3 ms·

> Universal search in UI is cool, and I’m all for it, but it shouldn’t be the only/primary way of accessing tools as tool discoverability is very low. This is

> Universal search in UI is cool, and I’m all for it, but it shouldn’t be the only/primary way of accessing tools as tool discoverability is very low. This is the core point made in the article.

echelon 3y ago
How do you support discoverability, sleek work areas with minimal interfaces such as search, and power users at the same time? What does that look like?
- et1337 3y ago
  Look at the Blender UI. Every command is searchable via F3, available via menus, and sometimes also available via a keyboard shortcut.
- derefr 3y ago
  It looks like having multiple selectable interface layouts for different types of user with different discoverability needs. Photoshop does this.
- sparkie 3y ago
  Menus with lots of options, properly labelled and organized, and displaying keyboard shortcuts next to them, like pretty much any software written in the 90s. Tooltips when you hover over things. Actual documentation built into the software rather than tucked away in a man page or only found in a forum you discovered by searching for your problem. I don't think it's power users these designers are trying to cater for. They make things more difficult for power users by hiding useful options in some tab in a modal settings dialog, which is a PITA to find and click if you need to change it often. Often they remove something completely from the UI and you need to go find the config file and manually edit some text and restart the program to get functionality back. They're trying to cater for novices - they think too many controls on display is going to confuse or overwhelm them. I blame Barry Schwartz[1] If they were trying to cater for power users they would let power users configure their interfaces to suit them. Modern interfaces are "fixed" in the image of the designer, and screw you, the user. [1]:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Paradox_of_Choice https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Paradox_of_Choice
  - eviks 3y ago
    > If they were trying to cater for power users they would let power users configure their interfaces to suit them. Exactly, and both in the immediate UI (like, ctrl-right click on a menu and enter the new shortcuts right there) and in config files to allow for batch search&replace editing
  - Gibbon1 3y ago
    Old school autocad back when I had access you could configure menu's yourself. I see no reason that you couldn't do that with a modern application. One thing I did with GUI I wrote for a customer was added a notes item to the right click menu on every control. Click it an editable text box shows up. With an option to mail me the notes data so I could incorporate it in the next release.
- CyberDildonics 3y ago
  It looks like most content creation programs where somewhere there is a big list of everything you can look through. Look at houdini's nodes interface. You hit tab and a huge list of nodes comes up. Start typing and it will filter the list as you type.

> Universal search in UI is cool, and I’m all for it, but it shouldn’t be the only/primary way of accessing tools as tool discoverability is very low. This is the core point made in the article.

echelon 3y ago

How do you support discoverability, sleek work areas with minimal interfaces such as search, and power users at the same time? What does that look like?

et1337 3y ago
Look at the Blender UI. Every command is searchable via F3, available via menus, and sometimes also available via a keyboard shortcut.
derefr 3y ago
It looks like having multiple selectable interface layouts for different types of user with different discoverability needs. Photoshop does this.
sparkie 3y ago
Menus with lots of options, properly labelled and organized, and displaying keyboard shortcuts next to them, like pretty much any software written in the 90s. Tooltips when you hover over things. Actual documentation built into the software rather than tucked away in a man page or only found in a forum you discovered by searching for your problem. I don't think it's power users these designers are trying to cater for. They make things more difficult for power users by hiding useful options in some tab in a modal settings dialog, which is a PITA to find and click if you need to change it often. Often they remove something completely from the UI and you need to go find the config file and manually edit some text and restart the program to get functionality back. They're trying to cater for novices - they think too many controls on display is going to confuse or overwhelm them. I blame Barry Schwartz[1] If they were trying to cater for power users they would let power users configure their interfaces to suit them. Modern interfaces are "fixed" in the image of the designer, and screw you, the user. [1]:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Paradox_of_Choice https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Paradox_of_Choice
- eviks 3y ago
  > If they were trying to cater for power users they would let power users configure their interfaces to suit them. Exactly, and both in the immediate UI (like, ctrl-right click on a menu and enter the new shortcuts right there) and in config files to allow for batch search&replace editing
- Gibbon1 3y ago
  Old school autocad back when I had access you could configure menu's yourself. I see no reason that you couldn't do that with a modern application. One thing I did with GUI I wrote for a customer was added a notes item to the right click menu on every control. Click it an editable text box shows up. With an option to mail me the notes data so I could incorporate it in the next release.
CyberDildonics 3y ago
It looks like most content creation programs where somewhere there is a big list of everything you can look through. Look at houdini's nodes interface. You hit tab and a huge list of nodes comes up. Start typing and it will filter the list as you type.