GRIPES

[Jerry_Atrick]

My gripe of the day.. useless professions - and IT are full of them. The latest is UX and UI designers - UX - the user experience; and UI - the user interface. The idea is that the user experience shoudl be optimised, etc.. blah blah blah. Have you noticed lately how software and web sites are getting progessively worse to use (with few exceptions, of which this site is one of them and I bet this site doesn't employ such fairy professionals)..  These UX and UI designers command a pretty penny and what do they produce? Absolute carp.

 

Gripe over... Will provide examples later, if required. But, just look at alot of government and large coirporate web sites who tend to employ these charlatans.

 

rant over...

 

Edited November 25, 2022 by Jerry_Atrick

[onetrack]

You're not wrong there, Jerry. The W.A. Govt used to have a great bunch of websites - colourful, informative, user-friendly, well laid out. Then someone decided that was all crap, and everything had to be "upgraded" and change was needed.

 

What happened? All the colour disappeared from the Govt websites (someone must have told them colour cartridges are the most expensive, so having all black and white on the websites saved the Govt millions, when the pages were all printed out). Of course, everyone in Govt needs to print every page of every Govt website.

 

On top of the that, the layouts became user-unfriendly, now you can't find anything (Govt planning on purpose, maybe?). The good information all seemed to disappear, and the information provided wasn't what one would be looking for. I don't know what goes on behind the scenes, but I'm convinced the people behind all this, have bugger-all ability - by way of management, by a lack of understanding of what constitutes a decent, user-friendly website, or any understanding of what website inquirers really are seeking.

[willedoo]

3 hours ago, Jerry_Atrick said:

My gripe of the day.. useless professions - and IT are full of them. The latest is UX and UI designers - UX - the user experience; and UI - the user interface. The idea is that the user experience shoudl be optimised, etc.. blah blah blah. Have you noticed lately how software and web sites are getting progessively worse to use (with few exceptions, of which this site is one of them and I bet this site doesn't employ such fairy professionals)..  These UX and UI designers command a pretty penny and what do they produce? Absolute carp.

Maybe they should do a Musk on them.

[old man emu]

11 hours ago, onetrack said:

OME - Call it the "First Nations Air Transport Museum of Tooraweenah-Arthur Butler"

What a coincidence! This very morning as I rolled out of bed I was thinking of using the wording of the "Welcome to country". So I looked it up and found this:

There are no set protocols or wording for an Acknowledgement of Country, though often a statement may take the following form.’

General: I’d like to begin by acknowledging the Traditional Owners of the land on which we meet today. I would also like to pay my respects to Elders past and present.

Source: https://www.indigenous.gov.au/contact-us/welcome_acknowledgement-country

 

So I could rewrite it as: I’d like to pay my respects to the creators and users of this aerodrome, past and present,  and acknowledge the spirit of the land on which we meet today. 

 

How would that be?

 

6 hours ago, onetrack said:

You're not wrong there, Jerry.  the layouts became user-unfriendly, now you can't find anything

Try quickly finding anything on the CASA website after it slowly finds and serves up its content. If a restaurant had servers that slow, you'd die of starvation before you got a menu.

 

The problem with UX and UI specialists is that they do in fact know so much more than the rest of us about the art of coding and are always trying to employ the latest advances. What they don't consider, sitting in darkened rooms surrounded by Uber-delivered half-eaten pizzas and empty Coke cans, is that the majority of the population has the reading age of a Year 8 school student and the understanding of site navigation of about the same level.  Those are not mocking statements. That's where a good writer for the general public set the level of ease of writing, but the average of the navigation skills will rise as the younger generation becomes a greater part of the whole population.

[nomadpete]

2 hours ago, old man emu said:

So I could rewrite it as: I’d like to pay my respects to the creators and users of this aerodrome, past and present,  and acknowledge the spirit of the land on which we meet today. 

Top stuff!

But sadly, there would surely be some "born in cottonwool, well meaning, narrow minded" individual, ready to pounce on you for it.

[red750]

2 hours ago, old man emu said:

sitting in darkened rooms surrounded by Uber-delivered half-eaten pizzas

and wearing their grey hoodies,

[Jerry_Atrick]

2 hours ago, old man emu said:

The problem with UX and UI specialists is that they do in fact know so much more than the rest of us about the art of coding and are always trying to employ the latest advances

Er.. no they don't! In general, at least. Yes, I am sure some can code, but that would be because they have had a coding background rather than the "profession" of UX and UI.  They know how to conduct usability sessions and do designs of screens.. or other human/machie interfaces.. but coding is not a requisite. Some may, for example, be adept at Wordpress or other CMS and may be able to use CSS, HTML and a bit of Javascript or PHP.. but that is not coding.

