Most people use windows and I'm sure associate free with freemium or android with spam notifications.
Free software scares normal people
571–580 of 641 posts
Re: Free software scares normal people
#572Earlier quoted context omitted.
Users don't want "to do more". They want to do "that one extra thing". Going from the "novice" version to the "full version" just to get that one extra thing is a real problem for a lot of people. But how do you address this as a software designer?
I'm not a coder, so I'm not going to pretend that this solution is easy to implement (it might be, but I wouldn't assume so), but how about allowing you to expose the "expert" options just temporarily (to find the tool you need) and then allow adding that to your new "novice plus" custom menus? I.e., if you use a menu option from the expert menu X number of times, it just shows up even though your default is the novi…
That’s harder than static menus, but it’s not really anything harder once you have customizable hot list menus.
Re: Free software scares normal people
#573Good article, but the reasoning is wrong. It isn't easy to make a simple interface in the same way that Pascal apologized for writing a long letter because he didn't have time to write a shorter one. Implementing the UI for one exact use case is not much trouble, but figuring out what that use case is difficult. And defending that use case from the line of people who want "that + this little extra thing", or the "I j…
Overall, the development world does not intuitively understand the difficulty of creating good interfaces (for people that aren’t developers.) In dev work, the complexity is obvious, and that makes it easy for outsiders to understand— they look at the code we’re writing and say “wow you can read that?!” I think that can give developers a mistaken impression that other peoples work is far less complex than it is. With…
>Overall, the development world does not intuitively understand the difficulty of creating good interfaces
I think it's because they are not using the product they are designing. A lot of problems you typically see in modern UIs would have been fixed before release if the people writing it were forced to use it daily for their job.
For example, dropdown menus with 95 elements and no search/filter function that are too small and only allow you to see 3 lines at a time.
Re: Free software scares normal people
#574Earlier quoted context omitted.
Overall, the development world does not intuitively understand the difficulty of creating good interfaces (for people that aren’t developers.) In dev work, the complexity is obvious, and that makes it easy for outsiders to understand— they look at the code we’re writing and say “wow you can read that?!” I think that can give developers a mistaken impression that other peoples work is far less complex than it is. With…
One thing I still struggle with is writing interfaces for complex use cases in an intuitive and simple manner that minimizes required movements and context switching. Are there any good resources for developing good UX for necessarily complex use cases?
> any good resources for developing good UX for necessarily complex use cases?
For teasing apart complex workflows I'd suggest Holtzblatt and Beyer's Contextual Design book, I taught a user-centered research and design class many years ago and used that as our textbook, hopefully it still holds up.
For organizing complex applications I like to start with affinity diagrams, card sorts, and collaborative whiteboard sessions. And of course once you have a working prototype, spend as much time as possible quietly watching people interact with your software.
Re: Free software scares normal people
#575Re: Free software scares normal people
#576Earlier quoted context omitted.
Think of the management structure which arranges, and is satisfied with, tedious, repetitive, manual paper-pushing processes - such that an INTERN can immediately see the efficiency benefits that would come with automation, and doesn't just suggest doing so, but actually builds a program (in limited intern timeframe), that is so helpful it's quickly picked up by multiple employees. Then think again of those managers…
Shutting it down due to a technicality about not following a procedure != shutting it down because it is an unmaintainable mess, while also tasking IT with implementing the same core idea, but in a proper way.
Lol, define "proper". If they were so knowledgeable, why hadn't they implemented something before the intern arrived?
Re: Free software scares normal people
#577Earlier quoted context omitted.
I can relate, but artists get treated even worse. It seems to be a thing with creatives. Musicians also get ripped off a lot, as do writers. Developers seem to have a product that people can actually attach a value to, but art and music; not so much. They seem to be in different Venn circles. In all of it, we do stuff because of the love of the craft. One of the deeper satisfactions, for me, is when folks appreciate…
> Developers seem to have a product that people can actually attach a value to, but art and music; not so much. This says more of your perception I think. Many people attach value to art and music. Many people do not attach value to software.
That's possible, but remember that I used to be an artist[0]. I have sold a number of works, and I'm familiar with attaching value to art.
Re: Free software scares normal people
#578The problem is that everyone wants a different 20% of the functionality. Actual good UI/UX design isn't trivial and it tends to require a tight feedback loop between testers, designers, implementers, and users. A lot of FOSS simply doesn't have the resources to do that.
FOSS is ~99% developers, ask anyone in UI/UX to contribute to free projects and they'll look at you like you have two heads.
> FOSS is ~99% developers
Projects like GNOME, Elementary, Blender, Krita, KDE Plasma, Penpot, and MuseScore seem to attract contributions from designers.
I suspect it's because designers are like any other open source contributor: they want to work on projects that they use themselves and where their contributions will be appreciated.
Re: Free software scares normal people
#579Earlier quoted context omitted.
FOSS is ~99% developers, ask anyone in UI/UX to contribute to free projects and they'll look at you like you have two heads.
> FOSS is ~99% developers Projects like GNOME, Elementary, Blender, Krita, KDE Plasma, Penpot, and MuseScore seem to attract contributions from designers. I suspect it's because designers are like any other open source contributor: they want to work on projects that they use themselves and where their contributions will be appreciated.
> attract contributions from designers
How many of them are paid? I know MuseScore, Penpot, and Blender have paid for almost all of their design work (because they have paid staff)
Not just a relevancy problem, it's much easier to get free development work in OSS than design work. It's a decades-long problem.
Re: Free software scares normal people
#580Earlier quoted context omitted.
Progressive disclosure can be intensely annoying to actual power users. Definitionally, it means you're hiding (non-disclosing) features behind at least 1 secondary screen. Usually, it means hiding features behind several layers of disclosures. Making a very simple product more powerful via progressive disclosure can be a good way to give more power to non-power users. Making a powerful product "simpler" via progress…
Just add an option for "advanced mode" that if clicked toggles to "basic mode". Power users are going to be looking for advanced features and only have to click it once. People who can barely read and are scared by anything advanced will get the interface they can use best the first time they open the app
> People who can barely read and are scared by anything advanced will get the interface they can use best the first time they open the app
It's certainly possible they can't read. But more likely they're perfectly intelligent and simply don't appreciate being forced to deal with unnecessary complexity to complete a simple task.
(Someone else's comment reminded me of the CHI video of Allen Newell and Ron Kaplan, two brilliant AI pioneers, struggling with a poorly-designed copy machine https://athinkingperson.com/2010/06/02/where-the-big-green-c...)