> Because software should “know” that we form habits.
This is my problem with SaaS as an end-user.
Imagine one day you leave home to drive to work. You have a coffee in one hand and a briefcase in the other. You have done this a million times before, getting from the front door to your driver's seat, and you can do it blindfolded. So you grab your brief case with your coffee hand and watch so you don't drop either. You extend your hand to open your car door and ...
OUCH!
You stubbed your fingers.
Surprised, you look down and to your horror you see that your car door handle isn't there. You look around and notice that 6 inches away is something that kind of sort of looks like something resembling a car door handle, but it's different and wasn't there before. You try it, and to your relief it opens the door.
You take a seat, turn on the ignition and suddenly your am/fm radio turns on and a strange voice shouts "Welcome to Your Car Version 2.0! Try Our All New Shifter Feature!"
And that's when you look down and realize ... your damned shifter has moved to.
You never asked for this, you are now late for work and are going to take shit from your boss, your life is objectively worse off for the change and you can't, for the life of you, see how any of this is "better."
But that describes pretty much all software in current year.
Yes - that's my problem - an interface should be stable. Disable selections, fine. Remove them, no. Reorder them, absolutely not.
The changing layout of buttons in Office - yuck - I just want to do it, I don't want to think about where it is.
Fixefox seems to randomly change whether it expands bookmark menus to left or right - yuck - if it's the same bookmark/selection as a moment ago, I expect it to be in the same place!
This is my problem with SaaS as an end-user.
Imagine one day you leave home to drive to work. You have a coffee in one hand and a briefcase in the other. You have done this a million times before, getting from the front door to your driver's seat, and you can do it blindfolded. So you grab your brief case with your coffee hand and watch so you don't drop either. You extend your hand to open your car door and ...
OUCH!
You stubbed your fingers.
Surprised, you look down and to your horror you see that your car door handle isn't there. You look around and notice that 6 inches away is something that kind of sort of looks like something resembling a car door handle, but it's different and wasn't there before. You try it, and to your relief it opens the door.
You take a seat, turn on the ignition and suddenly your am/fm radio turns on and a strange voice shouts "Welcome to Your Car Version 2.0! Try Our All New Shifter Feature!"
And that's when you look down and realize ... your damned shifter has moved to.
You never asked for this, you are now late for work and are going to take shit from your boss, your life is objectively worse off for the change and you can't, for the life of you, see how any of this is "better."
But that describes pretty much all software in current year.