this post was submitted on 11 Aug 2024
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[–] [email protected] 93 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (2 children)

Hmm ... Better pigeon hole clients into only using the teabag.

"Why can't I put the label in the water?!"

[–] [email protected] 34 points 3 months ago

Our legacy system always puts the label in the water and our clients rely on the faint cardboard flavor.

[–] [email protected] 83 points 3 months ago (6 children)

Smart developer: let's make the label an 8 inch square so it won't fit in any mug.

[–] [email protected] 71 points 3 months ago (1 children)

End user: makes tea in a large pot, to fit the label.

[–] [email protected] 35 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Developer: THATS IT WE’RE A BROWSER BASED APP NOW!

End user: why can’t I run this on my AOL account?

[–] [email protected] 31 points 3 months ago

User: Folds square in half to fit into mug.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

Huge waste of material on the label.

Since the labels are larger, the boxes for those tea bags will need to be larger too. That incurs in additional waste of material and storage space.

People working in markets selling those tea bags will complain. Now their boxes don't fit in the aisle alongside boxes with tea bags of other brands.

Customers will find it clunky and convoluted. Some will understand why the dev did it, and get angry - because from their PoV it'll sound like the dev is saying "I assume that you're a muppet, unable to distinguish the label from the bag".

And some will still do like others said: use a larger pot, fold the label, etc. Defeating the purpose of the change.

There are plenty situations where you can be smart. This is not one of them, stick to standards and document it properly. "This is the bag, it goes in. This is the label, it goes out."

(Not that it changes much for me. I'm still ripping the tea bag apart and mixing the contents with my yerba mate. Unexpected use case!)

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 months ago

tea_bag.unwrap()

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[–] [email protected] 62 points 3 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 63 points 3 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 12 points 3 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 26 points 3 months ago

gravity falls

[–] [email protected] 48 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I design optics and I've seen a return request because they "couldn't see the target" and included photos to show what they meant. The customer installed it backwards and didn't bother trying the other way.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 3 months ago

If it can be mounted both ways it should work both ways. 🤷‍♂️

[–] [email protected] 37 points 3 months ago (1 children)
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[–] [email protected] 30 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (2 children)

And that's how an iPhone with an interface that even a toddler can figure out sold a few billion units.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 3 months ago (7 children)

At what cost, though? I thought the generations after the millennials would be more tech-literate. But after seeing Gen Zs around me at home and at work, things are just regressing.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 months ago

It was inevitable. We took a mishmash of things that kinda worked together with a patchwork of software and shoved it into a streamlined define with a custom made interface to tie it all together. One of those things pushes the user to learn more, and it’s not the finished and polished product.

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[–] [email protected] 23 points 2 months ago (5 children)

As someone who's used and uses both for work and isn't a fanboy of either, sorry but apple does not have an easy to learn interface. It seems like every single choice they made was done to just be different from the alternative, more often than not to the detriment of the user. If they lock people in to how their ecosystem works low tech people can't easily change.

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[–] [email protected] 29 points 3 months ago (4 children)

A proper engineer would make the tag absorbent and use the principle of capillarity to transfer the water to the bag (and the other way round once tea flavoured) to cover this case.

Users can't avoid being stupid, but a proper engineer should be able to cover all cases.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 3 months ago (2 children)

This assumes an infinite timeline and budget.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 3 months ago

Well, no proper engineer will agree to less than that

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[–] [email protected] 16 points 3 months ago (2 children)

No, that complicates things way too much. Simplicity in design is beauty. A real engineer would recognize the tag on the string not only as a point a confusion, but also a superfluous feature. Simply remove it. The end user will have to use a spoon supplied by themselves to remove the teabag, but thats their problem. At least there is actually tea in the cup at that point.

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[–] [email protected] 24 points 2 months ago

Idiot proofing just results in a better class of idiot.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

If you have access to any kind of UX and UI folks, you automagicallly get a leg up on this, y'all. It is goddamn amazing.

Single dev on a personal project? Go find someone in the community who has an eye for design or hit up a design forum. Work has you on a project with only two other devs and limited resources? Ask for a favor from the UX team down the hall.

We are all tryna make good experiences out here. Let us avoid getting 'teabagged.'

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 months ago

Basically you have to hide all choice behind a settings page. Think of a cattle chute that only let's them go one direction to the bolt gun. Wait...

