The primary rule of user interface design is that users won't read a single god damn word you put on the page.
@codinghorror We don't read and we don't understand what the icon does. Realistically we're going to smash keys until it does the fucking thing.
@codinghorror Press green/blue buttons until icky window goes away.
@codinghorror Thinking about how at one point I was told that the first two rules of UI design were: 1. The user can’t read 2. Even if the user could read, they would refuse to
@codinghorror I like the "the user is drunk" design philosophy. Seriously... it really works to help simplify user interfaces.
@codinghorror I have an app where I put a button with the text "Hide", to hide some information that people normally hide when sharing a screenshot of this app. Most of the time people take the screenshot and edit to hide that information instead of just click the button.
@codinghorror In a shop, there was a special queue only for card payers with a big sign. A person came in and tried to pay by cash. He said he came here to do shopping not read signs. And my first reaction was to think if we could make the queue entrance behind a gate that opens by swiping :P
@codinghorror The user also doesn't know what your icons mean.
@codinghorror They'll also somehow simultaneously read words you didn't put on the page 💀
@codinghorror this is true, I have literally seen people keep clicking buttons until the boxes go away…
@codinghorror Sadly it goes the other way too…programmers (or more likely senior management) don’t listen to how users want to work and insist on them changing all their processes (and taking 4 times as long) to use the shiny new software…
@codinghorror Oh, they'll read it, but only to spite you.
@codinghorror Once, my boss told me to design a UI on some industrial interface app with just one button: "The users won't understand more than one button. It will be the perfect interface." - "But...."
@codinghorror Speaks volumes to how much shit copy or ads that users need to wade through day to day to use the internet… I don’t blame them!
@codinghorror Rule 2: Put no words in v1. Add as many as you want in v1.2
@codinghorror @thomasnewton Unless it's a phone number. Then it could be black text on a black background and they will still find it :)
@codinghorror Appendix A: developers will do the same with your README files
@codinghorror @_gnoli @Mely_llg 👆👆
@codinghorror @rsms It was really fascinating first time I saw it happening in front of me. One thing I never understood was what was the catalyst for it. Is it inherent side effect of the GUIs ?
@codinghorror can confirm, all users are 5 years old. And if there are numbers, they're 3.
@codinghorror Oh, Boch’s Constant: People don’t fucking read?
@codinghorror Oh yeah? Why does the UI think it's in charge, telling me when and what to read? I go there to do a thing. I want to tell the UI what to do, but instead it makes me sit and patiently do its bidding. I either follow its childish instructions, or I close the app – no in-between.
@codinghorror 100% I go on gut feeling most of the time. If I click submit and I get a validation error, I may have to do a little reading. I do the same with CLI tools. But if you have to have text that explains how to us your user interface then your providing a poor user experience.
@codinghorror UI is like roads. People need colors and lines, and even then they get intoxicated and crash.
@codinghorror I didn’t read your tweet. Can you tell me in pictures?
@codinghorror Seeing all the comments on this page makes it clear that lots of people are unhappy with the GUI they have to deal with. No surprise to me. Me too. Many times a bad UI is a reflection of bad distribution of functionality which is built into the program.
@codinghorror Users read everything including the privacy policy statement
@codinghorror Is this a tragedy of the commons problem? Everyone's attention span is so fatigued by the collective amount of words on the collective pages?
@codinghorror Except for that one really big word in the hero
@codinghorror I maintain a rather hard to use GUI app at work (it WILL be getting redesigned, when we get a round tuit), and we regularly get requests from users for a manual. (It's delivered with it) Request #2 (1 week later) is for a NEWER manual.