The light pen was immediately intuitive, while the mouse wasn't. Engelbart put two people against each other on the same task, and mouse users were initially slower, but quickly they outpace those with the light pen. We live in a world of light pens.

"That's the reason why people are bragging that infants can use iPads as if this was a point of pride rather than something horrifying." We infantilize people with apps that are built to be intuitive from the start but can't do anything serious.
"This is why we live in a world where most things are easy to learn, but hard to use. By hard to use, I don't mean that we feel they are difficult, but that we never reach our capacity to meld with these systems because we've chosen this path."
I wish app developers/designers would instead think seriously about creating a smooth learning curve from novice to expert. What are stages of development, and how do we ramp people up? Continuous onboarding! I don't get why everyone expects it all upfront robhaisfield.com/notes/provide-…

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More from @RobertHaisfield

6 Mar
I wonder if DSLs are just the next logical step for apps built for power usage. Let people directly input data and manipulate it, following your apps data model.
That’s not to say that GUIs shouldn’t exist. This thread on designing for power usage makes the argument that there should be a smooth learning curve from beginner to power user. Ultimately, no GUI is gonna be faster or more powerful than a well-designed domain-specific language
If onboarding is the perceived problem... then whatever, they can absolutely be designed to be learnable. Clear feedback loops, affordances for different stages of the learning curve, and minimalist language design. That’s basically been my work w/ GuidedTrack for the last year
Read 4 tweets
5 Mar
Okay now imagine you have a keyboard where you have low height twin control sticks on your space bar that could move independently of each other. What would that do for you?

Maybe holding a modifier key changes the output of your stick movements. Image
Slow vs. fast movement based on how far you push each stick? With adjustable stick sensitivity? Image
Fighting game like gestures? Force quit an app by inputting a Shoryuken? Image
Read 4 tweets
5 Mar
What if, instead of a food journal app, I just had a domain-specific language and the ability to create templates for myself?
I'd love to just write, "I ate a burrito, which in this instance means beans, pork, onions, and sour cream, and guac." I already set a variable for guac, which means ingredients include avocado, onions, tomato, and it assumes the general ingredients unless otherwise specified
Templates would allow me to enter other forms of data as I wish in a consistent way. For example, my template for meals might also include how I felt before and afterwards.
Read 6 tweets
5 Mar
This is an interesting point. Some apps are designed for power usage and some aren't, which raises the question of "How can you design for power usage?"
One thought is that a high skill ceiling is necessary for it. Take my example of Whimsical vs. Figma here:
An app built for power usage should also reward investing in that high skill ceiling. There's a trend (will be writing more about it soon) where power user applications go from more GUI to less over time. This really lets users get into the flow of things
Read 5 tweets
2 Mar
I see a lot of online course creators content to place a bunch of videos and reading material into a linear sequence and call that a course. A playlist with sections. Or are they not content with that, and they only see things like Teachable or Podia as options?
Who are the course creators who want to provide individualized content based on student comprehension/goals? Who want to give homework and create exercises that could be done from anywhere (eg in a course about well-being a mood journal)? Who want student feedback as they learn?
This is fair, many course creators simply host content in a linear format but don’t leave the course at that. I’m just saying though that content doesn’t need to be linear for people who want to do a bit more “course architecting”
Read 4 tweets
27 Feb
Great “weird part of YouTube” videos to watch tonight?
Wtf, but fits the prompt. Surreal art.
an animation classic. Wish I had that range of motion.
Read 5 tweets

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