I feel like other people feel the same way when the see me using vim. I know how to switch between view and edit mode and I know how to quit, but for everything else I need to use help.
Watching someone use a laptop with a trackpad only when there’s a mouse right there is my hell.
My little sister used to sometimes stand over me while I played computer games. She’d suggest moves and I’d be thankful at first, but at a certain point she was directing all my moves and I’d be like “just play the game on your own device if you want to play it”. She seemed to prefer telling someone else how to play than play her own game
I’m bad for that watching my boy play slay the spire.
I can force myself to keep quiet until around act 2. Then the “advice” starts leaking out.
I remember vividly watching someone type in the address bar of their browser “google”, and hit enter. It took them to the google results page from which they pressed on the first result, google.com, and only then did they proceed to type in their search term.
Someone out there has written a browser plugin where, if you search for Google, it just gives back a page that says “No. Just type in the search query in that bar up top.”
Was it an older person? I remember when a big selling point of chrome was you could search Google from the address bar rather than going to Google.com. On a related note, have you seen my walker?
As part of my career in software design, I used to run A/B testing and usability tests. This meant sitting with users and watching them use the software. Since IUE (initial user experience) was very important, this often included inexperienced users.
The data was absolutely worth it, and definitely improved my designs, but it took a lot of patience to watch people struggle and fail without intervening or saying anything that would affect the results. It was rewarding, but sometimes excruciating.
Did you ever get any power users who raged at the lack of command line switches or something like that?
Nothing that techy. I did include power users in tests, but their requests were usually for specific hotkeys or to have their favourite (and lesser used by most users) feature front and centre.
It can be difficult to balance a UI for inexperienced and power users, but watching them interact with prototypes and the actual software does help.
Im the elder millennial who helps explain shit to both my older and younger coworkers about our computers (as well as printers and copiers and shredser). Its maddening how some of them use the computer.
I know the struggle. I work with people in their 20s and people in their 60s, with various language barriers between us. The IT department should pay me because I save them 5 calls a day. Why can’t they ever see what I’m telling them to click? And why do they just click on anything when they don’t see it?
O my god the random clicking… why just why?
We have language barriers with a lot of customers (thank god for internet translate), but thankfully me and the coworkers all speak same language.
that’s why you install some niche Linux distro with you own I3WM rice. no one will be able to touch your computer
<Right click> "Now where is copy?.. Copy copy copyyyaah here! " <click>
<slow mouse move to taskbar>
<click on the other program in the task bar>
<right click> “Aaaand… Paste” <click>
"There you go… "Right click? Luxury! I’ve seen people go up to File>Edit far too many times.
Right click > more options (which summons a whole new menu) > copy > close the file explorer > open a new file explorer > navigate to desired folder > right click > paste > realize that the “copy”-button was misclicked and the clipboard is empty > close file explorer > open new file explorer > navigate to original file > repeat.
I watch this loop twice.
That’s what purgatory is, just watching middle management navigating whatever systems you know best.
At my old job, the CEO was showing me something and accidentally closed the tab. He started to go to his history, and I said Ctrl-Shift-T. He was very impressed at least lol.
I go to night school at community college and I pointed this shortcut out to the adjunct “professor” (not actually a professor) during a lecture the other day, and she said “oh you youngins with your computer tricks”. But she’s a year younger than me :') I’m just a nerd. And it’s not even a very advanced shortcut! Like idk how to use Excell and idk what “inspect element” means, I just get stresses abt losing my tabs.
