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I should note that this isn't exactly related to Richard's overarching project, but it made me think of all this, given his specific problem was one that very much seemed a data entry problem.
This almost deserves an article or something, but I'm just not up to writing it, so I'll leave it as a very general, code free set of observations from directly working with people who needed to use my software to enter data.
When I was building little apps for local small business (a taxi company) or at least local chapters of larger organizations (Boys and Girls Club) the first thing I always did was job shadow the person doing the job my software was either going to streamline or replace. I didn't write a line of code until I could do the job as well, if not as fast, as the operator doing the tasks my software targeted.
Do this. For the love of everything that is right, do this. I can't stress enough how much better your product will be. As often as not you'll come up with something that breaks all kinds of UI guidelines you were taught, but provides a far better DIRECT EXPERIENCE in the context of that operator's workflow than Microsoft ever could have thought of when writing their style guides. It's priceless.
If you can't do that for whatever reason, then at least get regular feedback from someone who is dogfooding your code (you're dogfooding during development, right?), but that's still not anything like learning the tasks yourself.
From this experience, a few stupid observations:
People that enter data like keyboards. Moving your fingers to the mouse means moving them off the home row. Every time you do that, it's productivity that could have been stored for making a sandwich
You can type anything you can click, short of painting a picture.
So the rest is just, what they type and what you accept. That's where the effort should really go - gentle enforcement of business rules, and make your software work like a good employee - if it has a problem, it also suggests a solution. something that can be quickly keypressed past.
Autocomplete is your friend, as long as it's unobtrustive. Entry history for fields is usually worth its weight in gold.
"BUT THAT'S SO 1990S!" you may scream. "What about all these fancy web style user interfaces that are all the rage these days?"
No. There's a time and place for that - usually on a phone - for working people, your interface is work boots, not heels.
AND FINALLY USE YOUR OWN STUFF.
I stand by this stuff, and if I'm wrong about it, well being wrong has worked out quite well for my clients, so I'll just leave this here.
Check out my IoT graphics library here:
https://honeythecodewitch.com/gfx
And my IoT UI/User Experience library here:
https://honeythecodewitch.com/uix
modified yesterday.
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You're singing to the choir, in my case. I've worked in a hardware store (Ace) and was convinced from that experience that not one of the people who worked for the software company that provided our retail and back office software had ever set foot in a hardware store, let alone worked in one. The actual job is hard enough without the support software actively trying to prevent the worker from doing it! Every developer should be required to do the target job for a year before being allowed to write a single line of code.
In a similar vein, I signed on as a Jr Engineer at General Dynamics many moons ago. Much to my surprise, I was forced to join the Teamsters Union, then spend my time at a workbench building stuff other, more experienced engineers designed. I resented it a bit until I saw the garbage these idiots designed without any thought about whether they could actually be built. Even simple things like keeping the number of wires going to a single connector pin with a hole of limited size they got wrong. And placing screws and pins in places that cannot be reached by human hands was a common occurance. A year later when the put me on salary and in an office, I was a far better engineer than any of those who missed that experience!
Will Rogers never met me.
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There's a fundamental rule for UI design: Consider your audience. This means you have to be able put yourself in the user's shoes and figure out how to best help them use what you're providing. It's interesting that this same rule applies to writing.
I've spent most of my career doing UI for applications controlling complicated machinery. The attitude of the hardware people developing this machinery ranges from caveat emptor to open contempt. If I hear "Can't you just do a popup?" one more time, blood will spill.
Software Zen: delete this;
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I have been preaching this exact same thing for 30+ years. IF you want something to work better. Force the programmers/tech people to actually do the job.
Interestingly enough. The CEO or a local very large Grocery store got vilified for forcing his IT staff to do that exact same thing a few years ago. But it was the right idea! Make them use what they produce. They will then go make it better.
To err is human to really elephant it up you need a computer
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I remember a contract where I was not allowed to talk to the end user and there was no such thing as a BA. All information came through a manager. Needless to say it was a total disaster and is the only time I ended up in court over a design 
Never underestimate the power of human stupidity -
RAH
I'm old. I know stuff - JSOP
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That's pretty much what I do
In a closed society where everybody's guilty, the only crime is getting caught. In a world of thieves, the only final sin is stupidity. - Hunter S Thompson - RIP
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"was job shadow the person doing the job my software was either going to streamline or replace. I didn't write a line of code until I could do the job as well, if not as fast, as the operator doing the tasks my software targeted."
is elephanting legend. I have seen so many projects fail over the years, because everyone knew technically how to get the job done, but they were not the one doing the job.
Charlie Gilley
“Microsoft is the virus..."
"the problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people's money"
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honey the codewitch wrote: the first thing I always did was job shadow the person doing the job my software was either going to streamline or replace. I didn't write a line of code until I could do the job as well, if not as fast, as the operator doing the tasks my software targeted.
Smartest thing I've read in a long time.
And it should be obvious, but unfortunately some people need to be reminded of that.
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 Great post! Lots of great advice here! 
