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Cortana is really bad

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Re: Cortana is really bad

#231

Post by contextfree »

dingo_bat wrote: post #217
Theodores wrote: post #13

The Google approach is much better. Tracking numbers go out in email to the customer and you can put little xml snippets in there so that gmail can put 'track order' in the subject with a little button to click. This goes to the URL provided in the email, not to some magical service that magically determines if that tracking number came from UPS, USPS, Royal Mail, China Post, or whatever. Due to how couriers merge an…

This is also present on outlook. I wonder why Cortana can't just use that same logic. I guess they had to justify their existence by coding up the same thing again.

Cortana does use the same logic for automatically finding the tracking information, that has nothing to do with anything in the article though, which is about the UX for manually entering the tracking information.

Re: Cortana is really bad

#232

Post by sixothree »

vocatus_gate wrote: post #137
fpgaminer wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

See, I thought Cortana was Microsoft's name for their voice assistant on Windows 10 or something. Now everything is starting to make sense. I kept having issues using the Windows menu search in Windows 10. I'd type "remov" and it would show the menu item for uninstalling applications. Great. But if I accidentally finished and typed "remove" the result would disappear. I felt like I was going crazy or something. Comfo…

There IS a magic search tool, I've been using it for years. https://everything.en.softonic.com/ "Everything" is a fantastic lightning-fast system-wide search that's tiny and can run standalone.

Everything pairs well with AstroGrep!

Re: Cortana is really bad

#233

Post by contextfree »

notatoad wrote: post #11
sebringj wrote: post #2

This reminds me of those new gadget commercials that show existing issues being super difficult when they really are not. You were probably in a terrible mood when you wrote this which makes it much worse than it is. It could try to parse the tracking id for sure and you probably have never dealt with tracking packages before through an API but they give you not that much info most of the time, just like "arrived at…

>but the package id won't get you the name of the package in a human readable format so nickname is necessary. Google can figure it out. I order something, i get cards in Google Now telling me exactly what i ordered and its shipping status, without any interaction on my part. It just happens. If microsoft can't figure out how to do this, fine. But if they're going to pop up notifications saying "hey, i can track pack…

Cortana does do this, and there's actually nothing in the article that indicates that it wouldn't have worked perfectly well if he'd just hadn't done anything and let the automatic tracking do its thing. The real WTF here is not so much that it has a bad UX for manually entering tracking numbers (that's obviously not ideal, but IMO semi-reasonable given it's a fallback corner case) but that they pushed/spammed a notification that dumps you into the bad manual UX.

Re: Cortana is really bad

#234

Post by contextfree »

ethbro wrote: post #170
WorldMaker wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I disagree with you for a number of reasons, but it starts with I think you have "smart" mixed up as search boxes are the epitome of "dumb", even if a lot of work goes into them behind the scenes to make sure they anticipate what the user wants. Google proved many years ago that average users are more than happy to use a search bar as their primary user interface to everything. I've seen so many users that to go to a…

I used "smart" because ML / AI seemed overly charitable for what was going on behind the scenes. And it's certainly distinct (or tries to be) from "you must type in exactly and only the name of the thing you want to find". The issue with MS post-ribbon, and I would say this applies to Settings as well, is that I've yet to see them form a good answer to "Where do I go if the thing I want isn't on the Ribbon?" Strictly…

I'd say the Office ribbon is still sort of hierarchical, just laid out differently. tab -> section/group -> item -> submenu/subdialog.

If something isn't on the ribbon or in any of the subdialogs it's almost certainly because it's deprecated and only still exists for some obscure compatibility reason.

As for Windows Settings, it's unfortunately weird not for some principled or philosophical reason, but just because they're still not done reimplementing all the features and use cases they want from Control Panel into the new framework.

In spite of my nitpicking I agree with your general point.

Re: Cortana is really bad

#235

Post by [deleted] »

symfoniq wrote: post #215
0xCMP wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can see why he did it. These aren't beginners. They're experienced developers and managers. If you work at one of the top 5 tech companies in the world on a product most of the computing world uses then maybe this shouldn't be acceptable. Why is it that this is acceptable for Microsoft to publish? It's not and what makes it worse is that it often gets abandoned. If they had a history going back and finishing this o…

If the current MacBook Pro is any indication, I’m not sure how much Apple cares about experience, either. I’m still trying to figure out who that machine is made for: Horrible keyboard, gimmicky Touch Bar, worse battery life than the previous generation, no ports relevant to existing devices (including Apple’s own flagship smartphone)... I don’t think Apple can be accused of sweating the details anymore, either.

