Writing - Human Interface Guidelines

Re:Writing - Human Interface Guidelines by Mordisquitos on Monday March 06, 2023 @02:50AM (#35038493)

Using that snippet as an example, I wonder if I'm in the minority in that I would rather have more generic and impersonal explanations whenever possible, avoiding you·s and we·s. I find it somewhat grating to have what I know are software environments taking automated decisions and describing abstract concepts trying to pretend this is a personal relationship or interaction. This is not a terrible annoyance for me, just a very minor pet peeve, but I would much prefer the app/website to say for instance:

> This session is about to end due to inactivity. For security reasons it will be automatically signed out in approximately 1 minute. You may choose "Stay signed in" to continue or sign out if you're done.

Note that I don't mind the you in the last sentence, as it is truly referring to the personal me.

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Re:Writing - Human Interface Guidelines by Y_Y on Monday March 06, 2023 @03:34AM (#35038776)

How about when some annoying dialog box gives you the options:

    Yes
    No, thank you

I don't want to thank my phone for offering to set a battery saver. It's not a person and I didn't want it to offer.

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Re:Writing - Human Interface Guidelines by Mordisquitos on Monday March 06, 2023 @04:08AM (#35038982)

Yes, that also annoys me! Especially when it's not even my phone but for example a third party service that is asking me to do something in their interest and not mine. Every time I click on one of those "No, thank you" buttons I mumble to myself a correction of "No, fuck you".

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Re:Writing - Human Interface Guidelines by mercer on Monday March 06, 2023 @04:43AM (#35039174)

I suppose there are more people bothered by having to click a rude 'no', maybe?

EDIT: also, being bothered by it is maybe more the case for people who understand computers (at least somewhat).

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Re:Writing - Human Interface Guidelines by kdkwsndne on Monday March 06, 2023 @05:44AM (#35039495)

Whilst I agree with you on the communication from you to your phone.

However the phone is never speaking to you. It’s the designer(s).

I’m not sure why the illusion of the technology speaking to us is so important. I guess because humans anthropomorphise everything.

Slightly ironic that this makes us loose sight of the fact that we are actually communicating with humans.

In this whole conversation it seems this point is lost.

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Re:Writing - Human Interface Guidelines by chronogram on Monday March 06, 2023 @09:41AM (#35041553)

I think it was originally used because A/B testing said there's a 1% increased "Yes" conversion rate when having to thank the company while declining, and then everyone started to copy Bigtech as always.

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Re:Writing - Human Interface Guidelines by baal80spam on Monday March 06, 2023 @03:23AM (#35038706)

I cringe every time Windows says "they" are doing something.

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Re:Writing - Human Interface Guidelines by RobotToaster on Monday March 06, 2023 @06:18AM (#35039736)

I found that disconcerting, my computer is singular, so who is helping it?

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Re:Writing - Human Interface Guidelines by Y_Y on Monday March 06, 2023 @06:56AM (#35039972)

We have everything under control, you do not need to know.

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Re:Writing - Human Interface Guidelines by Mordisquitos on Monday March 06, 2023 @07:50AM (#35040349)

    We have everything under control, you do not need to know. Are you happy with the experience we are providing you?

    – Yes
    – Yes, thank you

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