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Slack’s new WYSIWYG input box is terrible

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Re: Slack’s new WYSIWYG input box is terrible

#81

Post by coldtea »

exogeny wrote: post #38

I'm going to take the opposite of this argument, and for bonafides, I run the product team for a 1000+ person company. I'm going to assume that this thing was tested out the wazoo, both qualitatively and behind enough feature-flags and buckets to keep Optimizely in business for a year. So I have no doubt that this wasn't just a hunch on their part, but something that they meticulously tracked. If I'm wrong, definitel…

>Anyway, the main point, what percentage of people do we think knows markdown to such an extent where it's easier for them to use than a WYSIWYG editor would be?

Well, Slack supported so little of Markdown that this is a moot point.

Re: Slack’s new WYSIWYG input box is terrible

#82

Post by tom_mellior »

exogeny wrote: post #41
breeny592 wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Smells of bad UX/design process - some senior "wants" this particular solution, despite their users showing direct feedback that it doesn't work for their needs.

I'd push back on your last point; there's a zero-sum feedback process here that is invisible. You're seeing the negative feedback from a vocal set of minority power users; the positive feedback from people isn't going to be known or seen in anything other than usage metrics. You say "users": how many, what percentage, what cohort..you get the idea.

If we lack percentages, how do you know it's a minority that dislikes this?

Re: Slack’s new WYSIWYG input box is terrible

#83

Post by njharman »

I've found "developers", people who work extensively with plain text and mark up languages, mostly hate WYSIWYG. Because it just gets in the way of / works differently than the skills/knowledge they already have.

I presume people who primarily work in Word/OpenOffice/Whatever Apples thing is, feel the opposite.

If your customers include both, UI is basically impossible to get right for everyone.

Re: Slack’s new WYSIWYG input box is terrible

#85

Post by on_and_off »

tarikozket wrote: post #63
LilBytes wrote: post #57

The specific example shown in the attached article works fine for me in Slack with the updated editor. ``` when you do `foo()` it foos the bar. ``` Looks fine for me? Only the `foo()` is highlighted, not the entire line as shown. Have they pushed out a fix for this already?

it works for me too. I'm confused...

it works for me too and I have been using this editor for a while. I don't remember seeing this kind of bug at all :/ .

Re: Slack’s new WYSIWYG input box is terrible

#87

Post by Aeolun »

bovermyer wrote: post #43
ilrwbwrkhv wrote: post #22

lol product managers are such a bane for tech companies. they have to keep shipping features which no ones wants but they have to show they came up with and are shipping something. i think tech companies should try and avoid product managers and designers for as long as possible.

This sounds like you've never had a good one. A good product manager can make a world of difference.

The only times I’ve had semi-decent product managers was when I was consulting, and they were paying our company for every hour worked.

Re: Slack’s new WYSIWYG input box is terrible

#89

Post by sbuttgereit »

LilBytes wrote: post #57

The specific example shown in the attached article works fine for me in Slack with the updated editor. ``` when you do `foo()` it foos the bar. ``` Looks fine for me? Only the `foo()` is highlighted, not the entire line as shown. Have they pushed out a fix for this already?

That example worked fine for me, the second example (a variation on the first) worked as the article described. Once foo() was "code", I couldn't update it (at least I couldn't discover how to do so outside of killing that bit).

I'd bet the first example didn't work at some point, and then was quickly patched.

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