[deleted]

Re: Cortana is really bad

#236

Post by hitekker »

cabaalis wrote: post #151
coldtea wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> People who perform poorly at their jobs should either be transferred to another position or terminated. Why is this a controversial position? First, because some random idiot on a blog post does not know whether the person "performed poorly at their job" in general. He just has a specific gripe. The other person might have done miracles in other parts of Cortana. There are such things as shipping priorities, and th…

The "some random idiot" is correct in his blog post. Cortana could be the greatest compilation of code ever written, but here it's directly advertising a feature to the user, asking them to take time from their day to use this feature, which does absolutely nothing for the user. Maybe not enough to call for a firing of some likely very talented people, but also not enough for you to label the complainer an idiot.

It's even more rude considering that the author is in this thread, responding thoughtfully and patiently to our critiques.

Re: Cortana is really bad

#237

Post by [deleted] »

panarky wrote: post #209
fpgaminer wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

See, I thought Cortana was Microsoft's name for their voice assistant on Windows 10 or something. Now everything is starting to make sense. I kept having issues using the Windows menu search in Windows 10. I'd type "remov" and it would show the menu item for uninstalling applications. Great. But if I accidentally finished and typed "remove" the result would disappear. I felt like I was going crazy or something. Comfo…

Type 'upda' to get Windows Update, but instead it shows Java's updater. Type 'updat' and all search results disappear completely. Type 'upd' and now it shows Windows Update but not the Java update. Type fast and get different results than if you type slow. Type the same thing a third time and get different results than the first two times. And now Cortana keeps bugging me with lame notifications. How do I turn this o…

[deleted]

Re: Cortana is really bad

#238

Post by gt_ »

panarky wrote: post #209
fpgaminer wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

See, I thought Cortana was Microsoft's name for their voice assistant on Windows 10 or something. Now everything is starting to make sense. I kept having issues using the Windows menu search in Windows 10. I'd type "remov" and it would show the menu item for uninstalling applications. Great. But if I accidentally finished and typed "remove" the result would disappear. I felt like I was going crazy or something. Comfo…

Type 'upda' to get Windows Update, but instead it shows Java's updater. Type 'updat' and all search results disappear completely. Type 'upd' and now it shows Windows Update but not the Java update. Type fast and get different results than if you type slow. Type the same thing a third time and get different results than the first two times. And now Cortana keeps bugging me with lame notifications. How do I turn this o…

I just played this game a few minutes ago with Device Manager. I have developed a habit that when I search the Start menu, I slowly type one letter at a time and wait for the result each time.

Re: Cortana is really bad

#239

Post by kalleboo »

majormajor wrote: post #118
ska wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Windows used to be optimized around user experience. Are you sure that wasn't MacOS ? I can't think of a time in recent memory I would describe windows as focused around user experience, it has always had dark corners.

It's hard to undersell how massive a usability improvement the Start menu was compared to System 7 installed-application-launching, where you had to either manually mess with aliases or just root around the Finder each time.

Well System 7.5 came out around the same time and bundled the hierarchical Apple Menu (which IIRC was some shareware they acquired), into which everyone stuck an alias of their Applications folder, resulting in a pretty similar (if somewhat less fully featured) UI.

Re: Cortana is really bad

#240

Post by hateful »

abrookewood wrote: post #219
vocatus_gate wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There IS a magic search tool, I've been using it for years. https://everything.en.softonic.com/ "Everything" is a fantastic lightning-fast system-wide search that's tiny and can run standalone.

Logged in just to upvote you .. Everything is the fastest search tool I have ever used. It is ridiculously good. From memory, it doesn't index files, just reads the File Allocation Table. You have to wonder: how is it that a single developer can build something so much better than a behemoth like MS? They should be seriously embarrassed.

We aren't the customers. The advertisers who pay to show up as Search Results are the customers. That's why.
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