User Interface Myths | Hacker News Reader

User Interface Myths

carsonified.com

73 pointsedw51913 comments

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Top 5 ways I feel about this article:

1) I

2) Hate

3) Top

4) 10

5) Lists

He could have left out the “Top 10” in the headline and all the numbers. Then, I guess, you wouldn’t hate it anymore (at least if you don’t also have something against ordinary lists), even though nothing has changed about the content. Is that really the case?

(Please note that the author doesn’t claim that the myths are the definite ten or something similarly grandiose – they are just his ten personal favorites.)

That's exactly how I felt, so I changed the title (which I rarely do) for submission. This is interesting content which only becomes distracting by putting it in a list.

No matter what you do, someone will find the weakest link to pick on. Reminds me of a few years ago when my mother gave me 2 sweaters for my birthday. When I next saw her, I wore one of them and she said, "What's the matter, don't you like the other one?"

Lol :) I can't believe that actually happened to you? I've been telling that story for years as an example of how some people will never be satisfied.

Call me picky I guess but I want a story, you know, with a beginning and an end. Not just a collection of stuff the author dumped into a WYSIWYG editor.

No reflection on you for submitting it, of course, but it's the laziest way there is to write something and I come here b/c often it's avoided.

Also...

Myth: "Using the word 'myth' in your title is a good way to communicate any old set of idea you want to put forward"

Reality: "Give the whole 'myth' conceit a break, darn it!"

The 'myth' format makes whole piece is just about incomprehensible... funny for someone who supposedly knows something about interfaces ...

"...but if you’re not familiar with it then enjoy the research and storytelling of Barry Schwartz who discusses how too many options can not only lead to your customers making no choice, but (counter-intuitively) resenting the choices they do make."

That's very true. And I think the best compromise/solution is to hide advanced features/choices so that one click will still produce a great result, but if someone needs more options that ability is still there.

Oddly, I've never even heard of most of these myths.

Or not oddly at all. He seems to have started with a set of rules he wanted to put forward, negated them to create putative 'myths' and then tried to argue back to his original points. So the whole thing reads like it was written backwards...

Which frustrating, since some of what he's saying is a little bit interesting...

Case in point:

Myth #1. The Design has to be Original.

"Truthfully, I don’t know if this one is a myth, or just a hard lesson for me to learn..."

What the hell? He admits he is not even sure of his own premise?

The Linux approach, in my opinion, is the best of any platform. Other platforms don’t offer such a seamless experience; I’m looking at you OS X, and your confusing virtual disk image installation method.

Huh? The installation mechanism on OS X for 99% of apps is literally "click icon, drag to desktop".

Do we really need to give carsonified the oxygen of publicity? This article is on par with "websites are dead. use channels like twitter, facebook for self promotion" (I think they are too serious to get the irony) which was a real gem in self-gratifying internet detritus.

This article uses the word "myth" while rebuking some best practices of the trade. While it's a good read it mostly relies on stirring controversy. That makes it less valuable and trustworthy. For instance "Design to Avoid Clicks" is not a myth but common sense. In case you "overly optimized" (like having no clicks at all?) your interface you end up less user friendly than with a 10 clicks before reaching your goal app or site? I doubt that.

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