they can't extract status from visibly using it in front of others. So they dedicate themselves to learning their first iProduct. By the second iProduct, they're used to Apple's unintuitive UIs and part of the Apple-is-intuitive cult. Motivated people can learn anything. Apple's trick is using social status desires to induce initial motivation. The trick doesn't work on me. Hence me wanting to yeet iProducts out windows whenever I am forced to use them, usually because I have been asked to by a lifelong Apple user who can't figure out something on their allegedly intuitive device.

andrepd 3y ago

>Apple is considered the top company for n00bs, but they rely heavily in gestures and your own memory I think this is so much more unintuitive and frustrating than what we had before...

Dalewyn 3y ago
Apple is considered top dog for usability because: * They have a CONSISTENT user interface. I am emphasizing this in caps despite going against style guidelines here because this is such an important thing that has gone out of style outside Apple. Everything in MacOS and iOS look and behave the same. Users worship consistency. * They know and respect how humans behave. Ever seen those Windows desktops filled to the brim with icons? Well that's how most users use computers, and so that's how iOS presents itself to its users: All the icons on the screen, scrolling probably necessary but they're all on the screen. * Following on the above, they know and respect that humans abhor complexity. Apple's mice have one/zero buttons because I can't tell you how many users simply do not understand nor care about left- and right-clicks, let alone middle-clicking the scroll wheel. Apple knows and respects that. TL;DR: Apple is top dog because Apple is the only computing company that knows how to human.
- fragmede 3y ago
  > They have a CONSISTENT user interface Using the default clock app, a timer has finished. How do you make it stop? Quick, an alarm has gone off. Which button is snooze and which button is stop? I know it's minor, but if they can't even get that right, do you seriously think the rest is as consistent as you want it to be?
  - Dalewyn 3y ago
    Considering anyone can pick up a random Apple gadget and immediately know how to use it (assuming some prior Apple experience)? Yeah, it's consistent; the most consistent user interface known to mankind today, even. You know what really blew me away? When I found MacOS works practically identically to iOS and vice versa. Apple succeeded where Microsoft Fucking Failed and still Fails with three capital Fs. A consistent, single user interface transcending form factors and entirely different use cases that is also intuitive to most people on the planet. Apple is fucking amazing at human'ing.
    - RhysU 3y ago
      If Apple products were so intuitive, I would intuit them. Instead, anytime I touch any Apple product, the original iPod notwithstanding, I want to throw the Apple product out an adjacent window in under 2 minutes. They have trained generations of people in their weird ways, just like every other vendor. How? Well, no one wants to admit they're too stupid to learn the first luxury-branded iProduct they just bought. If they can't use their first iProduct they can't extract status from visibly using it in front of others. So they dedicate themselves to learning their first iProduct. By the second iProduct, they're used to Apple's unintuitive UIs and part of the Apple-is-intuitive cult. Motivated people can learn anything. Apple's trick is using social status desires to induce initial motivation. The trick doesn't work on me. Hence me wanting to yeet iProducts out windows whenever I am forced to use them, usually because I have been asked to by a lifelong Apple user who can't figure out something on their allegedly intuitive device.