belated wisdom for the week

[kaigou]

If there is ever any experience that should remind website and applications developers that they ignore the current site or application at their peril, it should be the experience of test-driving new cars. Even the most open-minded and innovative person turns into a two-year old when test driving. The steering column is too small. The dashboard's not the same. Where's the damn A/C button? Holy crap, I just sent the radio's volume to eighty, and I just wanted to change stations! Why won't the boot open?

Whine, whine, whine, and it all boils down to: this isn't what I'm used to.

It's amazing to me -- considering I've spent a good part of my life listening to people gripe about such things in terms of interfaces -- that sometimes I come so close to forgetting that. Theoretically change is good... but only if it's subtle, and intelligent, change. It must actually improve something. Otherwise, it's just an annoying distraction that constitutes nothing more than having to learn a new, if equally inefficient, habit. And why waste time on that? Just keep with the same old inefficient habits, and save your energy for adapting to a change that's truly worthwhile.

*goes back to whining about wheelbases and torque and suspensions*

Maybe the next time I deal with developers or clients pushing so hard for fancy-schmancy new tech for no reason other than it's flashy... I should arrange to meet at a nearby car dealership and force them all to adopt the mindset that they must purchase a new car, and to test-drive with that in mind. Let's see how much they complain about the new not pleasing them as much as the old, unh-hunh.

(Not that I'd expect it to really bring them to their senses, but at least I'd be amused in the meantime.)

Comments

[kaigou.livejournal.com]

I find myself far more sensitive to the issue of sizing these days, now that I switch between a 24" Mac screen for home and a 12" laptop screen for work... cripes. When something opens automatically to X size -- whether too big or too small -- it's still wasted time dealing with resizing, arranging, getting it to do what you want. Considering the amt of power that systems require these days (HD, RAM, etc) why can't they bloody well record & remember our preferred settings for an application? The last eighteen-freaking times I opened and closed this program, I had it at about X size -- figure it out already!

I haven't used the newest version of Word, but I can tell you I hate the newest version of Visio. Any application that thinks it's a good thing to take up real estate with extra baubles -- especially on a laptop where real estate is a precious, precious thing -- is an application sure to annoy me. I go ballistic when I discover there's no way to close the stupid thing, however. Gee, THANKS FOR DECIDING FOR ME.

I much prefer the older applications of Word for Win (thefting from Wordperfect, I believe) where when you installed new or upgrade, it would ask you: "do you want to keep ___ interface?" So you could opt, then or later, to try the new interface... or you could stay with the one you were used to, with the new elements added in far more subtly. When it comes to work, that's exactly what I want: to not have to ever THINK about what I'm using, so I can focus on what I'm doing.

[clowe.livejournal.com]

I didn't even think to see if the old interface was even an option. Going to have to dig through MS's forums and tech support tonight to find the answer to that. Because you're right - keeping the interface options the same would be great.

As far as resizing, I definitely hear you. As strange as it sounds to hear a compliment on Vista, I actually dig the heck out of it for its app running capabilities when all the preset safety features are turned off. There's a lot more options to run older software under the basic properties, and it makes running old software and video games an absolute breeze.

However, that being said... the apps themselves sometimes run into a lot of problems with pathfinding and that sort of thing. It's nothing that a couple of visits to tech support or forums can't fix.