211–220 of 239 posts
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I don't know about Mac, but on Windows you can change everything from the start menu to the taskbar to Explorer to anything else you like.
How do you replace the window manager? the default one is really bad
I think in general there is this trend in UX toward treating users as helpless children, and it's a bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy. If you take away someone's agency, then yes absolutely they will be helpless. They will learn to be helpless, to act like children. I don't think that's something we want to aim for in general. It's bad for society and disastrous for democracy. Maybe it's from looking too much at the…
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There was an article on HN the other day that suggested that (and I'm paraphrasing) "only failed products have settings". We hear a lot about simplicity and how it's easier to study users and optimize for desired outcomes: conversions, upsells, continued use, whatever. Having a simple product nudges the user in the direction you want them to go and makes your product intuitive. I think there's another reason for simp…
One big problems with "settings" is it's easy for people to change them, then get confused. You used to be able to move the taskbar around the screen, and make it taller / shorter. I'm sure some people loved this. On the other hand, I would often find people whose computers were "broken", as their taskbar was invisible, or took half the screen. Even experts can fall for this -- I've had a few open source projects whe…
I think in general there is this trend in UX toward treating users as helpless children, and it's a bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy. If you take away someone's agency, then yes absolutely they will be helpless. They will learn to be helpless, to act like children. I don't think that's something we want to aim for in general. It's bad for society and disastrous for democracy. Maybe it's from looking too much at the…
Some days I think it's learned helplessness, some days I think it is inborn helplessness. I myself always searched for customization, starting with toys I dissembled and put together in a way I liked. Whenever I went to the toy store I looked for screws and not glue. To my first computers, I loved DOS and when it went away for Windows GUI I took to the registry and then searched for something else and found Linux. Ti…
For me, I am a power user of computers and technology, but I couldn't care less about my car and just want it to get me places.
Other people are the opposite, and love tinkering with their cars. Or maybe they are a power user of carpentry tools, while others (like me) just need a basic drill.
I think one thing that worries me is that there are markets that cater to power users in other areas (cars, tools) but the way software is going, almost all software is being stripped down and power being taken away from all users since the non-power-user base is so large. This is especially true with mobile technology, but it is creeping into desktops/laptops as well.
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Children are the best target demographic for marketers. Considering the demographic decline and the diminishing numbers of children, the next best solution is to infantilize adults.
Once again we are reminded that advertising and marketing are the source of a great number of societal ills.
Is this perhaps related or written in reaction to yesterday's post "Settings are not a design failure? [0]" It seems quite similar to comments written on that HN thread. [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30181291
Amitp only has 2 comments on his blog
Google just changed my entire phone's theming system when I changed the background. I love it! I don't have time to personally pick and choose colors, so I'm very happy with this. Also, it matches the background! 10/10, please don't ask for my consent on this Google, I have enough popups from companies begging for my attention.
I think in general there is this trend in UX toward treating users as helpless children, and it's a bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy. If you take away someone's agency, then yes absolutely they will be helpless. They will learn to be helpless, to act like children. I don't think that's something we want to aim for in general. It's bad for society and disastrous for democracy. Maybe it's from looking too much at the…
On a similar note, constantly redesigning UI just to redesign them encourages this too -- why develop expertise or skill when it will be undermined because some UX designer wants to make his mark?
I get the strong impression that UX has stopped being about the users and has become more about the designer's ego or his employer's interests. It's the best explanation I can think of for all the redesigns that no one wanted or asked for.
IMHO, the first questions any UX designer should ask themselves are:
1. Is the new design a useless side-grade from what we already have (i.e. just doing something differently to do it differently)?
2. Are the advantages over the existing design significant? Is it really worth invalidating existing user knowledge?
I've had a few run-ins with UI designers and architects (of the building kind) as an end user, and they've left a sour taste in my mouth. A lot of dismissing user feedback with pablum about "change being hard" or insistence that the changes are popular with some silent majority.