Slack’s new WYSIWYG input box is terrible • Hacker News Board

Re: Slack’s new WYSIWYG input box is terrible

#821

Post by mattkevan » Thu, Nov 21, 2019, 5:10 PM UTC

dclowd9901 wrote: post #757

mattkevan wrote: post #505

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I work in the UX team for a major online retailer in the UK. We spend a large part of our time testing and validating our designs with real customers - not much goes live without us being sure it's the right thing. If something doesn't work for people, even if we think it's great, then it's gone.

How many times has that actually happened though? I talk to designers all the time who say some variation of this but have literally never done any of those things.

Depends on the task, but if it's for a big project we'll go through multiple rounds of usability lab testing before a design gets built.

Then, after launch we'll do rounds of optimisation based on the data we get back. This bit doesn't happen as much as we'd like as newer projects take priority, but it does happen and we're working on ensuring the Build > Measure > Learn loop is an integral part of the process.

We're lucky as senior management understands the benefit of testing and iteration. One place I used to work, the chief exec thought they knew everything, so didn't understand why we wanted to research and test stuff all the time. So we ended up having to do what they wanted, rather than what we knew the customer needed.

Re: Slack’s new WYSIWYG input box is terrible

#822

Post by bhk » Thu, Nov 21, 2019, 5:11 PM UTC

Tade0 wrote: post #45

As someone who used to be part of a team developing one of the most popular in-browser WYSIWYG editors: 1. Browser WYSIWYGs are really hard to make. 2. All browser WYSIWYGs are terrible. Avoid rolling your own WYSIWYG if you can. Even if you have a team of 1500 people at your disposal.

Is this because WYSIWIGs are inherently hard to make, or because of browser-specific challenges? Was this due to compatibility issues between browsers?

I've written my own native Windows WYSIWIG editor and a fair amount of web UI, and was thinking of rolling my own web-based editor.

Re: Slack’s new WYSIWYG input box is terrible

#823

Post by AlexandrB » Thu, Nov 21, 2019, 5:11 PM UTC

Plyphon_ wrote: post #464

In their defence (not the defence of the WYSIWYG box itself) - they quite likely have done lots of user testing that has shown clear desirability, improved value to user, improved usability, etc etc. You have to remember Slack's target persona is probably no longer the Engineer (If it ever was) - it's more likely a much less tech-savvy employee who finds WYSIWYG editors very handy to create rich text inputs. I guess…

If usability testing was an actual, consistent driver of UX decisions, we'd still have skeuomorphic interfaces. I'm sure somebody crafted a UX test or metric that showed the WYSIWYG editor is superior, but this was probably done to back up an existing product decision, not as good-faith research.

Re: Slack’s new WYSIWYG input box is terrible

#824

Post by danbmil99 » Thu, Nov 21, 2019, 5:18 PM UTC

ninkendo wrote: post #801

Did Slack ship a buggier version of this yesterday? I have it on one of my workspaces, and it's fine . I can still type `backticks` in the editor, with the exact same combinations of keystrokes I used before, it's just that they render as they will on the channel, rather than showing me the backticks (and only when I type the closing backtick. GIF here: https://i.imgur.com/o3wPWN0.gif ) Triple backtick does the same,…

Once it formats your text, you are forced to use the formatting menu to change anything.

They are clearly moving towards WYSWYG-only, markup is minimally supported now to facilitate transition.

Sad.

Re: Slack’s new WYSIWYG input box is terrible

#825

Post by Jestar342 » Thu, Nov 21, 2019, 5:18 PM UTC

niutech wrote: post #522

sambe wrote: post #495

This is not one of those "oh, that's annoying, i'll have to remember that and learn to work around it" issues. It's more like "I want to immediately stop using this software but have no choice". Its driving me crazy - Slack is all text input. Don't break text input dummy!

This is another argument against using proprietary SaaS solutions for such crucial purposes as business communication. There are free open source alternatives which give you full control and privacy: Mattermost, Riot.im, Rocket.chat, Let's Chat.

A lot of orgs have been there. Jabber/XMPP. It hurts. So we all use slack now.

Re: Slack’s new WYSIWYG input box is terrible

#826

Post by sarink » Thu, Nov 21, 2019, 5:23 PM UTC

I can understand how you might want this feature for all the non-techies that use slack nowadays. But give me a damn checkbox to disable it at least?? Whoever made this decision deserves a real life slap

Re: Slack’s new WYSIWYG input box is terrible

#827

Post by jcsiracusa » Thu, Nov 21, 2019, 5:24 PM UTC

jsjohnst wrote: post #593

sambe wrote: post #495

This is not one of those "oh, that's annoying, i'll have to remember that and learn to work around it" issues. It's more like "I want to immediately stop using this software but have no choice". Its driving me crazy - Slack is all text input. Don't break text input dummy!

I’ve already put my money where my mouth is and sent an email saying I intend to cancel all future payments to Slack unless they give the option to disable it, I suggest everyone else does the same.

Click the “Aa” icon in the WYSIWYG text input area toolbar to go back to the old non-WYSIWYG text input field.

Re: Slack’s new WYSIWYG input box is terrible

#828

Post by Kalium » Thu, Nov 21, 2019, 5:28 PM UTC

jcsiracusa wrote: post #827

jsjohnst wrote: post #593

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ve already put my money where my mouth is and sent an email saying I intend to cancel all future payments to Slack unless they give the option to disable it, I suggest everyone else does the same.

Click the “Aa” icon in the WYSIWYG text input area toolbar to go back to the old non-WYSIWYG text input field.

I'm sorry to say, but this is incorrect. Clicking that button hides the strip of formatting buttons, but does not return to the old text input behavior.

Re: Slack’s new WYSIWYG input box is terrible

#829

Post by miguelmota » Thu, Nov 21, 2019, 5:31 PM UTC

Agree it's terrible. Start a sentence with inline code and then try to go to beginning of line to add words that are non-code. It'll think you're trying to edit the inline code and you have to manually press the GUI buttons now to turn off code mode.

Re: Slack’s new WYSIWYG input box is terrible

#830

Post by yani » Thu, Nov 21, 2019, 5:34 PM UTC

Exactly the same thing happened to WordPress in version 5 when they changed the default editor. I am surprised that innovation is not embraced but it is met with strong opposition most of the time. What amuses me is that no one switched from X to Slack because of the editor but some will switch from Slack because of it.