
Stop Being an Idiot - sant0sk1
http://orderedlist.com/our-writing/blog/articles/stop-being-an-idiot/
======
rauljara
I agree with the author's point, but I really wish there were some examples.
It's one thing to say that you're against stupid, boring interface design. I
think we could all agree on that. But I bet we'd have a slightly harder time
agreeing on just which interface designs are stupid/boring and which are
simple/elegant.

~~~
marilyn
I'll throw out an example: The Drupal admin interface is an example of
stupid/boring, while the Wordpress admin interface is an example of simple and
elegant.

Anyone agree?

~~~
tokenadult
I can't agree at all about the WordPress admin interface, which I use to run
the website of my nonprofit (because that is what was set up by someone else).
It's a very annoying interface and one I hope to replace as soon as possible--
although I acknowledge I am still shopping for what to replace it with.

------
projectileboy
Edward Tufte's advice is to visualize your audience (i.e., "users") as "smart
but busy".

------
warfangle
Stop reinvinting the wheel. Don't be an asshole and replace the browser's
scrollbar with one of your own.

Especially when the scrollbar you invent doesn't work in Chrome.

~~~
gprisament
I find "Don't reinvent the wheel" to be a terrible idiom. Think about the
wheel for a moment. Is the wheel on your bike the same as the wheel on your
car, or on a train, or an an airplane? Of course they're all different! The
wheel has been reinvented thousands of times, and we're better off for it!

Yes, it can be worthwhile to borrow successful concepts from other
disciplines. But in many cases, the concrete implementation NEEDS to be
reinvented in order to apply the abstract concept to a new purpose.

~~~
MaysonL
OK. How about "Don't build hexagonal wheels, unless you have a _very_ unusual
use case."

------
tsally
I always yell at people who blame themselves for not being able to figure out
a technology, whether it be the UI of a program or the physical interface of a
device. People tend to assume stupidity on their own part; instead, I tell
them to blame the designers. After all, most people would blame the
manufacturer if confronted with a car that was hard to use. Interesting how
simple interfaces (a wheel and two peddles) are expected in some areas and not
in others.

------
jsz0
FYI your site doesn't work too good in Safari or Chrome. Very slow scrolling.
Something about the background image I suspect. Works fine in Firefox though.

------
edw519
_Nobody likes the unfamiliar._

Then why is your blog dim white letters on a black background?

The first thing my reptilian brain thought was that this was some kind of
left-brained new-age artistic fluff. But it's not. You have important points
to make.

So do your readers (and back button pushers) a favor and practice what you
preach. Combine your artistic tendencies with a more familiar, more functional
white background and reach more of us. You _can_ do both.

~~~
orderedlist
I'm teaching you that different interactions are ok. Unfamiliarity isn't
wrong, it's just different. People get used to it, and often times prefer it.
Consider my site your education on different contrast ratios. You did, after
all, read the post.

~~~
Daniel_Newby
I didn't read more than a few lines. White on black gives me a full-blown
migraine. Many other people also seem to find it literally painful to read,
not merely unfamiliar or jarring.

Consider me your education on different contrast ratios. ;-)

~~~
orderedlist
Dark text on a light background (on screen) gives some people migraines too.
This scheme is my preference, has always been, therefore it's what I make for
my own site. Feel free to use your preference for your own.

------
MrSartorial
I think the author makes a great point. I pursue this concept in what I call
"elegant design". What this means to me is taking as much functionality as
possible and putting it into a simple to understand package. There is a huge
difference between "intuitive" and "Dumbed down". Want some exapmles? Think
Apple products or, online, facebook. Both have a lot of features available,
but you aren't overburdened by them. You take what you need and you leave the
rest. On top of that, both offer an intuitive GUI that is easy to comprehend.
A lot of times this comes down to interconnecting all of the aspects of your
system to be accessible where your users need them to be.

I feel this is an area Microsoft has struggled with in the past and they are
finally catching up with their more recent Office program. A good case study
here? Compare Microsoft Outlook to Gmail. Gmail is an elegant solution,
Outlook is incomprehensible to the point that there are companies whose
business is making it easy to understand (ie. Xobni).

There are many other examples, but I'm interested in what everyone else thinks
too...

------
raganwald
And this goes double for language designers!

~~~
hga
I suppose so (hey, Lisp is The One True Way), but also don't expect your users
to be super-human (i.e. garbage collection is best for many of not most
problem domains).

------
Psyonic
Isn't "Dumbing it down" exactly what apple is doing with the iPad, which will
almost certainly be a runaway success?

~~~
ewjordan
There's a fine line, and I suspect the iPad is on the right side of it.

What you probably want to shoot for is offering features that will leave 90%
of your customers 99% satisfied. If you only offer the stuff that the bottom
50% needs, too many people will feel crippled (and that's what a dumbed down
product will look like), whereas if you try to please that top 10%, you're
going to have to make the UI far too complex. If you please 90% of the target
audience, you'll likely end up with a clean interface without pissing off too
many people.

I'm all but certain the iPad will fully satisfy 90% of the people that buy it,
especially since it's not being positioned as a desktop replacement.

~~~
Psyonic
Interesting. Thanks for your thoughts

------
jbyers
I agree with Tracy's comment on this post. What specifically are we talking
about, other than generalities?

------
teye
Tufte rehashed

~~~
teye
Why would this be flagged/downvoted? Tufte says it better, says more about it,
and gives awesome examples.

~~~
Vindexus
Probably because your comment lacks information. "Tufte rehashed" tells me
nothing. Who is Tufte? Is that a company? A person? A blog? What's their link?
Is it just an inside joke I don't get?

Just adding context and links to your comments would make them more useful.

~~~
pvg
Just in case you actually haven't run across him before -

<http://www.edwardtufte.com/tufte/books_vdqi>

------
aresant
The simplest way that you can measure & tweak usability to your site is to do
some basic field testing.

Nielsen has an excellent outline for actually testing and applying basic user
interface design here

<http://www.useit.com/alertbox/anybody-usability.html>

If you have a budget, do it up right.

If you don't, rely on family and friends that fit your demographic.

