Comment by crazygringo
8 days ago
> under the guise of 'improving the user experience' or perhaps minimalism
I think we can be more charitable. Don't you see, even here on HN, people constantly asking for software that is less bloated, that does fewer things but does them better, that code is cost, and every piece of complexity is something that needs to be maintained?
As features keep getting added, it is necessary to revisit where the UX is "too much" and so things need to be hidden, e.g. menu commands need to be grouped in a submenu, what was toolbar functionality now belongs in a dialog, reporting needs to be limited to a verbose mode, etc.
Obviously product teams get it wrong sometimes, users complain, and if enough users complain, then it's brought back, or a toggle to enable it.
There's nothing to be cynical about, and it's not something we "should be over by now." It's just humans doing their best to strike the balance between a UX that provides enough information to be useful without so much information that it overwhelms and distracts. Obviously any single instance isn't usually enough to overwhelm and distract, but in aggregate they do, so PM's and designers try to be vigilant to simplify wherever possible. But they're only human, sometimes they'll get it wrong (like maybe here), and then they fix it.
>As features keep getting added ... so things need to be hidden
Here lies the problem
Your first users were here without all the added features. It's very likely they didn't need those features to use the software. Then you add new features and clutter it... then remove features from the UX that they were using.
> then remove features from the UX that they were using
Yeah but like I said, people make mistakes. The thing about text output is that it's impossible to track if people are using it at first. You can measure button clicks and key presses. You can't measure eye gaze (at least not usually!).
The good news is, if you remove it and get complaints, you can measure complaints. If you put in a toggle to re-enable it, you can measure how many people activate the toggle. Then you actually have the data, so you can decide whether to just bring it back entirely, or keep it as a toggle, or what.
PM's and designers aren't omniscient. If a feature is view-only, you literally can't tell how much it's used, and it might be minor enough that you never ask about it in user interviews.
>You can measure button clicks and key presses.
This is a common failure complain of all large companies that use metrics but don't actually talk to people. It's not a new complaint at all. And at the day it's one only solved by users throwing an apocalyptic fucking fit at the group producing the software.
>If a feature is view-only, you literally can't tell how much it's used
Then think fucking twice and don't touch it.
1 reply →