161–170 of 280 posts
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Yeah postman is the worst. I hate that pos with a passion.
I didn't notice how unhappy I was with Postman until I switched to Insomnia https://insomnia.rest/
Although maybe it's fixed now.
And this is why software sucks. We should focus on educating users, not stooping to their level GUIs of old had a specific design language. Like: File, Edit, Window, Help in the menubar -- always consistent, always in the same order, and always containing the same thing. Min/max/close buttons in the upper-right. And so on. If one knows the GUI language they can use almost any application for many solutions at a basic…
I learned very thoroughly that the software version details were under "Help -> About". If it's not there, I'm not only stumped; I'm genuinely angry. That doesn't have to be logical; emotional reactions happen by themselves. Making me angry with your software is not good for sales. Running on my desktop this very second; Postman. "Help" has no about. It has a "Check for Updates", but that doesn't tell me my current v…
And this is why software sucks. We should focus on educating users, not stooping to their level GUIs of old had a specific design language. Like: File, Edit, Window, Help in the menubar -- always consistent, always in the same order, and always containing the same thing. Min/max/close buttons in the upper-right. And so on. If one knows the GUI language they can use almost any application for many solutions at a basic…
Educating users costs money as well. From business perspective, no one is going to spend that money.
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I see the car analogy used regularly and I think it’s completely off base. A much better analogy for computer skills is literacy and numeracy. We don’t tell people “don’t bother learning how to read, you can listen to audio books on audible!” just as we shouldn’t tell people that computer programming is only for professional software developers (or anything else involving intensive skill mastery related to computers)…
People do disregard numeracy if all the, "LOL, your teacher said you wouldn't always have a calculator in your pocket" memes are anything to go by.
Still, numeracy is not being able to multiply a bunch of 3-digit numbers on a piece of paper. Numeracy is primarily knowing which numbers to multiply, or add together, or subtract from each other to learn something you need, and that you can do this in the first place.
And this is why software sucks. We should focus on educating users, not stooping to their level GUIs of old had a specific design language. Like: File, Edit, Window, Help in the menubar -- always consistent, always in the same order, and always containing the same thing. Min/max/close buttons in the upper-right. And so on. If one knows the GUI language they can use almost any application for many solutions at a basic…
> And this is why software sucks. We should focus on educating users, not stooping to their level Some users just don't want to learn. It's the reason why I always get a phone call when [Thing I've tried to sit down and teach to grandma] needs to be done. You're on to something when talking about consistency and following design language. Building a good UI takes skill and thought into making the design intuitive eno…
And this is why software sucks. We should focus on educating users, not stooping to their level GUIs of old had a specific design language. Like: File, Edit, Window, Help in the menubar -- always consistent, always in the same order, and always containing the same thing. Min/max/close buttons in the upper-right. And so on. If one knows the GUI language they can use almost any application for many solutions at a basic…
But more importantly, educating users is not the job of app developers, and any attempt to make it so will fail miserably. If you want to make an app that people will use, then you need to make one that suits your customers needs. The real ones, who already exist. You can’t make an app that tries to transform customers into something you that want them to be, and expect it to succeed.
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Should I also learn how to repair my car instead of just taking it to the dealer? It’s called specialization of labor. Most of us make an above average wage dealing with computers and pay other people to know things we don’t know.
Yes, unpopular opinion these days, but car owners should really know how to do at least the bare minimum of basic car maintenance. I'm not talking about replacing the suspension or re-building the transmission, but things like changing oil, brake pads, and refilling washer fluid. The very basic basics. Not only does it save you money (who wants to have a mechanic do something for $200 that you can do for $30 + a litt…
On the other hand these jobs do take space in my life and in my mind. It is questionable whether we should "force" people to do simple car maintenance. Our society runs on division of labour and everybody places their cutover to experts somewhere else. You say they could benefit a lot from gaining some mechanical understanding of their car's operation. And I feel the same. But they may wonder why they should learn a skill that takes time away from other things important to them.
Sure I may question how they spend their time. But now we've moved away from how knowing basic maintenance is good for you to a more general outlook on life. Watching a tutorial will improve one's future life. But we can't say that watching a car maintenance tutorial will be the right thing. Maybe it's a tutorial on Excel? Which would be more in line with the topic of the article anyway.
So I agree with you in general but not in specifics :-)
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> And this is why software sucks. We should focus on educating users, not stooping to their level Some users just don't want to learn. It's the reason why I always get a phone call when [Thing I've tried to sit down and teach to grandma] needs to be done. You're on to something when talking about consistency and following design language. Building a good UI takes skill and thought into making the design intuitive eno…
> Some users just don't want to learn. 100% agree. It took my grandma about two weeks with a tablet to figure out by herself how to look up oil prices in the web browser. It was the first device she ever used that was more powerful than an old Nokia mobile phone and her first contact with the internet. We never taught her what a web browser was or how to use it. Meanwhile my mother used a laptop and smartphone for ye…
Grandma usually trades oil contracts by phone? Or Grandma heats with oil and needs a refill? Or Grandma has a salad dressing factory? Or...
Some (many) users actively refuse to learn. There appears to be some psychological barrier that prevents them from even trying (perhaps similar to how some people panic at seeing any math beyond simple addition arithmetic). That's not to say the people are stupid - many of them are relative experts in some other domain, but yet when a computer interface is presented, they shut off their brains. While I find "wizard"…
Users don't read so I don't know how well this is going to pan out. You're making the mistake thinking users are carefully operating their machines with a purpose. It's more like being surprised by a spider, clicking on anything that moves and if it starts bonging click shut down and try again later before you delete your life. /12 years tech support and have a family.
"can you read what is on the screen right now"
"There is nothing on the screen!"
"there is a box on the center of your screen with words, please read them"
"OH that box.."
On top of that there were clear things such as menus, status bar tips, shortcuts and help docs that were to be found in the same place across programs, one would have to understand the system once and they would be generally fine across various programs.
Now, of course, I am not suggesting we go back to DOS but I am suggesting we take the good principles out of it and consider standardization. Windows had it right as well up to Windows 8 when they made a mess with the tiles and all the push towards a confusing mess (to this day, the settings app still doesn't have proper navigation).