 

Sorry to be pedantic  about the point.. but they are very different disciplines..

 

3 hours ago, old man emu said:

is that the majority of the population has the reading age of a Year 8 school student and the understanding of site navigation of about the same level.  Those are not mocking statements. That's where a good writer for the general public set the level of ease of writing, but the average of the navigation skills will rise as the younger generation becomes a greater part of the whole population.

What you are talking about is copyrighting and presentation.. (with the exception of navigation). This is different to UX and UI which is about interaction and information/data - yes and where to put the copyrighting and presentation - as well as what style of presentation (e.g. in-depth, summarised, or abstract) to place..

 

As an example, a UX/UI professional isn't interested in logos, actual images, or text; the UX designer is worried about the behavioural aspects of the interface and the UI designer about the aesthetic: https://elementor.com/blog/ux-vs-ui/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=11138809851&utm_term=&gclid=CjwKCAiA7IGcBhA8EiwAFfUDscl-c6925ZcQbDlmr23NbtX2WaCSwGnieINzb1QdVgFT1qipBnMucBoChKYQAvD_BwE

 

Copywriters and graphic artists do the other stuff.  Obviously, the lines are blurred - not only between UX/UI and copywiters/graphic artists, but between UX and UI itself. Some people do all 4 very well, because they are.... good web designers/developers (whether coding or using a CMS/web management system  such as Wordpress).

 

My gripe is, despite the proliferation of UX/UI professionals (and my gripe wasn't limited to them, but the prolferation of many other new professions which seem good in theory, but in practice the outcomes are sub-optimal), the usability and sometimes the presentation of both weebsites and software these days is becoming worse.. It is like all these "UX/UI" professionals are not delivering the goods - and in fact making it worse.

 

A case in point is that there are digitalk standars for the UK government. Yet, since their introduction, the usability of their systyems has become much worse. In my case, paying council tax (rates) went from a relatively quick affair and absolute knowledge I hadn't accidentally paid someone elses account to not actually knowing if I got the account details correct. That is a regression in UX and UI. So, I no longer use the online solution and send a cheque in every month - which costs them more (and me, by 42p/month for the stamped envelope).

[old man emu]

1 hour ago, Jerry_Atrick said:

Sorry to be pedantic  about the point.. but they are very different disciplines..

I was being geriatric.

[old man emu]

Bloody spellcheck! I meant generic.

[old man emu]

UX/UI professionals, copywriters and graphic artists, and the proliferation of many other new professions which seem good in theory, but in practice the outcomes are sub-optimal !!!

No wonder the credits for an animated movie run longer than the movie itself.

[facthunter]

That's because they don't just draw conclusions, they draw everything. Nev

[Old Koreelah]

19 hours ago, onetrack said:

OME - Call it the "First Nations Air Transport Museum of Tooraweenah-Arthur Butler" and the grants will roll in...

That might work, but you’d be abso-bluddy-lutely guaranteed of a generous grant if it had “War Memorial” in the title. Espevially under the previous government.

[old man emu]

16 hours ago, Old Koreelah said:

you’d be abso-bluddy-lutely guaranteed of a generous grant if it had “War Memorial” in the title.

Whoa there, boyo. You are toeing the line there. 

[Old Koreelah]

Crickey this thread is big! What a bunch of whingers we are.

Here’s my latest: Abuse of private information in doctors’ waiting rooms.

 

This morning I went for an MRI scan. I approached the receptionist with all my paperwork; it clearly told her who I am, what I’m there for and which doctor sent me. Despite having all the info she needed, from behind her glass screen she loudly asked for DoB, then required me to call out my phone number and residential address.
 

Lots of us don’t want the world to know this stuff. Many teachers, nurses, DOCS staff, prison officers, etc. have suffered harassment and value their privacy. Even worse, women trying to evade abusive partners can’t afford to have a room full of strangers hearing their name, phone number and where they live.

 

When I politely pointed this out, she was defensive: “it’s policy.”
Policies can be changed, and this one sure needs it.

[old man emu]

1 hour ago, Old Koreelah said:

When I politely pointed this out, she was defensive: “it’s policy.” Policies can be changed, and this one sure needs it.

Policy is easy to carry out with two P's - pencil and paper. You'd be buggered if you happened to be a mute.

[red750]

1 hour ago, Old Koreelah said:

Here’s my latest: Abuse of private information in doctors’ waiting rooms.

