201–210 of 383 posts
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Users are the last ones to blame. If anything it’s policy makers, investors and industrialists. If you want to participate in society, you need a smartphone, and guess what? The whole world is okay with only 2 companies doing this….
I don't have a smartphone, am I not participating in society?
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I don't think anyone is directly blaming the users here. It is just a fact of life that a sizeable portion of users "accept" dark patterns, and PMs consider that as a sign of success. However I strongly doubt users are doing it by choice. IMO it's actually because of lack of choices, lack of knowledge or learned helplessness. That might be controversial, but to me the point is that A/B tests and KPIs are the wrong in…
> I don't think anyone is directly blaming the users here. The comment I'm replying to is LITERALLY blaming "normal users" for these problems.
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> normal users have no choice on the matter. The choice to not use shit software is easier than going on a strike and demanding 8h work day instead of 14h. Which our ancestors also did, some died for the cause. I for one, do not use and have not used and especially not payed for user-hostile software, beginning since 2000. It is possible, you dont really have to accept shit or keep on using shit. Everytime that click…
Let's consider a basic example: How can you justify not using Microsoft Office? Yes LibreOffice is there and works 95% of the time, but the remaining 5% are not completely useless parts of the software. It's same for most of the user-hostile software. Alternatives are not as intuitive, easy to use, or easy to find. Also, free software is not guaranteed to be sustained or be in front of the pack. I use Linux, and free…
Not likely. Release often as a KPI usually just means that a few more bugs get shipped and bugfixes get shipped faster. Poorly designed features are usually results of poor design and nothing else.
> Payment Security and Financial Regulations
Not really. Sure, opening a bank account is painful, but setting up the app shouldn't be. I've had three different experiences: Chase (easy), Huntington Bank (security theatre abusurdium), and a Credit Union (easy). It all comes down to 2FA implementation - Huntington has a poorly designed authenticator registration flow.
> Patch-work nature of ID & Verification... Captchas, Two-factor SMS, password rules and Authentication Apps have been patched onto the original user/pass system
Yes, and it mostly works pretty well. It is telling that no one way has really caught on as the way to do it, but there seems to be broad agreement that a click verified email address is an acceptable identity. I'm not sure there's much better. What does a store know about a buyer in the real world, anyway? Physically present, with cash in hand... good enough.
> KPI switch from customer first to business model first
When has it ever been anything other than business enablement? Ecommerce has always been "customer self service" and many a support site has been built to reduce headcount in customer service. Some companies are good at this stuff, and others are not. Just like in the real world. What is changing at Google and Amazon is the focus is now squarely on making money, so losing money for long periods of time is no longer acceptable. In fact, their focus on mining profit from their users is creating opportunities around the edges... which will give rise to some very capable competitors over time.
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> normal users have no choice on the matter. The choice to not use shit software is easier than going on a strike and demanding 8h work day instead of 14h. Which our ancestors also did, some died for the cause. I for one, do not use and have not used and especially not payed for user-hostile software, beginning since 2000. It is possible, you dont really have to accept shit or keep on using shit. Everytime that click…
Let's consider a basic example: How can you justify not using Microsoft Office? Yes LibreOffice is there and works 95% of the time, but the remaining 5% are not completely useless parts of the software. It's same for most of the user-hostile software. Alternatives are not as intuitive, easy to use, or easy to find. Also, free software is not guaranteed to be sustained or be in front of the pack. I use Linux, and free…
Easy. I don’t want to give Microsoft money and libreoffice/notes are fine for all of the basic use cases.
You hit the nail on the head -- repeatedly. Shit. I just bought my gf a Roku as a stocking stuffer. We were setting it up and it made her put in her email and phone number to verify. I was appalled; I was like don't put in your email! I'll return it! But she wanted be able to watch YouTube on her TV since Apple removed it without warning from her AppleTV device . My own Roku from a couple years ago works great with n…
I’m glad to know I’m not the only one still trying to fight this fight.
It’s really starting to be a problem with games. Buying games during the holiday Steam sales used to be a big part of my holiday break, something that was my way of winding down after a long year.
But I’ve made it a personal policy to refund any game that requires an account to play (I only play single player games, there’s no reason for games to have my email.)
Nowadays this means basically all AAA games are off limits to me. Gaming in general is becoming less and less of my life as a result. I had originally hoped that some PM somewhere would see refunds coming with “requires signup” as the reason, and would maybe second guess requiring signin for future games, but it just keeps getting more and more ubiquitous.
At this point I’m just saying farewell to gaming. It was once something that gave me a lot of pleasure, but I can’t participate in this industry any more. There’s other things I can do with my time.
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Let's consider a basic example: How can you justify not using Microsoft Office? Yes LibreOffice is there and works 95% of the time, but the remaining 5% are not completely useless parts of the software. It's same for most of the user-hostile software. Alternatives are not as intuitive, easy to use, or easy to find. Also, free software is not guaranteed to be sustained or be in front of the pack. I use Linux, and free…
I haven’t used Microsoft Office in a decade, at least. It’s totally possible.
The point I'm trying to make is, if you're exchanging files and doing collaborative work, you don't have all the freedom to do whatever you want to do.
What is the best way to monetize user-friendliness?
This might be controversial, but Apple also did it to perfection for a long time, and they still partially do, to the chagrin of all the developers in their ecosystem. But they have also succumbed to dark patterns lately too (advertisements inside the preferences app, wtf).
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Let's consider a basic example: How can you justify not using Microsoft Office? Yes LibreOffice is there and works 95% of the time, but the remaining 5% are not completely useless parts of the software. It's same for most of the user-hostile software. Alternatives are not as intuitive, easy to use, or easy to find. Also, free software is not guaranteed to be sustained or be in front of the pack. I use Linux, and free…
> Let's consider a basic example: How can you justify not using Microsoft Office? Easy. I don’t want to give Microsoft money and libreoffice/notes are fine for all of the basic use cases.
What if some business partner sends you a completely loaded Office document to fill/work together/whatnot?