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Where in the USA is this?

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Re: Where in the USA is this?

#211

Post by mitchdoogle »

ethanbond wrote: post #140
tasuki wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Interesting concept, but poorly communicated. It was communicated in the very first sentence of the instructions. It's just that both you and me failed to read the instructions. We have no one to blame but ourselves.

No, this is a design problem. The fact that so many missed it is just evidence of how subtly tricky good design is.

I read the instructions and I understood what was meant. How do you explain that? Humans regularly make stupid mistakes. We shouldn't dumb down the world to try to avoid it. We should encourage people to be more careful

Re: Where in the USA is this?

#212

Post by bmitc »

bhaney wrote: post #60

The most interesting part of this to me is the UX feedback from the comments here. Many people, myself included, say they had no idea at first that the photos were all meant to be from the same location, even though the very first sentence of the instructions was "There are five photos from the same place." I'm pretty sure I read the instructions, I guess that just didn't register? An opportunity to reflect on how ha…

I think it's that software engineers don't know how to read what they don't write, that being instructions and documentation. I am making an assumption here on the category of those complianing about the UX, but I doubt it is far off.

Re: Where in the USA is this?

#213

Post by kilolima »

Anon4Now wrote: post #137
bhaney wrote: post #60

The most interesting part of this to me is the UX feedback from the comments here. Many people, myself included, say they had no idea at first that the photos were all meant to be from the same location, even though the very first sentence of the instructions was "There are five photos from the same place." I'm pretty sure I read the instructions, I guess that just didn't register? An opportunity to reflect on how ha…

My problem was the state lines. My first guess was somewhere in West Virginia, which happened to be right, but being from the west coast, I had trouble eyeballing where to click for West Virginia. The game is great, but I'm shouting to the wind about the decline in quality of online maps. For example, I can barely see roads on Google maps any more. The lines are faint and low contrast. Zooming in doesn't help because…

Google maps is a crime against cartography. The two most important elements of a map are usually absent: a north arrow and a scale.

Re: Where in the USA is this?

#214

Post by xapata »

mitchdoogle wrote: post #210
chefandy wrote: post #203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a designer, I can assure you that 90+% of computer users will never read a line of actual software documentation in their entire lives. It's not because they're lazy, it's because they don't have to. In many cases it doesn't even exist. The FOSS community almost universally blames marketing and advertising for the dominance of commercial consumer-level software, but that doesn't hold a candle to the experience upg…

It seems to me like some of the most successful commercial software virtually requires either reading the documentation, or doing some sort of training

Or being taught informally by a colleague or a friend. I am curious which is most prevalent!

Re: Where in the USA is this?

#215

Post by kur_einu »

anonu wrote: post #89
bhaney wrote: post #60

The most interesting part of this to me is the UX feedback from the comments here. Many people, myself included, say they had no idea at first that the photos were all meant to be from the same location, even though the very first sentence of the instructions was "There are five photos from the same place." I'm pretty sure I read the instructions, I guess that just didn't register? An opportunity to reflect on how ha…

OTOH I understood the instructions immediately. This is a fundamental issue in UX. Some users will know right away and others will not. Maybe a better sentence structure? Maybe something like "Guess the 1 location where all these photos were taken" (?) From my experience, most people don't read the instructions or text notes anyway. So its possible that an even better UX is one where the user figures out what they ca…

added to the more explicite sentence, maybe just connect the dots on the map with lines so the user asks himself/herself : why are they connected and then realizes

Re: Where in the USA is this?

#216

Post by scyzoryk_xyz »

timeon wrote: post #172
scyzoryk_xyz wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do UX research for a complex simulation training device. We record and catalogue dozens of hours of video. You would be amazed how many users miss key information presented to them. You’d think you can plan and predict, but they always manage to find a new and surprising way to just not get stuff. UX testing on simplest grittiest prototypes yields the best results in my experience. The more work you put into it bef…

Lot of us do not read instructions. Especially if it is first thing presented.

What we’re working on is more than that - it’s an interactive hardware/software device with game-mechanics. Users’ attentions shift and come in and out of focus as they become acquainted with it. There are moments when they will read an instruction, and there are moments when they will miss it.

