Software Usability

assert currentReader.freeTime > timedelta(hours=1)
assert currentReader.humanEmpathy not in ['sociopath', 'autist', '/b/tard', '*NIX programmer', ]

Magic Ink
INFORMATION SOFTWARE AND THE GRAPHICAL INTERFACE
http://worrydream.com/#!/MagicInk

You can get a lot out of skimming this. There's a lot of good info here, and I'm still trying to digest it all, but my first reaction is "why didn't I read this sooner?" The whole treatise resonates with the line from SICP stating:
"Programs must be written for people to read, and only incidentally for machines to execute."

It follows from the reading, then: "These programs must be intuitively usable."

I imagine design doesn't get much discussion on /prog/ because anyone comfortable programming or using command-line programs doesn't think about it too much, because he's often doing it for himself - not other users.

Having just started a software company, it's something I'm working on more and more. Not how to best present graphical info necessarily, but just usability in general. Since I don't think /prog/ is game for a long discussion, I hope this thread can at least be used to point out the massive fails of usability - things that really piss you off about software.

The first non-CLI example that comes to mind is Windows' old disk defragmenting program. Why should I have to run it or even schedule it? Just fucking defrag when you need to, bro. You can tell when I'm not using the PC and it's safe to start, and if I come back while you're in the middle of it, just chill for a while. Goddamn.

I'll leave the low-hanging UNIX shite for others.

What part of the word old is lost on you?

Let's try a retard-proof, time-tested example: rm -rf /

This world-destroyer typo (or simply malicious command) could be stopped by the shell, who refuses to call the program, or it could be stopped by the program having noticed it will fuck the system, or it could be stopped by the victim system itself.

Instead, all three happily comply and the system is fucked. At the very least, an "are you sure, dickhead?" prompt could appear. Or the system could instead prioritize self-preservation over whoever happened to get the root password (eg. attacker, idiot co-worker, drunken/typo-prone self).

There are a billion other examples of poor usability that focusing on one example is a waste of time. For this class of situation, how about a general: "don't let the user fuck up the system"? Forget the prompt "Are you sure you want to delete those system files?" and opt for "These files are needed by the system and cannot be deleted." Anticipating the whining of "power users", it could continue: "If you're so goddamn intent on messing with them, why don't you go play in this nice VM sandbox I just built for you with a copy of the current environment, faggot?"