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PaperclipPerfector  5d ago (text post)   2516 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for January 10, 2025

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

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Consistent, static user interfaces are so last year. Modern UX design is all about placing the most-used options in the most-accessible places so that new users can find them as quickly as possible.

With that in mind, I'd like to recommend a plugin to anyone who likes creating dynamic user interfaces in that style: Markov Keyboard is a revolution in UI design, placing your most-used letters in the most-accessible locations on your keyboard. Instead of just doing this once (as in a Dvorak layout) it remaps the keys after each keystroke, maximizing the benefit.

(ask me about my latest experiences with Windows 11. Or don't. I'm sure you can guess.)

Funny. I was really upset when my work PC switched to Win11 because it removed most-used options. Specifically right-click shortcuts to git bash and the like. They had the nerve to just hide the existing menu under another click!

I guess the Explorer changes have been more persistent, once I learned that. But right click really bothers me.

Does this mean I can type my most common sentences by pressing the same key over and over again?

I remember there being an accessibility interface that worked this way. There was an endless tree of letters that you moved through at mouse-controlled speed and each node was sized to reflect its Markov frequency, so after "Hell" you could select a massive "o" at full speed, but "a", "e", "f", "i", "u" and various punctuation were also quickly accessible.

dynamic user interfaces

Found Satan's Motte account.

Anyways, how's the dynamic keyboard layout working for you and can I get this on my phone?

I already have a split keyboard and lefthand mouse at work, so I'll avoid further user interface contrarianism. But I am open to better phone keyboards.

Modern UX design is all about placing the most-used options in the most-accessible places so that new users can find them as quickly as possible.

Have you, uh -- used much modern UI lately? My impression (unless by 'modern' you mean MacOS circa 2002) is that modern UX design is all about hiding useful options in locations that are not only obscure but literally invisible (see 'mystery meat', scroll bars, etc ad infinitum) to all users, if not (always) going so far as requiring users to learn undocumented 'gestures' to invoke frequently used things. (see iOS since its inception, but steadily escalating and spreading to other previously functional incarnations of various touch interfaces)

Eleven steps to change Powerpoint from centimeters to inches is totally reasonable given that nobody would ever want to do that, and how could you make room for all that completely-necessary whitespace if you didn't remove all those buttons nobody cares about anyways? "Time and Language" is the perfect place to find a ruler.

Furthermore, "most" has to be contrasted with "least", so designers can maximize how modern they are by shoving things ever-deeper into the abyss.

More seriously, one of my pet peeves is frames in frames in frames, each sized slightly-incorrectly so that they have independent scroll bars. One of the "electronic textbooks" I had in university was hosted on a website that showed you a fraction of a frame that showed a fraction of one page. If you wanted to read two complete pages, you had to:

  • read the first half of the first page
  • scroll the textbook-display-widget frame to the bottom to access its scroll bar
  • scroll the page up to see the bottom half
  • read the second half of the page
  • scroll the widget frame up to the top to access the page turning controls
  • flip the page
  • wait for it to contact the server and load one more page...

I made a flowchart on modern software recently, and it had a wonderful feature where if you dragged an object (e.g. an arrow linking two steps) to an edge of the screen, it would scroll the window in that direction. I zoomed in on one end of an arrow, grabbed it to move it slightly, and...It's off the bottom of the screen! better scroll down. It's off the bottom of the screen! better scroll down. It's off the bottom of the screen! better scroll down. It's off the bottom of the screen! better scroll down. It's off the bottom of the screen! better scroll down. It's off the bottom of the screen! better scroll down. It's off the bottom of the screen! better scroll down.

I ended up zooming out and squinting at a couple pixels, except they had the great idea that your mouse should snap to their best guess instead of the closest feature if you're sufficiently close.

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