Re: Where in the USA is this?

#217

Post by LeafItAlone »

RheingoldRiver wrote: post #183
tofof wrote: post #100

Unimpressed by this game. The accuracy on the scale is off by as much as 25%, as can be seen here: https://i.imgur.com/NOvqCnV.png . As the only information you're given other than a new photo is the distance, this is a serious problem. What's worse, the 'correct' location radius doesn't even include the locations where all the photos were taken! SPOILER FOR GAME #60: Game #60 has a clue that shows YOU ARE HERE: http…

Man AND the ruler isnt the same size every time. I kept getting wrong answer after wrong answer despite the fact that I was CONVINCED I was triangulating properly..... But no! The size of the ruler kept changing!! I was using a constant 80px for it, and it was changing by as much as 30px as you zoomed in and out. What a waste of time. However I did get within 7mi once despite this terrible UX, because I saw a pic and…

Maybe I’m misunderstanding you, but that’s exactly how I would expect it to work and how it does work with Apple Maps and Google Maps. You can zoom at different increments than the scale label shows. Without changing the ruler size, how could this work? Am I misunderstanding you?

Re: Where in the USA is this?

#218

Post by LeafItAlone »

CSMastermind wrote: post #124

I really wish it was easier to zoom in on the photos to find clues. Also the maps being used for the game were rough for me. Lacking details, town names, clear rivers unless you're way zoomed in, etc. Google maps would be a much better choice imo.

I enjoyed it as is. Rather than looking for specific details, I was looking for general feel and atmosphere with things like vegetation, architecture and building materials, and even colors. The photos provided were usually good enough for that. If you’re going for GeoGuessr accuracy, these are going to disappoint. But I don’t think this site is going quite that far.

Re: Where in the USA is this?

#219

Post by Yizahi »

ethbr0 wrote: post #132
anonu wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

OTOH I understood the instructions immediately. This is a fundamental issue in UX. Some users will know right away and others will not. Maybe a better sentence structure? Maybe something like "Guess the 1 location where all these photos were taken" (?) From my experience, most people don't read the instructions or text notes anyway. So its possible that an even better UX is one where the user figures out what they ca…

> From my experience, most people don't read the instructions or text notes anyway. This fascinated me ~90s computer gaming. There were clear camps of "people who always read the manual" and "people who never never read the manual."

I always read hints and in-build help. This is not the case in this game. It explicitly went against the "common convention" so to say. In all location guessing games you get one try per location, and most times you don't need to read instructions if you see a different guessing site. Number 5 is also a tell and different pictures. If it was say 2 tries with different pictures, people would have suspected that something wrong. If it was 5 tries but with the same picture, also suspicious. But it literally had the same game flow from as other guessing games.

And about the instructions. Sure, it is useful to read them, but even more useful, for all humans, is to rely on the training. We don't carry around dictionaries to talk, we don't read "Introduction to Javascript" daily, we don't use UX designer guideline book to open a faucet in the bathroom. And re-training is not free, that's why so many people jumped in based on their old skill. Not based on their ignorance, but on the skill, and that's important distinction. People actually knew how to play such games, that's why they subconsciously omitted instructions.

Re: Where in the USA is this?

#220

Post by Yizahi »

duxup wrote: post #123
bhaney wrote: post #60

The most interesting part of this to me is the UX feedback from the comments here. Many people, myself included, say they had no idea at first that the photos were all meant to be from the same location, even though the very first sentence of the instructions was "There are five photos from the same place." I'm pretty sure I read the instructions, I guess that just didn't register? An opportunity to reflect on how ha…

I regularly get requests to put text or a warning on a page that’s already there. People just aren’t good with words and will come up with all sorts of reasons they didn’t see it. That’s not to say I’m any better, just that I get to see all the requests and excuses. Bolder, bigger, alerts, doesn’t matter.

Sometimes location and/or formatting is either bad or goes against "common convention". For example here on HN there is a mostly ok search build in. I had found it only after several years of using the site, and if I had to search for something before that, I've used google/ddg with "site:" option. Why? I guess because in 99% of all sites search is at the header, and footer contains zero useful information. I was trained that there is nothing there and so I've quite literally "didn't see" search box for a long time.
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