[doublespanner]

Horrible advice for expert tools. If you can make the assumption that the end user is going to learn the tool you can design it for peak effectiveness after a learning curve. If you have to consider retards and hostage situation level panic you can't do that, and create a worse product overall.

[lastdong]

I think the point is that you can design for peak effectiveness while considering usability, and that makes the tool more effective. There’s a lot more scrutiny on edge cases when designing expert tools.

On “Expert Tools” I’d argue it’s imperative to consider high stress levels interactions, because the outcome outweighs the expert using it.

[ivan_gammel]

Good luck designing aircraft cockpit with this kind of thinking.

[doublespanner]

You are missing the point, it's obvious that a cockpit needs to account for stress or a crisis. Extending this to CAD software for example is nonsense.

[ivan_gammel]

I like your confidence, but it also manifests lack of experience and understanding of what engineering is. Expert tools have much lower tolerance for user mistakes because there are big money at stake (or sometimes lives of other people). A typo in Instagram post is not the same as a wrong number in CAD. I have personally seen a construction project where incorrect input in CAD resulted in several dozen foundation piles for a 16-story building installed outside the site boundary. Just because an architect responsible for aligning the building on site made a mistake working in a hurry, confusing two fields in the UI. Of course, there was a chain of failures, each next step costing more than previous one, but it could have been prevented if the software cared about the user and did not assume he is a superman.

It is so easy to squeeze as much functionality as possible on a screen trying to optimize productivity, but then quality of labels is sacrificed, click zones become too small and feedback is reduced to a barely visible message in status bar. It takes one sleepless night or a family argument for the user to get distracted and make a wrong but very expensive mistake.

[omeid2]

Why? Is it because you think CAD can't be stressful and under pressure or that people shouldn't do CAD when stressed or under pressure?

[cqqxo4zV46cp]

You know very well that “retards” isn’t an acceptable word. It’s not even used in scientific literature anymore in the way that you’re using it.

[doublespanner]

I do not care about your opinion of acceptable language.

Attempting to insert your off topic opinion is a character flaw.

Keep it to yourself.

[oh_sigh]

Shouldn't it be up for grabs then?

According to the logic of "you don't call retarded people retarded. You call your friends retarded when they're acting retarded."