lost_soul on 25/12/2010 at 09:29
1. Do NOT change keyboard shortcuts in your program with newer versions. We learned them for a reason and having to re-learn is counter-productive if we're trying to remaster audio or get other work done.
2. Keep the pop-ups and "helpful tips" to a minimum. No, I don't want to take a tour, and no I don't want to clean up my desktop that has five icons on it.
3. Do not assume the user is an idiot by default. This means not hiding access to advanced things (like the console in games). It is just annoying and nobody ever destroyed their PC by typing some incorrect commands into a console window in a game.
4. Do not try and hide the "complexities" of a PC from the user. This means stop hiding those file types by default! All I want to do is rename a txt to a cfg, must I open some preferences to do *that*?
5. Do not assume you know what the user wants to do. If I create a text file called hello.cfg, do NOT rename it to hello.cfg.txt!
6. These whole "non-interactive" indicators that the user cannot dismiss with a mouse click have to go. If I get disconnected from the network and I click the popup, just get out of my way so I can keep working. Changing alpha transparency to 50% when I hover the mouse over it doesn't count. Some Linux distros are doing this.
7. Your software should do as I SAY! If I tell the computer to shut down, it should shut down ASAP. Do not start installing updates which I didn't feel like installing while I was previously logged in. I may have to put the laptop away for a reason immediately, and I don't have ten minutes to wait for your sluggish installer to work.
8. When I tell the system to terminate a running program, do it! This goes for Windows task manager mostly. When I have a buggy game freeze, I am too impatient to wait the ten seconds Windows takes to figure out that "yes, it has stopped responding".
9. Auto-complete is the key. If you're writing a program that has any command-line interface, I can easily find new commands without having to open the dreaded documentation.
10. Screen space is precious. Do not waste it with oversized borders around your program. You know it is bad when you're on a netbook and you have to scroll down just to click OK in a dialogue box!
Azaran on 25/12/2010 at 10:47
Quote Posted by lost_soul
1. Do NOT change keyboard shortcuts in your program with newer versions. We learned them for a reason and having to re-learn is counter-productive if we're trying to remaster audio or get other work done.
4. Do not try and hide the "complexities" of a PC from the user. This means stop hiding those file types by default! All I want to do is rename a txt to a cfg, must I open some preferences to do *that*?
7. Your software should do as I SAY! If I tell the computer to shut down, it should shut down ASAP. Do not start installing updates which I didn't feel like installing while I was previously logged in. I may have to put the laptop away for a reason immediately, and I don't have ten minutes to wait for your sluggish installer to work.
Amen!.
Something that pisses me off in Windows 7 is that folders like "Program files" have permission restrictions, so whenever I want to either copy something into them or delete a file I have to go through a permissions screen to "allow" access. If I want to save files into them I can't. I have to manually go and change the folder permissions, and even then it doesn't change the subfolders for some weird reason, even though I'm the administrator. It gives me an "access denied" message, so I have to go folder by folder....why? :mad: :(
Quote Posted by lost_soul
8. When I tell the system to terminate a running program, do it! This goes for Windows task manager mostly. When I have a buggy game freeze, I am too impatient to wait the ten seconds Windows takes to figure out that "yes, it has stopped responding".
That problem usually only happens when you use the "applications" tab to terminate the program. If you go in "processes" it usually shuts it down immediately.
Renzatic on 25/12/2010 at 11:16
Azaran, what do you have the UAC set to? I've got it down on the lowest setting, and while it prompts me for changes whenever I do something in program files, I don't think it's ever flat out denied me.
LS, most of your complaints can be fixed pretty easily. Sure, everything should come out of the box as usable as possible. But most of the time it doesn't. So you gotta spend 5-10 minutes tweaking stuff.
Hell, as a Linux guy, you should know that.
Ostriig on 25/12/2010 at 15:57
Quote Posted by Renzatic
Azaran, what do you have the UAC set to? I've got it down on the lowest setting, and while it prompts me for changes whenever I do something in program files, I don't think it's ever flat out denied me.
Lowest as in "never notify"? 'Cause I've got mine down to that and it never bothers me about anything.
As for the rest, I think some complaints are valid, though indeed mostly easily fixable, except from those that stem from developers "assuming users are idiots". Sure, many people like us would prefer they don't, but I think it's fair to say that the bulk of computer users or consumers aren't like us and often have no clue. A lot of people just want to operate their PC as they would their livingroom TV, except for communication as well in addition to media consumption, and while it's not the sort of thing I'm into I can definitely understand where they're coming from. They don't wanna see file extensions, they just wanna double-click, and if you leave a command console available and they manage to somehow screw something up you can be sure they'll resent you for leaving the console available in the first place. So with all the emphasis on "user experience" and out-of-the-box "just works", it may be a tad unfair to fault developers for going where the money is.
Yakoob on 25/12/2010 at 17:04
Dear lost_soul,
99% of computer users aren't like you. Please go back to linux, which provides everything you asked for mainly because its authors do not understand the concept of "good user interface."
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year,
Yakoob
Renzatic on 25/12/2010 at 19:04
Quote Posted by Ostriig
Lowest as in "never notify"? 'Cause I've got mine down to that and it never bothers me about anything.
Lowest as in "the lowest you can go without it being off". You don't ever want to turn the UAC off completely. It's an extra layer of protection for those rare moments when a bug tries getting loose on your system.
Zerker on 25/12/2010 at 20:49
I have a personal pet peeve: always include intelligent accelerator keys for menus and dialog boxes. Microsoft is usually pretty good for this, but everything else is hit or miss. If I'm mainly using the keyboard, I like to be able to activate a menu by going Alt + {a}, {b} instead of arrowing/tabbing all over the place. If I'm in a dialog, instant access to the option I want is a lifesaver.
Plus it's nice for disabled users.
Thief13x on 25/12/2010 at 21:50
I have always hated how Windows will say a task is "Not Responding" even though it really is. Usually, if you just hit cancel and wait a few seconds it will come back and be fine.:tsktsk:
Zerker on 26/12/2010 at 13:34
Let's be fair to Windows: it has no way of telling the difference between a 10-20 second operation and an infinite loop. If a program doesn't service the "close" event, it is not responding: period. You should be blaming the developers for not moving their long-running operations into a second thread to keep their program from hanging up.
