Laws of UX • Hacker News Board

Re: Laws of UX

#11

Post by markhnthoraway » Tue, Jul 11, 2023, 3:41 PM UTC

pickingdinner wrote: post #5

nelsonenzo wrote: post #2

These seem like theories, not laws. And imho, some of it is very wrong, such as: > Purposefully adding a delay to a process can actually increase its perceived value and instill a sense of trust, even when the process itself actually takes much less time.

Ya, sounds dark, as in dark pattern.

Depends on context. There's nothing wrong with slowing down to communicate discrete steps that may happen very quickly under the hood.

- Input was received - Input was processed/stored correctly - Outcome is X

Doing everything in real time can reduce confidence and understanding. If everything takes like 5ms it feels weird, sometimes feels even like nothing happened, so people might submit again or feel the need to call and check or whatever.

It's deceptive in the sense that you are waiting maybe 500ms instead of 5ms. But it can be better UX in terms of communicating what's actually going on and having people feel comfortable with their understanding.

On the other hand, artificially slowing down something like closing an advertising modal - antipattern for sure.

Re: Laws of UX

#12

Post by BariumBlue » Tue, Jul 11, 2023, 3:41 PM UTC

pickingdinner wrote: post #9

The perfect UX is one obvious button that obviously does exactly what you need, that presents itself exactly when you need it. And all you need is to be able to read it.

The perfect UX is the interface is that displays and works exactly how the user wants and expects.

The perfect UI is the interface that has the quickest, most optimal workflow to accomplish a user's tasks

Re: Laws of UX

#13

Post by BiteCode_dev » Tue, Jul 11, 2023, 3:43 PM UTC

pickingdinner wrote: post #9

The perfect UX is one obvious button that obviously does exactly what you need, that presents itself exactly when you need it. And all you need is to be able to read it.

The perfect UI doesn't have a button, it does what's expected without the user asking for it.

Re: Laws of UX

#14

Post by carlosjobim » Tue, Jul 11, 2023, 3:58 PM UTC

lexicality wrote: post #4

nelsonenzo wrote: post #2

These seem like theories, not laws. And imho, some of it is very wrong, such as: > Purposefully adding a delay to a process can actually increase its perceived value and instill a sense of trust, even when the process itself actually takes much less time.

That one is actually genuinely true and why so many price comparison and search websites artificially load slowly with fancy loading screens.

I think that's more of pseudo-science. I've never heard anybody express any distrust for a service just because it's fast.

Let's say you go to a store and ask if they have a certain product. The clerk says "Sure, here it is". Is that worse than saying "Hmmm, I have to check in the warehouse first"?

Re: Laws of UX

#15

Post by simonbarker87 » Tue, Jul 11, 2023, 3:59 PM UTC

nelsonenzo wrote: post #2

These seem like theories, not laws. And imho, some of it is very wrong, such as: > Purposefully adding a delay to a process can actually increase its perceived value and instill a sense of trust, even when the process itself actually takes much less time.

I added a 2 second delay to a near instant process and made it feel significantly better and like “something happened”. When it was instant it felt … wrong.

Re: Laws of UX

#16

Post by pickingdinner » Tue, Jul 11, 2023, 4:02 PM UTC

BiteCode_dev wrote: post #13

pickingdinner wrote: post #9

The perfect UX is one obvious button that obviously does exactly what you need, that presents itself exactly when you need it. And all you need is to be able to read it.

The perfect UI doesn't have a button, it does what's expected without the user asking for it.

I disagree. That isn't even an interface. And this is the source of so much trouble. The "developer knows best" mindset. The developer will never know exactly when I want coffee, yet so many programs assume my coffee needs are just an algorithm that I secretly obey and just don't know it yet.

The best interface does nothing. It's idle and listens. Everything automatic must be fully transparent and be opt-in. Fully explained if not self-explanatory.

User instruction beats developer assumption every single time. If the user is "wrong" as arbitrarily defined by the developer, the least they can do is kindly instruct and point the user in the "right" direction, not assume, let alone assume they know better than the user about what they want.

Re: Laws of UX

#17

Post by JohnFen » Tue, Jul 11, 2023, 4:07 PM UTC

lexicality wrote: post #4

nelsonenzo wrote: post #2

These seem like theories, not laws. And imho, some of it is very wrong, such as: > Purposefully adding a delay to a process can actually increase its perceived value and instill a sense of trust, even when the process itself actually takes much less time.

That one is actually genuinely true and why so many price comparison and search websites artificially load slowly with fancy loading screens.

It may be effective (although I'm skeptical), but is the sort of manipulative bullshit that sends me running. Sites and applications that do this are very shady sites and applications.

Re: Laws of UX

#18

Post by pickingdinner » Tue, Jul 11, 2023, 4:07 PM UTC

BariumBlue wrote: post #12

pickingdinner wrote: post #9

The perfect UX is one obvious button that obviously does exactly what you need, that presents itself exactly when you need it. And all you need is to be able to read it.

The perfect UX is the interface is that displays and works exactly how the user wants and expects. The perfect UI is the interface that has the quickest, most optimal workflow to accomplish a user's tasks

> quickest,

And this can be scientifically measured by mouse distance and clicks.

> most optimal workflow to accomplish a user's tasks

And this can be scientifically assessed by taking all use cases and refactoring over them.

List all the available goals at any given "location" in the program. List all the steps users take to get accomplish their goals. Consolidate and refactor, then optimize on the shortness, obviousness, and fault tolerance of every flow.

This is more fundamental to the user experience than colors or animations or the availability of any single feature.

Re: Laws of UX

#19

Post by pickingdinner » Tue, Jul 11, 2023, 4:09 PM UTC

rolae wrote: post #8

pickingdinner wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ya, sounds dark, as in dark pattern.

Not necessarily. Something being too fast can be confusing. If you expect a process to take some time and it ends immediately, it can feel like it failed. I remember the people from Blogger (google) talking about this problems. People were not very familiar with blog / website builders and users were confused when their blogs got created instantly, like "This is a big deal, me getting an entire website, what happened…

> can be confusing

Confuse who?

An instant "success" notice beats waiting every single time, regardless of user level, if we're even classifying that.

Re: Laws of UX

#20

Post by JohnFen » Tue, Jul 11, 2023, 4:10 PM UTC

BariumBlue wrote: post #12

pickingdinner wrote: post #9

The perfect UX is one obvious button that obviously does exactly what you need, that presents itself exactly when you need it. And all you need is to be able to read it.

The perfect UX is the interface is that displays and works exactly how the user wants and expects. The perfect UI is the interface that has the quickest, most optimal workflow to accomplish a user's tasks

> The perfect UI is the interface that has the quickest, most optimal workflow to accomplish a user's tasks

I disagree with this, actually. The perfect UI is one that the user doesn't have to consciously think about when using.