141–150 of 443 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Why does a coffee maker even need a touchscreen? There are literally three options! What’s the option besides on and off, keep warm?
Coffee, Cappuccino, Latte, Frappe All of the above multiplied by small, medium, large. All of the above multiplied by weak, normal, strong, and double shot. All of the above multiplied by zone defense, man to coverage, and missile command.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't understand why people find novelty of touchscreens appealing. We've got to do a better job of educating consumers. The marketing behind touchscreens is so powerful that it is unanimously considered as a feature, something you must have. I get angry just thinking about the amount of marketing bullshit around touchscreens. Just go to Garmin Aviation website and now a lot of operation in airplane cockpits is off…
Touch controls are only warranted when you need to support a large number of varied interactions which can't be supported by physical controls, or if you have to support arbitrary gesture-based input (like a drawing tablet for example). If that's not the case, physical controls are always better. If you're operating a vehicle, or can't look at the display for any reason, tactile controls are leagues better.
Since the user is complaining about the way Mac OS handles the audio buttons, I'm surprised that he doesn't mention the problems with HDMI. I don't understand why the OS disables the audio controls of HDMI outputs. If I press the volume down button, I want the volume to go down. Instead, I get a "I can't let you do that" warning! This is particularly bad if I have my headphones connected to the display (I have both m…
macOS disables the audio control of HDMI outputs because that is what the HDMI specification expects/defines. If you think of all the devices that output via HDMI, Windows PCs are the outlier (afaik, not sure how Linux handles it) in allowing separate volume controls beyond those on the output device. Satellite set top boxes, media streaming devices (e.g. Apple TV - I realise NVidia Shield and some Chromecast apps do…
I let my spouse, who likes the novelty of a touchscreen, talk me into a Whirlpool oven a couple years ago that is controlled by touchscreen. I had no idea it was possible to hate an oven so much. The only saving grace is that the stovetop elements are still controlled by knobs.
I don't understand why people find novelty of touchscreens appealing. We've got to do a better job of educating consumers. The marketing behind touchscreens is so powerful that it is unanimously considered as a feature, something you must have. I get angry just thinking about the amount of marketing bullshit around touchscreens. Just go to Garmin Aviation website and now a lot of operation in airplane cockpits is off…
I am not a pilot but am always interested in seeing examples of great user interfaces. Can you post a link or more information about what this device is? (Bonus: the version you love and the version you now hate)
I don't know what I'd do if my iPhone didn't have physical volume buttons. When I watch videos on YouTube now, as soon as an ad starts playing, I just mute it by using the volume button and look away for a few seconds as I can't stand ads (sadly there isn't a dedicated mute button).
Nice, I need to come up with a solution for this on desktop. My dream is a Chrome extension which recognizes Youtube ads and auto-mutes while they are playing.
After they pass, the student tells the master: "The opinionated user-experience enthusiast is right. Every wrong decision is not just a single day ruined, time wasted, or train of thought lost, but thousands. However, the pragmatician is also right: it is not reasonable to expect every object we use to attain UX perfection. They are built by flawed people with real constraints. Tell me master, which one of those men is closer to the Way?"
The master thinks for a while, then gives an answer. But the student does not hear it, because he forgot to turn off his Bose™ noise-cancelling headphones.
>> "mute buttons on keyboards shouldn’t need to go to software, they should immediately send a signal to the motherboard’s DAC" I don't have a lot of knowledge about this, but audio is often streamed via USB or HDMI or Bluetooth or WLAN to another device, like headphones, an AV receiver, or wireless speakers and then uses the DAC in that device. So the blog posts wish would result in the mute button not doing anythin…
He specifically addresses that, and then compares it to unplugging a keyboard that gives electric shocks, which is a completely different thing. He kind of lost me at that point, i just immediately get my headphones off my ears when something like this happens. It’s a simple and powerful solution and doesn’t require the complexity for the reasons you just mentioned.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I guess the takeaway is that everyday utility instruments should not require time invested in studying manuals to operate them. Imagine that every screwdriver you buy requires you to read 20 page document that tells you how to operate it. As a user all I want is "a cup of coffee". Why do I need to read that manual? What if I'm just a visitor, and was told that "the coffee machine is over there". Do I really want to r…
Somebody buys you a $5,000 screwdriver. Do you just use it wrong, not take care of it, and ruin it to make a point about how all you wanted was to turn a screw?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Our old office had a $5k fancy coffee maker with touch screen. Nobody knew what the hell all the icons meant, and nobody cleaned the milk siphon so it went moldy and was thrown out after two weeks. I insisted that we keep the old Bunn that had an advanced UI with a red illuminated On-Off switch. Six months later, it was the only one coffee maker still in use.
> Nobody knew what the hell all the icons meant, and nobody cleaned the milk siphon so it went moldy and was thrown out after two weeks. What’s the takeaway here? A group of spoiled adults couldn’t be bothered to read an instruction manual or clean something?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Google Home mini certainly has it, it's the only physical switch on the device.
IIRC My Mini has corrected me for speaking to it while it was muted so I'm not sure it's a hardware kill switch.