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Why Johnny Won't Upgrade

jacquesmattheij.com

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Re: Why Johnny Won't Upgrade

#21

Post by chrisseaton »

taneq wrote: post #16
chrisseaton wrote: post #7

> should never update a user interface without allowing the previous one to be used as the default I don’t understand why people are so precious about their UI and workflow. They obviously managed to learn and adapt to the current UI. Why can’t they adapt to a new one? If you’re super sensitive to something as trivial as a change to a menu location maybe that’s a sign you should be automating whatever your workflow i…

Somebody sneak into this guy's office and move his 'debug run' key from F5 to F9.

I don’t use keyboard shortcuts TBH.

Re: Why Johnny Won't Upgrade

#22

Post by Multicomp »

chrisseaton wrote: post #7

> should never update a user interface without allowing the previous one to be used as the default I don’t understand why people are so precious about their UI and workflow. They obviously managed to learn and adapt to the current UI. Why can’t they adapt to a new one? If you’re super sensitive to something as trivial as a change to a menu location maybe that’s a sign you should be automating whatever your workflow i…

> I don’t understand why people are so precious about their UI and workflow.

We develop such strong preferences with workflows because for these programs, we are using the computer not to be amazed and dazzled with the device itself (like we are with blu-ray movies, PC games, the Mystery screensaver), but to get things done. From programming, to CAD, to video editing, to writing, to budgeting and more.

Would you like it if your car buttons moved around on the dashboard for no reason? Rebuttal: Tesla has most stuff in dashboard, controls move around. Counter-rebuttal: that guy who crashed his car trying to figure out how to turn on the wipers.

Would you like it if your thermostat settings were not remembered? Rebuttal: updates don't necessarily mean that settings are lost. Counter-rebuttal: I concede that, but often them being lost is the case.

Would you like it if you learned to play a musical instrument and one day you picked it up to find out it had added/removed/multiplied/moved valves/strings/keys/reeds?

Re: Why Johnny Won't Upgrade

#23

Post by cgrealy »

Look, I get that you want your article to have a respectable looking length, but please don’t make me wade through 3 paragraphs pointlessly recapping the history of software distribution from circuit boards.

The internet. We get it. We’re on the damn internet and anyone reading an article about upgrading software knows what the internet is.

Re: Why Johnny Won't Upgrade

#24

Post by ericbarrett »

chrisseaton wrote: post #7

> should never update a user interface without allowing the previous one to be used as the default I don’t understand why people are so precious about their UI and workflow. They obviously managed to learn and adapt to the current UI. Why can’t they adapt to a new one? If you’re super sensitive to something as trivial as a change to a menu location maybe that’s a sign you should be automating whatever your workflow i…

The UI is a physical interface between human and computer. It's a representation of tools. A direct analogy here is to physical tools. Imagine you were a carpenter, on a tight schedule and with commitments to deliver. Every few months, you walk into your workshop, and not only have your tools been rearranged, some have been swapped out for different sizes, and some even removed outright. How is "automate it" a good response here?

Also, what automation would you propose that handles these changes without introducing its own update requirements? If it's a macro tool separate from the application, the macro targets may well have changed, had additional parameters added or removed, etc. You'll have to run through them all to ensure they still work, with test cases ready ahead of time, or else you've lost just as much time. And if it's automation in the program itself, like a scripting language, said automation may just as easily be broken or removed by the updates.

Re: Why Johnny Won't Upgrade

#25

Post by chrisseaton »

FpUser wrote: post #18
chrisseaton wrote: post #7

> should never update a user interface without allowing the previous one to be used as the default I don’t understand why people are so precious about their UI and workflow. They obviously managed to learn and adapt to the current UI. Why can’t they adapt to a new one? If you’re super sensitive to something as trivial as a change to a menu location maybe that’s a sign you should be automating whatever your workflow i…

Because for the most cases it is just a friggin' tool and routine the user had accustomed to. I do not want to hunt for the same item in a different place. Think of it as if your screwdriver used daily will have suddenly started to change shape every once in a while.

Most people aren’t really complaining the new UIs are worse - they just don’t like any change at all. It’s silly stubbornness.

Re: Why Johnny Won't Upgrade

#26

Post by jseliger »

cs702 wrote: post #8

As a user of software, I couldn't agree more with the OP that automatic updates: > should always keep the user centric > should be incremental and security or bug fixes only > should never update a user interface without allowing the previous one to be used as the default > should never be used to install telemetry or spyware or to re-enable it if it was previously switched off > should never be used to install other…

I'm a somewhat sophisticated user and have come to loathe upgrading: I never know what's going to break. Apple keeps nagging me to update to Catalina, and that I know is going to break the last freestanding version of Lightroom. What else will it break? I don't know for sure yet.

I update machines less quickly than I used to: Migration Assistant is finicky and has cost me at least a day, if not more, of various kinds of work in the past.

Re: Why Johnny Won't Upgrade

#27

Post by qppo »

chrisseaton wrote: post #7

> should never update a user interface without allowing the previous one to be used as the default I don’t understand why people are so precious about their UI and workflow. They obviously managed to learn and adapt to the current UI. Why can’t they adapt to a new one? If you’re super sensitive to something as trivial as a change to a menu location maybe that’s a sign you should be automating whatever your workflow i…

The problem is not changing the menu location but telling people where the new location is while incurring the lowest operational overhead.

Teaching people new things is expensive, especially if you already taught them how to do it a different way. Think of all the support tickets that come in with a menu change and the fact that even minor UI updates will require updates to training documents or e-learning materials.

Yea it's easy for one person to learn and move on. It's expensive for hundreds of people to do the same thing at the same time because you moved a form to a different tab in the dashboard and no one reads docs.

Re: Why Johnny Won't Upgrade

#28

Post by chrisseaton »

stan_rogers wrote: post #19
chrisseaton wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Then a company can maintain those multiple major versions That sounds completely unrealistic and inefficient for everyone involved.

No, that sounds inefficient for one of the parties - the provider. The provider isn't using the software to get work done, and doesn't incur training costs, etc. The provider's pet efficiencies cost the users real money (in the "a million here, a million there, and pretty soon you're talking real money" sense).

I can’t imagine any software update so drastic as to require ‘training costs’. Most reasonable people can figure out where a menu item has moved to.

Re: Why Johnny Won't Upgrade

#30

Post by taneq »

chrisseaton wrote: post #21
taneq wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Somebody sneak into this guy's office and move his 'debug run' key from F5 to F9.

I don’t use keyboard shortcuts TBH.

This may explain why you don't see the harm in making workflow-breaking interface changes. More experienced operators who use expert interfaces (such as keyboard shortcuts) are much more badly inconvenienced by interface changes than operators who search the menus for each operation anyway.
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