4 ms·

I'll still die on this hill, but I think that the reason there's a computer literacy problem is because we moved away from following OS conventions (when they e

I'll still die on this hill, but I think that the reason there's a computer literacy problem is because we moved away from following OS conventions (when they existed) and into bespoke, branded UIs for everything, and then eventually to web where every site and webapp behaves differently. In the early days, if you learned the OS, those usage patterns and skilled transferred to every app on that OS. They all looked roughly the same, shared the same menus, shame shortcuts, same icons, etc. You didn't have to learn how to use Apps x, y, and z. You just had to learn Windows (to an extent). Then marketing got involved, and then the web, and then suddenly every piece of software had to stand out and look and behave as unique as possible, throwing years of HIG research out the window.

AlienRobot 6mo ago
Not all OS's, unfortunately. I'm on the boat that says conforming to Gnome HIG's is a bad idea. Just today I had the disk usage analyzer (baobab) open and I was navigating inside directories so I want to go up a directory and clicked on the "<-" left arrow in the headerbar, which went "back" a screen, discarding all the work done scanning the filesystem. If this app had a traditional menubar and a toolbar this wouldn't have happened. This is a common type of experience I have every time I use a Gnome app. It almost feels like someone deliberately researched how to make desktop apps as counter-intuitive as possible and implemented that as the policy for some reason.
- jg0r3 6mo ago
  omg yes, I felt crazy the first time I experienced this "feature"
- jampekka 6mo ago
  To me Gnome mostly feels like someone deliberately researched how to make desktop apps as intuitive as possible and implemented that as the policy. And I guess that's what they did, and they did a good job.
- accelbred 6mo ago
  I have the opposite experience. I have no trouble navigating Gnome apps, and now when selecting an application for a task, I'll choose a Gnome or GTK4 one first. Other apps implement odd controls that don't mesh with the rest of the system.
jimbokun 6mo ago
Notice that several examples in the Claude Design demo video are typing in English things that could be accomplished through UI controls, if the user only knew where to find them.
- gowld 6mo ago
  All I saw was chaotic high speed zooms and jump cuts.
sofixa 6mo ago
> In the early days, if you learned the OS, those usage patterns and skilled transferred to every app on that OS And locked your thinking into the OS' way of thinking. Every software vendor had to do their application a few times over with a different release for each OS, because the design is completely different. As someone who uses multiple OSes (work macOS and iOS, home Windows and Ubuntu, Android) I hate nothing more than apps that behave differently on the different OSes, with different logic or features.

AlienRobot 6mo ago

Not all OS's, unfortunately. I'm on the boat that says conforming to Gnome HIG's is a bad idea. Just today I had the disk usage analyzer (baobab) open and I was navigating inside directories so I want to go up a directory and clicked on the "<-" left arrow in the headerbar, which went "back" a screen, discarding all the work done scanning the filesystem. If this app had a traditional menubar and a toolbar this wouldn't have happened. This is a common type of experience I have every time I use a Gnome app. It almost feels like someone deliberately researched how to make desktop apps as counter-intuitive as possible and implemented that as the policy for some reason.

jg0r3 6mo ago
omg yes, I felt crazy the first time I experienced this "feature"
jampekka 6mo ago
To me Gnome mostly feels like someone deliberately researched how to make desktop apps as intuitive as possible and implemented that as the policy. And I guess that's what they did, and they did a good job.
accelbred 6mo ago
I have the opposite experience. I have no trouble navigating Gnome apps, and now when selecting an application for a task, I'll choose a Gnome or GTK4 one first. Other apps implement odd controls that don't mesh with the rest of the system.

jimbokun 6mo ago

Notice that several examples in the Claude Design demo video are typing in English things that could be accomplished through UI controls, if the user only knew where to find them.

gowld 6mo ago
All I saw was chaotic high speed zooms and jump cuts.

sofixa 6mo ago

> In the early days, if you learned the OS, those usage patterns and skilled transferred to every app on that OS And locked your thinking into the OS' way of thinking. Every software vendor had to do their application a few times over with a different release for each OS, because the design is completely different. As someone who uses multiple OSes (work macOS and iOS, home Windows and Ubuntu, Android) I hate nothing more than apps that behave differently on the different OSes, with different logic or features.