Home » My war with graphics, and graphics’ war with me

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My war with graphics, and graphics’ war with me — 21 Comments

  1. I’ve been saying for quite a while that companies should have a board of grandmothers to advise them on new products. Too many “new” things are too complicated or totally unnecessary. The whole world is getting more complicated, and all the time-saving things they come up with waste far more time than I have. I’d rather read neo.

  2. Doesn’t make sense and it happened to #metoo.

    Usually I just grab some kitchen scissors lately.

    Maybe Jordan Peterson can help. 😉

    I wanted to add that it is usually ME putting together the kids this or that toy/bike/playset/swingset and things have gotten better over the years but it used to be a nightmare and take an engineering degree laying all the pieces out and identifying what goes where because the instructions were so useless.

    And why am I always stuck with it? It is sexism I tell you! 🙂

  3. The label can be interpreted as:

    PULL (THE INDICATED THING) TO OPEN

    or

    PULL (IN THE INDICATED DIRECTION) TO OPEN

    The second interpretation was clearly predominant in the designer’s mind. But is the arrow a pronoun or an adverb? Either interpretation is equally justifiable. Sort of like Rubin’s vase.

  4. Given the fascist “DO NOT CUT BAG, USE PULL TAB” warning, my only ethical choice would be to get a pair of scissors and cut the bag open.

  5. TomR Says:
    January 25th, 2018 at 8:11 pm
    The label can be interpreted as:

    PULL (THE INDICATED THING) TO OPEN

    or

    PULL (IN THE INDICATED DIRECTION) TO OPEN

    The second interpretation was clearly predominant in the designer’s mind. But is the arrow a pronoun or an adverb? Either interpretation is equally justifiable. Sort of like Rubin’s vase.

    * *
    But who knows how the designers were justifying it?
    Or if they even bothered. Designers are always right.
    Because they have l33t skilz.

    And nobody asks Grandma anything anymore, because she won’t buy any of this new stuff and she’s going to die soon anyway.

  6. Symbols replace words, because that’s the way the grey beings with big saucer eyes design things.

  7. In professional web design, symbols with no words, or words that only pop up when you mouse over a symbol, is called “mystery meat navigation” and is (used to be?) considered a no-no and an amateur move.

  8. If it’s any comfort, I’d have read those directions just as you did. And then there are the ones that taunt you, “Easy Open!” These days, if things like that don’t cooperate on the first try, I just cut them open with kitchen scissors and seal them back up with a twist tie or rubber band that doesn’t require instructions. Life’s too short.

    And as for symbols instead of words, consider the care tags on clothing, with cryptic little triangles and wavy lines that carry no intrinsic meaning at all. I have been driven to Googling them sometimes — and just try Googling a symbol! What’s worse, even words don’t always help. Consider those boxes that instruct, “Press Along Perforations,” when all the pressing I can muster just collapses the box. Hmph.

    And get off my lawn!

  9. This is why User Experience (UX) design is so important and difficult, and why those that are good at it are in great demand.

    My anecdotal evidence indicates that the people that encounter the sort of issue Neo describes tend to be the, um, older set (of which I am one). Thus the problem of individuals not understanding the UX instructions will, over time, take care of itself.

    Like a few of you have mentioned or advised, I am a member of the set that always has scissors and box cutter handy.

  10. With program updates, I look for the “classic view” option in order to get work completed and then take my time “exploring” the new options.

    Yesterday, I actually went into an online chat with a company to offer some feedback on their updated version of a personal money management program. Their improvements tend to the visual impact as well as ease for using with a phone or tablet. I suggested changes to improve actual performance & reporting.

    I don’t expect them to make the changes, but as an accountant, I can understand and work around the small glitches.

  11. Wow – I like the new option to edit a comment. Even with careful typing & preview, I usually find a typo after I hit the post button.

    Thanks Neo!

  12. I can see how that bag is meant to be opened and resealed by that graphic. But, I’m an extremely visual person.

    My husband is not. Something I have enormous difficulty understanding. So your writing about being perplexed by graphics gives me perspective about what that is like.

  13. In Therapy, I learned to communicate with my packages, instead of resorting to scissor hands. Here’s how.

    Unicode is a computing industry standard for the consistent encoding, representation, and handling of text expressed in most of the world’s writing systems.

    Unicode has created a standard for emoticons. The URL is https://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U1F600.pdf

    With a little practice, anyone can learn to use text to speak graphically. I’m no longer at a loss for words.

  14. My DH was perplexed by the meaning of the little hearts I scribble at the end of handwritten notes to him. Really:-D

  15. Thanks, AesopFan! I’m getting out the tape.

    But upon perusing the list of symbol explanations, I’ve got to say, no wonder I couldn’t figure them out without a cheat sheet! For example:

    After explaining that the symbol for dry cleaning is a circle, the list explains, “For clothes that are dry clean only, the circle has a letter ‘P’ inside it.”

    The next one says: “The clothes that should be dry-cleaned under normal conditions will have a letter ‘F’ inside the circle.”

    I can handle the circle, but why on earth P’s and F’s? And, for that matter, what are the abnormal conditions under which dry-clean-only clothing doesn’t have to be dry-cleaned?

    Nevertheless, I’m posting the list in the laundry room.

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