McSweeneys is amazing. The site hasn't fundamentally changed in years in appearance or tone. If I ever need a laugh, I know mcsweeney's will be there.
The UX on this small child is terrible
131–140 of 366 posts
Re: The UX on this small child is terrible
#132Earlier quoted context omitted.
We were concerned about trying to manage more than two of these products at once and so, as the Assistant to the VP of Reproduction, have made certain permanent operational changes to the equipment to ensure no further acquisitions are possible.
My cofounder and I were doing a recent retrospective on our most recent acquisition, and while we're very proud of the product, we considered that your approach may have been more sound.
Well, if anyone is considering making similar changes to the equipment, in our experience it was very quick to implement with no side effects after about two days.
Re: The UX on this small child is terrible
#133How do I get new features added to the roadmap? I’ve been asking for an “eat vegetables” interface without the “offer dessert in exchange” workaround for over a year, no response, yet in the same time frame I’ve seen things like “climb top-heavy bookshelf” and “unfurl entire toilet paper roll” deployed… who is asking for these features??
Can somebody explain the "won't eat vegetables" thing? The only place I've heard about this being in issue is in America.
It's a combination of several factors: American kids foods tend to be heavily processed and run to sweet, which will set the baseline if you let it, and there's this widespread belief that children won't eat grownup food so you should offer something else.
We only offer what we're eating and, unsurprisingly, he has learned that as normal. That doesn't mean he eats everything — bitter flavors really are a learned taste — but he'll eat enough of it to get proper nutrition and understands that rejecting dinner means getting a second pass later rather than something else. We're also not monsters so there's always some high-probability staple in the meal so it might be that e.g. he eats the fish and sweet potatoes/kale chips but not the squash, which is acceptable. There are also some amusing outcomes: I haven't had asparagus tips in a year or two because he eats those happily but not the base.
Re: The UX on this small child is terrible
#134As an owner of a fairly new one of these, I sometimes dream of someone coming up with an accessory that converts the audio notifications into light notifications. A small LED would do. I realize different colors for different desires are too much to ask (unless the colors would be picked at random I guess), but I would be more than happy if it just showed intensity of desire via intensity of light.
3 lights could also work:
1 - actually nothing
2 - maybe something
3 - actually something
Re: The UX on this small child is terrible
#135Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sugar/bread is easier. We solve this by having a tiered eating system that starts with some salad or veggies, if they don’t eat, they clearly aren’t deathly hungry; dessert is available at the end of the meal if they finish. Note this may require a family eating culture that includes salad et al. With every dinner, which is not the norm in America.
I wonder if it's also the preparation method. Steamed veggies are of course not appealing vs ones flash fried in a little oil/butter plus salt.
yeah I didn't discover veggies actually being good until adulthood when I learned you can just throw a little oil and salt and roast them in the oven.
My parents always steamed them to hell and put almost no salt on
Re: The UX on this small child is terrible
#136Earlier quoted context omitted.
Can somebody explain the "won't eat vegetables" thing? The only place I've heard about this being in issue is in America.
Sugar/bread is easier. We solve this by having a tiered eating system that starts with some salad or veggies, if they don’t eat, they clearly aren’t deathly hungry; dessert is available at the end of the meal if they finish. Note this may require a family eating culture that includes salad et al. With every dinner, which is not the norm in America.
That is the method that is apparently common in France. I recommend this book:
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2012/jan/20/french-childre...
Re: The UX on this small child is terrible
#137How do I get new features added to the roadmap? I’ve been asking for an “eat vegetables” interface without the “offer dessert in exchange” workaround for over a year, no response, yet in the same time frame I’ve seen things like “climb top-heavy bookshelf” and “unfurl entire toilet paper roll” deployed… who is asking for these features??
Can somebody explain the "won't eat vegetables" thing? The only place I've heard about this being in issue is in America.
I think if Korean kids can love kimchi, Italian kids can love eggplant, and Mexican kids can love nopales you must be able to condition kids to like anything.
Re: The UX on this small child is terrible
#138No post body was provided.
Re: The UX on this small child is terrible
#139Another McSweeney's article I love: "MEET OLIVIA! THE COVID-19-ERA AMERICAN GIRL DOLL" https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/meet-olivia-the-covid-19... Almost too close to the eventual truth.
My wife sent me this FAQ the other day: https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/an-faq-about-your-new-bi...
Re: The UX on this small child is terrible
#140Earlier quoted context omitted.
If everything is saturated with salt/sugar/artificial ehnahced flavors/refined everything/fried/etc with "instant hook"-overcranked-at-11 taste, and it's all targeting the lowest common denominator palette, good luck then trying to teach a person to appreciate tomoatoes, brocolli, asparagus, mushrooms, cheeses, and so on...
This is a very good summary of my culinary experience visiting the US. This is not to say that good restaurants don't exist, it's just that cheap/everyday restaurants had everything cranked up to 11. The Cheesecake Factory menu was basically butter and sugar in different ratios.
With that kind of cuisine how would they ever appreciate the finer taste of splinanetero and arnisia ameletita?