Dropdowns Should Be the UI of Last Resort • Hacker News Board

Re: Dropdowns Should Be the UI of Last Resort

#71

Post by brazzledazzle » Mon, Jul 20, 2015, 1:29 PM UTC

justuk wrote: post #59

I dislike the way mobile has become the new lowest common denominator for web development. It used to be IE6 because it was antiquated but now it's anything with a touch screen - mainly thinking how hover has been relegated to visual effects even though it's fine on non-touchscreens.

In the case of hover-based UIs is it more about common functionality? You can tap/click on both platforms, so is it easier to develop a single UI? One that uses the capabilities they have in common vs developing a unique interface for each device type?

Re: Dropdowns Should Be the UI of Last Resort

#72

Post by yesimahuman » Mon, Jul 20, 2015, 1:34 PM UTC

brudgers wrote: post #45

GUI's embody micromanagement as a virtue. GUI's in general should be a last resort. Computers are supposed to do our work automatically. Barring that, by delegation. Making rounded corners and gradients is easier than making something useful. that's why it gets so much attention. NoGUI.

...as he (probably) posts to HN through a web GUI

Re: Dropdowns Should Be the UI of Last Resort

#73

Post by arrrg » Mon, Jul 20, 2015, 1:35 PM UTC

userbinator wrote: post #2

IMHO the best option for inputting a small integer value is the combination of a text field and a stepper, which has been around for a long time and has its own name (for touchscreen operation, the +/- buttons could be made larger and horizontally, like the steppers shown): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spinner_(computing) For dates, a calendar control would probably be appropriate. I'm a bit puzzled as to why dropdo…

Calendars are certainly not appropriate for dates of birth, lest anyone get that idea …

Calendars are useful when entering recent dates you may not perfectly remember (i.e. you might know that the day you want was a Monday last week, but you might not know the exact date) or for planning (i.e. you might know that you want to depart on some Saturday in September), especially when either days of the week or dates might be relevant points of reference for you.

For dates very far in the past that tends to break down a bit, though, depending on the exact use case. Calendars are cumbersome to navigate if you want to go back years and years.

Re: Dropdowns Should Be the UI of Last Resort

#74

Post by warbastard » Mon, Jul 20, 2015, 1:40 PM UTC

brudgers wrote: post #45

GUI's embody micromanagement as a virtue. GUI's in general should be a last resort. Computers are supposed to do our work automatically. Barring that, by delegation. Making rounded corners and gradients is easier than making something useful. that's why it gets so much attention. NoGUI.

While I agree with your point that computers should do the most they can to take the work out of things for the user, the flight search example used in the article is exactly the sort of thing that at some point you're likely to need to input. It's a plan that the user has that they want to action. While you could use voice recognition or call a person to do the same, some people are probably going to want to type it into a flight search or calendar app or similar, so the GUI for that is necessary.

"Making rounded corners and gradients is easier than making something useful. that's why it gets so much attention"

It's not about it being easier, it's about making it obvious that the user can use it. Following established design conventions for buttons by gradating backgrounds or rounding borders, however right or wrong they may be, can help a user to know the intention behind something without needing to think about it.

Re: Dropdowns Should Be the UI of Last Resort

#75

Post by anc84 » Mon, Jul 20, 2015, 1:40 PM UTC

staz wrote: post #9

When I click on an image on the page to zoom on it, it redirect me to twitter, then I have to click on it again, why ?

Big Data generation.

Re: Dropdowns Should Be the UI of Last Resort

#76

Post by anc84 » Mon, Jul 20, 2015, 1:47 PM UTC

If you want to see the images in actual 1:1 resolution, here is how:

* Click on the image in the text.

* Click on the image in the tweet.

* Right-click on the image in the pop-up.

* Open image in new tab.

* Change the "large" at the end of the URL to "orig". Load that URL.

Congrats, you now see a huge (blurry upscaled) image that you can actually read. You are out 3 times the network traffic that was needed. Why would anyone link to their own tweet just to show an (already thumbnailed) image in an article is beyond me. And don't even ask me about my thoughts on Twitter's UI, showing a tiny version of images when you click on them is not sane.

Re: Dropdowns Should Be the UI of Last Resort

#77

Post by Trufa » Mon, Jul 20, 2015, 1:52 PM UTC

ff_ wrote: post #60

Trufa wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think it's a matter of last resort, rather correct use. GUIs are inevitable. You basically should only ask from the user what a computer can't possibly know, for example what date you want to travel for your holidays and how many units of that product do you want.

I firmly believe that in a short time computers will predict all of those little things really well. Let's see.

What things? One seems highly unlikely, the other might be impossible.

In on would have to be able to read complex human thought, in the other we would basically would have to predict the future.

Re: Dropdowns Should Be the UI of Last Resort

#78

Post by auganov » Mon, Jul 20, 2015, 2:00 PM UTC

aembleton wrote: post #3

This is the case for mobile phones. On a desktop or laptop, the dropdowns are preferable because most browsers will let you select the day, month year using your keyboard.

Yes. And please - if you feel like reinventing the dropdown be decent enough to re-implement that feature. Example of an offender: https://www.google.com/advanced_search

Re: Dropdowns Should Be the UI of Last Resort

#79

Post by hesselink » Mon, Jul 20, 2015, 2:01 PM UTC

cbaleanu wrote: post #40

deanclatworthy wrote: post #7

There is a small irony that when reading an article about mobile UX, the website has disabled zoom meaning I can't actually see any of the images in the article.

Chrome on Android has a very useful setting to force zoom. Go to Settings - Accessibility - Force Enable Zoom - Profit :) Not sure if Safari has something similar though.

Firefox on Android has it as well: Settings -> Display -> Always enable zoom.

Re: Dropdowns Should Be the UI of Last Resort

#80

Post by err4nt » Mon, Jul 20, 2015, 2:09 PM UTC

cbaleanu wrote: post #64

pgrimes wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But should expect our audience to do extra work to make something usable?

Absolutely not. Disabling default zoom behavior is like hijacking the scroll bar - bad, ugly and puts users off. Also horrible is the tri state or undeterminate checkbox. All of the above are very trendy pieces of 'css and html codes' commonly found on popular DIY web dev sites. *edit: spelling

I do a lot of responsive design, and I turn zooming off So I CAN give you a proper responsive design that you can read and interact with on a small touchscreen.

Why on earth would you prefer to pan around a desktop site designed for a big screen with a tiny cursor when you've got a tiny screen and a massive cursor (fingertip)?