Reminds me of this:  https://www.socialaustralia.com.au/topic/709-quickies-part-2/page/39/#comment-46558

 

[Old Koreelah]

1 hour ago, red750 said:

Reminds me of this:  https://www.socialaustralia.com.au/topic/709-quickies-part-2/page/39/#comment-46558

 

You’re right, Red. I should have remembered that gem!

[Bruce Tuncks]

Here's my gripe...   My daughter, going home from night shift, stopped at an empty shopping mall for long enough to buy some stuff, at about 4am. Weeks later, we got a parking ticket here at the farm. 

They probably were within the letter of the law to give out the ticket, but my gripe is that surely the law must demonstrably have some purpose, and if it fails this test then it brings itself into disrepute.

Please, if you disagree with this, please let me know.

[onetrack]

We pulled into a disabled parking bay in the middle of Surfers Paradise, to grab some milk, as we arrived in Surfers by car from Brisbane - at 11:55PM - after a long and tiring trip from Perth.

We got back to the car not 5 mins later, and found we'd been booked for illegal parking!

 

I was wrong in deciding that disabled people weren't likely to be out at midnight on a weeknight - and even more wrong, in deciding that Surfers Paradise parking inspectors wouldn't be at work at midnight! 

[old man emu]

4 hours ago, Bruce Tuncks said:

Please, if you disagree with this, please let me know.

 

51 minutes ago, onetrack said:

I was wrong in deciding that disabled people weren't likely to be out at midnight on a weeknight

I suspect that in both cases, the presence of the vehicle contrary to signposted permissions was detected by camera, and that no human actually used an Eyeball Mk 1 to detect that presence, and then apply AI (Actual Intelligence) to weigh up if the presence of the vehicles created any inconvenience to other potential users of the designated locations.

 

In other words, a moron with half a brain would have considered the factors and let them both "go through to the 'keeper". But in the 21st Century it is "All hail to Artificial Intelligence" 

 

AI? That's another imaginary being that atheists  for to rail against.

[old man emu]

I don't know which thread this suits better, Gripes or Invasion or Immigration, but since it's about a particular incident that got up my nose, I'll tell you about it here.

 

This morning I had to contact a doctor's surgery. Nothing medical. I was chasing a lead to do with Arthur Butler's biography, and I thought that the doctor I was trying to contact might help my quest. The phone was answered by a lady from the subcontinent. Considering the location of the practice, and the names of some practitioners there, I was not surprised. However, as I tried to explain why I was calling, the woman kept going on about when the particular doctor I wanted to contact would be at the practice. Initially, I ignored her rudeness, but as she spoke her accent made what she was saying unintelligible. Finally I was forced to say, "I'm sorry but I cannot understand you because of your accent. Could I speak to a person who does not have an accent?" Why should it be up to me to apologise for a failure in communication because someone's speech cannot be understood? 

 

There's a difference between the post-War Italian immigrant who "so speaka da English" because they could not use English syntax nor have the vocabulary, and a person who knows the syntax and sufficient vocabulary, but whose accent and pitch of voice creates sounds that have little relationship to the sounds made by native speakers. Back in the day, we used to yell at the Italian migrant, "learn English, you ...", perhaps now the cry should be "Learn the universal English accent!" ( I can't add a 'you ..." because that would be naughty of me.)

[spacesailor]

My Penny worth !.

Stop the French/English, second language!  .

AND

teach/learn ,

ESPERANTO .

It Was said, Most countries have an ESPERANTO club ,

SO if all people speak ESPERANTO , as their second language,  then We will All understand one-another. 

(  it sounds Spanish to me  ) .

spacesailor

 

[Old Koreelah]

English is a standard language across much of the world. Many of those with a thick accent are better educated in the English language than most of us, so who is using the language correctly?
I too have had difficulty understanding- not just those from the subcontinent. 
Some of the most difficult-to-understand English speakers are from the British Isles themselves!

[spacesailor]

O K

I totally agree !.

My own TOWN has three distinct dialects, 

The Normans from one side , the Vikings  from the opposite side, with the Romans coming from the south .

Three words for a Catapult,  Dobber , Gahrra ,

spacesailor

[red750]

Spacey, I don't know anyone who speaks Esparanto.

 

And why should I have to learn another language in my own country. English pronunciation and comprehension should be mandatory for immigrants. 

a. Would Koreans learn to speak English to accomodate you in their country?

b. How do these immigrants who haven't learnt the language understand signs, such as warning signs?