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917 points cryptophreak | 3 comments | | HN request time: 0s | source
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matheusmoreira ◴[] No.45761796[source]
Over the years I've gotten really tired of this obsession with "normal people" and not just because I'm one of the so called power users. This is really part of a growing effort to hide the computer away as an implementation detail.

https://contemporary-home-computing.org/RUE/

That's what "UX" is all about. "Scripting the users", minimizing and channeling their interactions within the system. Providing one button that does exactly what they want. No need to "scare" them with magical computer technology. No need for them to have access to any of it.

It's something that should be resisted, not encouraged. Otherwise you get generations of technologically illiterate people who don't know what a directory is. Most importantly, this is how corporations justify locking us out of our own devices.

> We are giving up our last rights and freedoms for “experiences,” for the questionable comfort of “natural interaction.” But there is no natural interaction, and there are no invisible computers, there only hidden ones.

> Every victory of experience design: a new product “telling the story,” or an interface meeting the “exact needs of the customer, without fuss or bother” widens the gap in between a person and a personal computer.

> The morning after “experience design:” interface-less, desposible hardware, personal hard disc shredders, primitive customization via mechanical means, rewiring, reassembling, making holes into hard disks, in order to to delete, to logout, to “view offline.”

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1. ValdikSS ◴[] No.45762174[source]
Most people don't need computer (full feature power, full power of choice) to solve their task, as could be seen with the smartphones, which are designed as appliances more or less.

I don't want most of consumer electronics to act like a computer, it is a deficiency for me. I chose "dumb" Linux-based eBook reader instead of Android-based, because I want it to read books, full stop.

replies(1): >>45766838 #
2. array_key_first ◴[] No.45766838[source]
This quickly falls apart when you need to do stuff and be productive. Reading as a pass time is a different thing.

The problem is nobody makes this distinction for some reason. In my mind there's two types of software - the kind for doing things, and the kind for mostly consuming. As the wise Britney Spears once said, "there's only two types of people in the world: those that entertain, and the ones that observe"

It makes no sense for your CAD program you're building a company out from to be dumbed down.

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3. ValdikSS ◴[] No.45766889[source]
Oh, this e-reader has lots of productivity features. You can highlight words (which are later stored in a separate folder), make bookmarks, easily translate words, use screen reader, etc.

I use it mostly for work and academic papers, not for amusement.

Most of the regular simple pdf viewers on the PC don't have this kind of productivity functionality in mind. They might have some, but in general they are not designed to work with read-only text.