"Go forth into the source" - Neal Morse
"Hope is contagious"
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There's a battle playing out in the world of Wordpress, and it's not pretty. There's a company called WP Engine who provide hosting for WordPress sites, and Wordpress, the underlying wordpress engine (I'm going to stick with lower case now). Wordpress is owned a company called Automattic; I'll leave you to dig into those relationships.
Anyway, WP Engine recently sent a cease and desist letter to Automattic to stop making harmful statements about WP Engine. Automattic have responded by sending WP Engine cease and desist letters to stop using wordpress trademarks (the WP part from what I can see, although wordpress previously stated it didn't have this trademarked).
Fastforward to the weekend; WP Engine provided a wordpress plugin called Advanced Custom Fields. Apparently there's a security weakness in it which WP Engine have a patch for. Automattic suspended WP Engines ability to publish plugins; took the source code and forked it to create their own version called Secure Custom Fields, and the guy in charge of Automattic has been having a meltdown in public. He's been insulting plugin authors; attacking them, and appears to be banning people from wordpress. It's all very sordid.
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I'm going to commission a camera crew to start following open source projects and pitch the footage to TLC for a new reality TV program. I'll be rich.
Check out my IoT graphics library here:
https://honeythecodewitch.com/gfx
And my IoT UI/User Experience library here:
https://honeythecodewitch.com/uix
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Nothing more entertaining than raging nerds.
But again, maybe not. Nobody wants to watch a series involving the likes of a Richard Stallman.
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Check out my IoT graphics library here:
https://honeythecodewitch.com/gfx
And my IoT UI/User Experience library here:
https://honeythecodewitch.com/uix
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Wait, let me get this straight. Automattic forked the plugin and created their own version, and the guy in charge of Automattic is having a public meltdown? That doesn't make sense to me.
The difficult we do right away...
...the impossible takes slightly longer.
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Yup. That's pretty much it.
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We evacuated to get out of the hurricane's path on Monday last week. The storm left over a million and a half customers without power in the Tampa Bay area. When we returned last Saturday, our home was undamaged although the water rose high enough to very nearly get into our floor level. We had no power, but we had water and the area's sewage system worked.
Tampa Electric Company put in a gigantic effort and restored power to about a quater of a million customers per day! Way to go TECO!
On Monday my SO got very excited when she saw some cherry picker trucks working on the main power line in front of our property. About 3 hours later we had power. The Internet service, that was also knocked out, had already been restored. We were up and running as if nothing had happened. Cherry picker trucks will always bring a smile to our faces! 
All is well in Tampa now, at least for my family and several hundred thousand others! ![Java | [Coffee]](https://codeproject.global.ssl.fastly.net/script/Forums/Images/coffee.gif)
Ok, I have had my coffee, so you can all come out now!
modified yesterday.
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My relatives returned to Tampa when power returned. No power for bit, ruined food in fridge, but otherwise mostly some tree damage and no home damage. Could have been much worse had it not moved to the south of Tampa.
"A little time, a little trouble, your better day"
Badfinger
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Yes. Flooding would have been much worse, had the storm pass just north of Tampa instead of just south. We also had to clean out food from the fridge after power was restored, but the fridge needed a good cleaning anyway. 
Ok, I have had my coffee, so you can all come out now!
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Starship Size Comparison[^]
It has Star Wars, Star Trek, Warhammer 40K, Halo, Mass Effect, Marvel, Aliens, Dr. Who, Starcraft, even Wall-E...
Pretty much every sci-fi up to 2021 is represented 
No doubt A LOT of time and trouble went into making this and it's awesome! 
I've only heard of probably half of this and I've seen maybe only 10%, so there's work to be done.
First on my list: Sex Vixens from Space  (small ship in the bottom right bottom right, left of the big purple-ish space ship from Sins of a Solar Empire)
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Sander Rossel wrote: Dr. Who
How would you measure the TARDIS? Would you measure the outside, or the inside?
"These people looked deep within my soul and assigned me a number based on the order in which I joined."
- Homer
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Dr. Who is among the 90% I haven't seen 
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To the best my eyes can see, there is no TARDIS. There are other Dr. Who ships like "Judoon rocket" and "SS Madame de Pompadour", but no TARDIS. The scale of the image might explain that: 1pixel = 10m, so the outside of TARDIS would be less than a pixel. But we all know it's bigger on the inside.
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I have the strangest urge to give you a wedgie and stuff you in a locker after reading that.
Check out my IoT graphics library here:
https://honeythecodewitch.com/gfx
And my IoT UI/User Experience library here:
https://honeythecodewitch.com/uix
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Luckily, I've always been cool enough (though probably just barely) to have never received a wedgie or be stuffed in a locker
You're welcome to try, but I'd just scare you off with the power of curly-braced single-line if-statements 
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Hey now, I don't necessarily give into every errant urge that comes on. 
True story, my first Halloween at Microsoft I showed up and thought I wound up at a Star Trek convention.
They'd improve developer productivity dramatically if they'd localize Visual Studio to Klingon.
Check out my IoT graphics library here:
https://honeythecodewitch.com/gfx
And my IoT UI/User Experience library here:
https://honeythecodewitch.com/uix
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