Re:Minimalism – An undervalued development skill
by TheOtherHobbes on Tuesday December 24, 2019 @10:38PM
(#21876617)
MacOS has been going in a similar direction. But Microsoft really has user-hostile faux-minimalism down to an artform, consistently removing and hiding features for minimum user benefit and maximum irritation.
Small case in point - the search bar in Excel 365. Until recently it was a text box next to a magnifying glass, and you could type into it.
Now it's just a magnifying glass. You have to click on it to reveal the text box. Only then can you type your search term.
This change produces absolutely no user benefit. There is no rational reason to add an extra click. Long-term users now have to go through "Wait, what...?", where previously muscle memory would just work.
Another example: the AutoSave switch in Office 365. Users quite understandably assume that "AutoSave" means the file is saved automatically.
In fact this is a OneDrive-only form of AutoSave. AutoRecover - a different and much older local drive auto-save feature - is unrelated, and has a separate setting in Preferences.
Providing a minimal switch in the UI which doesn't mention the distinction is guaranteed to confuse anyone who doesn't already understand the difference - especially when clicking the switch tells you AutoSave isn't available because of your privacy settings, and doesn't mention OneDrive at all.
Small case in point - the search bar in Excel 365. Until recently it was a text box next to a magnifying glass, and you could type into it.
Now it's just a magnifying glass. You have to click on it to reveal the text box. Only then can you type your search term.
This change produces absolutely no user benefit. There is no rational reason to add an extra click. Long-term users now have to go through "Wait, what...?", where previously muscle memory would just work.
Another example: the AutoSave switch in Office 365. Users quite understandably assume that "AutoSave" means the file is saved automatically.
In fact this is a OneDrive-only form of AutoSave. AutoRecover - a different and much older local drive auto-save feature - is unrelated, and has a separate setting in Preferences.
Providing a minimal switch in the UI which doesn't mention the distinction is guaranteed to confuse anyone who doesn't already understand the difference - especially when clicking the switch tells you AutoSave isn't available because of your privacy settings, and doesn't mention OneDrive at all.