logoalt Hacker News

randusernametoday at 12:18 PM2 repliesview on HN

Glad for the change, but a lot of the criticism overlooks that at some point we won't be the target audience of UI/UX anymore.

Flyouts, dropdowns, and other text menus make sense to me, but I could see how they might be alien and uncomfortable to someone that has only ever experienced mobile interfaces.

The reverse is true for sure, nowhere do I feel more frustrated and old-brained then trying to make sense of a new mobile app that everyone else seems to think is great.


Replies

skydhashtoday at 12:51 PM

> but I could see how they might be alien and uncomfortable to someone that has only ever experienced mobile interfaces

They are different devices. Just because you can drive a sedan does not means you can drive a bulldozer. Or playing piano qualifies you to play the organ. So going from touch and a small screen to keyboard/mouse and a bigger screen, you should expect that the interactions will change.

show 2 replies
troupotoday at 1:19 PM

> but I could see how they might be alien and uncomfortable to someone that has only ever experienced mobile interfaces.

From a review at an attempt to butcher Safari interface several years back, by Riccardo Morri https://morrick.me/archives/9368

--- start quote ---

The utter user-interface butchery happening to Safari on the Mac is once again the work of people who put iOS first. People who by now think in iOS terms. People who view the venerable Mac OS user interface as an older person whose traits must be experimented upon, plastic surgery after plastic surgery, until this person looks younger. Unfortunately the effect is more like this person ends up looking… weird.

These people look at the Mac’s UI and (that’s the impression, at least) don’t really understand it. Its foundations come from a past that almost seems inscrutable to them. Usability cues and features are all wrinkles to them. iOS and iPadOS don’t have these strange wrinkles, they muse. We must hide them. We’ll make this spectacular facelift and we’ll hide them, one by one. Mac OS will look as young (and foolish, cough) as iOS!

--- end quote ---

(power users don't use mobile devices for their work, and yet...)