Users hate change • Hacker News Board

Re: Users hate change

#311

Post by tabtab » Mon, Jul 29, 2019, 3:33 PM UTC

monkin wrote: post #110

People don't hate changes, they hate learning new things. Most of them are lazy, and don't want to change their habits, no matter how bad they are. I know from my experience, that most valuable users will contact you directly (e-mail, support, twitter, other way) to describe their experiences before and after the change, telling you what exactly hurts them. Rest of them are pointless trolls with "First Comment Rule".…

Re: People don't hate changes, they hate learning new things. Most of them are lazy

Changes often don't solve anything of significance, just reshuffle stuff to be different or to be "cool". When you deal with dozens of apps and applications a day, having to relearn a UI is an annoyance.

Take the MS-Office "ribbon" change. Perhaps it may improve newbie learning a rough guess of 15%, but those of us who got used to the existing tool-bar by rote memorization were slowed for a few months. The ribbon changed one arbitrariness for another arbitrariness from our perspective. I can point out several irrationalities in the ribbon.

Re: Users hate change

#312

Post by tabtab » Mon, Jul 29, 2019, 3:38 PM UTC

reitanqild wrote: post #136

snegu wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I assure you that UX designers (the real ones, at least) would love to get out of their ivory towers. In every job I have had, I have begged to get out and talk to users before doing anything else. However, that idea makes folks in charge nervous. It's expensive. It might reveal secrets(?). The users might get annoyed. One of the biggest issues is that time spent on research is time when the developers can't be devel…

I don't know. IIRC UX people here on HN has told me Ribbon was a perfect example of UX design done right: they tested it on users and chose the easiest one. Yet the first version of Ribbon released with the most important menus hidden behind the round logo in the upper left corner. You are probably a good ux designer, but in general, modern ux designers cannot be trusted ;-)

Don't forget that Pointy-Haired Bosses often stick their finger into the pie the last minute. You can't always blame the designers.

Re: Users hate change

#313

Post by pyhtel » Tue, Jul 30, 2019, 9:19 AM UTC

mitchdoogle wrote: post #310

lonelappde wrote: post #236

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are using as though you haven't noticed the physical product companies are all racing to lock up their products in rent-seeking license agreements.

I think he's using it to show the ludicrousness of the system software has become. I haven't heard of any subscription shovels, have you?

Perhaps not shovels, rental cars/excavators and such aren't too different from a subscription model

Re: Users hate change

#314

Post by reitanqild » Tue, Jul 30, 2019, 1:57 PM UTC

tabtab wrote: post #312

reitanqild wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know. IIRC UX people here on HN has told me Ribbon was a perfect example of UX design done right: they tested it on users and chose the easiest one. Yet the first version of Ribbon released with the most important menus hidden behind the round logo in the upper left corner. You are probably a good ux designer, but in general, modern ux designers cannot be trusted ;-)

Don't forget that Pointy-Haired Bosses often stick their finger into the pie the last minute. You can't always blame the designers.

Good point. In that particular case (first version of ribbon) the file open and save ux was (IMO, IIRC) so awfully bad that I'll be able to give even a modern UX designer the benefit of doubt ;-)

Re: Users hate change

#315

Post by nitrogen » Mon, Aug 05, 2019, 9:46 PM UTC

ben509 wrote: post #108

MereInterest wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To start branching out into additional software. Rather than shoehorning a feature into a product that doesn't need it, make that feature be a standalone product.

This was the premise behind various component platforms, e.g. OLE, CORBA, OpenDoc which were, in many ways, the GUI equivalent of command line shells. We could see a renaissance in that area if technologies similar to Electron and ubiquitous app stores make these more feasible. (To toot my own horn, I think https://tenet-lang.org/ would be helpful in building well versioned APIs to allow intercommunication with share…

It's a bit late for this thread, but Android Intents and the related WebIntents were kind of similar to OLE, but it seems neither captured the attention of the market.