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A comment on The Decline of Usability. Parent comment

Re:The Decline of Usability by Noos on Friday April 17, 2020 @08:27PM (#22904288)
Not really, that's more a cliche. I set the clock on mine to tape programming when I wasn't there, and if anything it was probably easier than setting clock radios and watches now.
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Re:The Decline of Usability by Talanes on Friday April 17, 2020 @10:08PM (#22904769)
I was a child during the heyday of VCR, but I don't think any of my family was aware of timed recording. The whole concept just didn't exist in our lives until Tivo. Non-obvious features plus buying things second hand just meant you never learned everything your stuff did back before you could find manuals online.
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Re:The Decline of Usability by Symbiote on Saturday April 18, 2020 @05:43AM (#22906511)
My family could afford most things new, we had the manuals. I think my parents read them too, as they knew how to use the timed recording feature. My grandma knew how to use hers!

Many people would keep the manuals near the TV, so they could remind themselves how to use the rarely used features.

The Panasonic VCR we had included a barcode reader in the remote. The printed TV guide has barcodes for each program. This interface was very easy to use -- scan, and press "transmit".

Edit to add a link to an advert: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tSGUbE1v5RA -- the sheet of timecodes was necessary if you didn't have a TV guide with them printed, as shown here: http://www.champagnecomedy.com/panasonic-barcodes-saving-you...

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Re:The Decline of Usability by hilbert42 on Saturday April 18, 2020 @05:40PM (#22911330)
"Non-obvious features plus buying things second hand just meant you never learned everything your stuff did back before you could find manuals online."

That's the outrageous point. You shouldn't need manuals for operation of ordinary domestic appliances! If you do then you automatically know its design is substandard!

(The only reason you should need a manual is for some info or maintenance function that's not normally associated with its user-operated functions.)

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Re:The Decline of Usability by mcswell on Sunday April 19, 2020 @12:36PM (#22916969)
Anecdote: a little while after the start of this covid thing, I broke the band on my wristwatch. My first impulse was to run to the store, or order a new one from Amazon. Then I realized: I'm working from home, there are clocks all around me, and I don't need to be anywhere at any particular time (and my computer warns me about upcoming Zoom meetings).

So now my wristwatch is sitting on the desk.

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Re:The Decline of Usability by tunap on Saturday April 18, 2020 @08:51AM (#22907352)
I think of programming the Betamax(VHS rival) everytime I scrolled through the interface on 1990s/2000s printers. I built the nested file structure in my head rather than reading it on the screen. It has made navigating the digital world so much more natural(for me).

*The hard part of programming the Beta(and early VHS) for me was getting the family to leave the tuner on the channel I/we wanted to record.

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