[–] [email protected] 21 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I can be an idiot every once and a blue moon. Thank you to anyone who put literally everything a manual just in case someone is braindead and isn't afraid to rtfm.

To be honest it's just after I've spent 10 hours on something fairly complicated and new to me. I suddenly can't think for myself anymore. It literally becomes a chore to do the simplest shit sometimes.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Honestly, if you read the manual you are very much not dumb

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago

I do appreciate it, I know I'm no idiot.

To be honest, I kinda wish some projects came with API manuals. I understand it's not a priority in an open source project with limited resources.

It would be nice to use a python based ml tool without passing commands through it via shell. People do it, I just don't have the time or experience to analyze a complex project like ML voice synthesis.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 3 months ago (1 children)
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[–] [email protected] 19 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Send multiple all user emails stating which end to put in the water. People still call the Help Desk or email you directly, your response is forwarding them the email, they complained that it's not convenient or they get too many emails or don't have time for emails.

You send documentation and place it on the portal. they complain it's overly complicated, so you add screenshots with which end to put in the water. They still mess it up and complain about lack of instruction.

You schedule 30 minute courses, 3 times a day, every day of the week and spam out notifications to sign up. You get a total of 12 people the first 2 weeks, most of which figured it out on their own at some point but thought it was mandatory, or that there were high level secrets or Tips n Tricks you were gonna teach. When the education period ends, you still get people complaining that the times weren't convenient enough for them because they work 2nd shift or weekends.

You schedule another 2 weeks of classes, after hours and on weekends. 2 people show up, but not the ones who bitched about it.

Despite everything, your boss still sings you on your review didn't meet the needs of the organization with this rollout

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Oof, I’m not in IT thank goodness, but I still feel this in my bones. I’ve had to write plenty of instructions for in-house trained users though, and it seemed just as bad. I can’t imagine what it’s like with real randos.

I’ve definitely seen some of these “please let us help you” getting sent around. And even in completely different types of organizations I’ve seen time and time again how the obnoxious entitled complainers don’t even show up.

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[–] [email protected] 15 points 3 months ago (3 children)

Speaking as a user (I'm not a programmer even if I'm often loafing around here):

Left is not "optimistic" but "assumptive" - blame the dev and the user.
Right is not "pessimistic" but "diligent" - blame the user.

But the worst type doesn't appear in this pic: they'd put a ball of chicken wire around the label so it's physically impossible to put it in the hot water.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I'm not a programmer yet even if I'm often loafing around here

Fixed that for you...

Join us on the dark side. We have cookies.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 months ago

Clicks Accept Cookies

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[–] [email protected] 15 points 3 months ago

Documentation be like:

For (literal string) place for i = T end of and rest unit 4

[–] [email protected] 14 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (2 children)
if ( parameters.teaMass <= TEA_BAG_WEIGHT ) { 
    return "Error: incorrect input. Check if tea bag was inserted correctly into water container."
 }
[–] [email protected] 9 points 3 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

And then a user starts adding weights to the label until it passes.

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 3 months ago

I write graphics software that almost seems intuitive, until you realize I gave it a split personality.

Even I forget about the split personality side of it.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I'd* better write some documentation

[–] [email protected] 11 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (7 children)

Using better by itself is fine in an informal context, and "had better" is only required for formal contexts. And I don't think a meme on the internet counts as a formal context.

And also, 🤓☝️

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I don't even work in IT but I make complex Excel tools for my Finance team.

I get an email about once every week or two from one of my coworkers asking what to do about an issue. Nearly every single issue would have been resolved if they just read even the first few instructions.

My favorite is a specific tool we use to review the financials. It relies on Scripting.Dictionary which is only present in .NET 3.5.1 or prior. The very first instruction on the file says you need to download it. There's even a very handy button right there which will take you to our software center to install it.

Yet every single time someone gets a new laptop, they immediately assume that the file is broken.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 months ago (1 children)

If you hear about it that much, why not make the script check for .NET before crashing?

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

You're calling this person stupid, but they're 90% of the way to getting it right.

If only every technical problem was this easy to solve.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago

"I'll add this to our knowledge base and other people can assist now!"

"Hey So-and-so, it looks like you our are guru at this issue, can you take a look at these 4 users who mentioned the software in their ticket?"

I just need to make progress on my projects, stop giving me desktop tickets pls :)

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