Comments on: Do the Wrong Thing http://cafe.elharo.com/ui/do-the-wrong-thing/ Longer than a blog; shorter than a book Tue, 06 Jan 2009 01:18:17 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.3 By: Dave C. http://cafe.elharo.com/ui/do-the-wrong-thing/#comment-148 Dave C. Fri, 27 Jan 2006 15:40:47 +0000 http://minicafe.elharo.com/ui/do-the-wrong-thing/#comment-148 Of Microsoft Word's option to modify a style by reapplying you ask, "Has anyone ever wanted to do this?" I do it often. It's a convenient way to edit the style. However, as you point out, they've made the least frequently used case the default. The truly weird thing is not that they made that mistake in the first place, but that they introduced that mistake 10 years ago (or more) and still haven't corrected it. Of Microsoft Word’s option to modify a style by reapplying you ask, “Has anyone ever wanted to do this?” I do it often. It’s a convenient way to edit the style. However, as you point out, they’ve made the least frequently used case the default. The truly weird thing is not that they made that mistake in the first place, but that they introduced that mistake 10 years ago (or more) and still haven’t corrected it.

]]> By: Davin http://cafe.elharo.com/ui/do-the-wrong-thing/#comment-116 Davin Fri, 13 Jan 2006 01:48:08 +0000 http://minicafe.elharo.com/ui/do-the-wrong-thing/#comment-116 The problem is not confined to open source software however (take ERH's examples of BBEdit and MS Word). And though I agree "the wrong thing" may not be so obvious at coding time, it should become obvious fairly quickly once the product begins to take shape. I think that is the crux of what is being said: if something is obviously wrong, the program should not supply the option to do it by default. Take the example given for Word - there is one user action (selecting a style) which has a different default function depending on something quite arbitrary (whether the selection has already had that style applied). It's a fairly basic UI principle that this should not be the case. Whoever designed the behaviour this way realised that there were two seperate functions, so why were the two functions not given two seperate UI components? ("apply style" and "adjust style"). The problem is not confined to open source software however (take ERH’s examples of BBEdit and MS Word). And though I agree “the wrong thing” may not be so obvious at coding time, it should become obvious fairly quickly once the product begins to take shape. I think that is the crux of what is being said: if something is obviously wrong, the program should not supply the option to do it by default.

Take the example given for Word - there is one user action (selecting a style) which has a different default function depending on something quite arbitrary (whether the selection has already had that style applied). It’s a fairly basic UI principle that this should not be the case. Whoever designed the behaviour this way realised that there were two seperate functions, so why were the two functions not given two seperate UI components? (”apply style” and “adjust style”).

]]> By: Verisimilidude http://cafe.elharo.com/ui/do-the-wrong-thing/#comment-115 Verisimilidude Thu, 12 Jan 2006 19:04:49 +0000 http://minicafe.elharo.com/ui/do-the-wrong-thing/#comment-115 Defining what the right thing is takes experience. Programmers hot in the middle of coding may recognize the ambiguity of a user's action but not know what the "regular" user will be doing when they make the ambiguous request. So, the simplest answer is just to code in a dialog or a setable option and be done with it. The people answering bugs are rarely the firm's <acronym>HCI</acronym> specialists. No wonder their respones is "live with it" - They don't know enough to understand the issue. Open source programmers usually take the attitude, "it sort of works like I coded it, if you want to change it fine, I'll take your submission". Which is fine if you are a coder who wants to change it enough that you will spend the time to learn the system to a level where you can change it. Usually I just live with it. Defining what the right thing is takes experience. Programmers hot in the middle of coding may recognize the ambiguity of a user’s action but not know what the “regular” user will be doing when they make the ambiguous request. So, the simplest answer is just to code in a dialog or a setable option and be done with it. The people answering bugs are rarely the firm’s HCI specialists. No wonder their respones is “live with it” - They don’t know enough to understand the issue. Open source programmers usually take the attitude, “it sort of works like I coded it, if you want to change it fine, I’ll take your submission”. Which is fine if you are a coder who wants to change it enough that you will spend the time to learn the system to a level where you can change it. Usually I just live with it.

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