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Software sucks

shitpost.plover.com

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Re: Software sucks

#41

Post by l9k »

RussianCow wrote: post #29
omalleyt wrote: post #25

It's showing him Wawas he's been to before. That's what the clocks mean. For the search "wawa" it doesn't make a lot of sense to prioritize history over distance, because Wawas are nearly identical. But for "farmer's markets" this would probably be a useful feature. Figuring out how to differentiate between those two examples algorithmically is super non-trivial though

This is incorrect: the clocks mean he has selected those search results before, not that he has physically been there. Source: Just tested this in-app.

Just like in Google Search, it still makes sense to show the results he was interested in previously even though he's not been there.

Maybe he looked at a location first for information, and to know where it is, and needs to look for it again at a later time to actually go there.

Re: Software sucks

#42

Post by danShumway »

gervase wrote: post #36
danShumway wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's way better than just seeing a bunch of pins on a map. Is it? Showing the pins on the map seems like it would show you roughly the same distances but with the added information of direction and area. At worst you might eyeball the distance wrong, but does it matter if something is 3.5 miles away or 3.6 miles away? Most of the time I search something in Google maps I want to see the relative area so I can make a…

Often, I will search for a string such as "Cost"; I'll probably be referring to Costco, but in the map, it will also show me results for Cost Plus World Market, for example. If I'm only looking at pins, I can't see the names without clicking on each pin, which isn't really feasible in the middle of driving. However, in the list, it's easy to differentiate between the two, in addition to by distance (since that's the…

> which isn't really feasible in the middle of driving.

That makes a lot of sense to me. I typically only use my GPS while walking, but now I'm thinking of a use case where I couldn't stop for a few seconds and pan around the map with a finger, and I think I would want a list in that scenario.

Re: Software sucks

#43

Post by vortico »

The reason for pretty much any bug found in software driven by a huge company is that there is a large disconnect between fixing bugs and profit. Fixing a bug almost never excites users, and even if it did in this case, they won't see a measurable increase of users of their software, so you can't prove a profit increase.

Even if a bug is fixed, the effort might be wasted when a large overhaul of the system happens because they want to add a huge feature, like a new searching system or some internal backend refactor. Fixing the bug might be much more difficult than you think due to the scale and complexity of their database or some other reason. Then the change needs to flow through the review and testing pipeline.

My point is to explain that software gets harder with scale, which might cause a bug like this to cost tens of thousands of company dollars to fix, while the benefit to each user (and therefore the company) would be a tiny fraction of a cent, so both managers and financially-aware engineers would easily brush this off as "not worth it." Any argument of the form "why not just fix it?" would be countered with "you could say that for any of the 40k open bugs."

Re: Software sucks

#44

Post by l9k »

danShumway wrote: post #37
RussianCow wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is incorrect: the clocks mean he has selected those search results before, not that he has physically been there. Source: Just tested this in-app.

Oof, that's really bad if that's the case; it means that a mis-click can poison your search results and make them less useful. I get that Google's all about saving clicks now, but I've noticed between maps and other apps (Google Music comes to mind) the extra inference sometimes just makes me scared to click on things. Can you at least long press or something to remove a location from your history?

This is usually true for any big website you browse on the internet. Any click on Facebook or Amazon is influencing the content you're going to see.

Google has a user history website where you can see everything they recorded from Search and other apps, and you can delete the entries

Re: Software sucks

#45

Post by bitwize »

Google Maps apparently thinks I'm Prompto from Final Fantasy XV, and will send me alerts of points of interest (usually restaurants) suggesting I take pictures of them.

Uh, no. If I want to go somewhere, I'll ask you, Google Maps. It's shit like this that makes me glad I switched to OsmAnd (despite the latter lacking in features, such as finding an optimal foot/bus/train route).

Re: Software sucks

#46

Post by draw_down »

ramenmeal wrote: post #5

Unrelated but similar and I feel like venting... On Google Maps you'll search for something, and the results are shown as a list that almost covers the entire map. It's Google MAPS and it hides the map for so many things. I'd rather go to a place that's 3 miles straight down a free way than 2 miles of stop lights, but I don't know that if the map is covered!

It is so difficult now to get Google Maps to just show the actual map! It's trying so hard to add value by showing you pictures of sandwiches that you can't just see the map when you need to.

Re: Software sucks

#47

Post by chipotle_coyote »

omalleyt wrote: post #25

It's showing him Wawas he's been to before. That's what the clocks mean. For the search "wawa" it doesn't make a lot of sense to prioritize history over distance, because Wawas are nearly identical. But for "farmer's markets" this would probably be a useful feature. Figuring out how to differentiate between those two examples algorithmically is super non-trivial though

Even if it gives history priority, there's still something a bit peculiar about the arrangement; it's not sorting by distance within history, but rather probably sorting history hits by recency. That's the sort of thing I think of as "programmer logical" rather than "common sense logical." If I search for "tiki bar" when I'm in Oakland, it's all well and good to remember that I also ran that search when I was in Portland, but it should probably show me a few tiki bars in and around Oakland, and give rather low priority to letting me know it's only 632 miles to Hale Pele.

Re: Software sucks

#48

Post by milesvp »

fgonzag wrote: post #19
Gary404 wrote: post #4

I'm working on b2b software and when working with the designers at http://fairpixels.pro I've learned many things from their approach as to why (a lot of) software sucks. Personal example: I've been measuring qualitative feedback users have been giving us and passing it to them to make design updates. They (design team) would come back with me with questions about data & metrics. They were more interested in what the…

One thing I've learned is that the user's complaint is always valid, the user's proposals seldom are. That is to say, users know when they don't like something, but they are often wrong about why they dislike it or what is interrupting their workflow. Our job is to find and fix the root cause starting from user feedback, and fix the product in accordance to what the user is actually trying to accomplish. This is ofte…

What's interesting about this, is that user complaints can be suspect too. I read an anecdote recently about the American auto industry. They'd ask people about what they didn't like about the cars they bought. And they'd get all these complaints, then try to build cars based on those complaints. The problem was, many of the complaints were for things that took them out of the market for the car they bought. For instance, people who bought sports cars would complain about lack of doors, or lack of back seat, and so GM or Ford would build a car that wasn't quite a sports car, because it was too big, and it wasn't quite a sedan (for whatever reason, too sporty? whatever that means?), and so no one bought it.

I honestly don't know what the solution to this problem is, since feedback is invaluable. I guess, always be careful?

Re: Software sucks

#49

Post by sampo »

RussianCow wrote: post #29
omalleyt wrote: post #25

It's showing him Wawas he's been to before. That's what the clocks mean. For the search "wawa" it doesn't make a lot of sense to prioritize history over distance, because Wawas are nearly identical. But for "farmer's markets" this would probably be a useful feature. Figuring out how to differentiate between those two examples algorithmically is super non-trivial though

This is incorrect: the clocks mean he has selected those search results before, not that he has physically been there. Source: Just tested this in-app.

Why did they choose the clock symbol to represent this?

Re: Software sucks

#50

Post by RussianCow »

sampo wrote: post #49
RussianCow wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is incorrect: the clocks mean he has selected those search results before, not that he has physically been there. Source: Just tested this in-app.

Why did they choose the clock symbol to represent this?

Probably to convey recency. What other symbol would you choose?
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