Sun, 12 Jun 2005
Design Mistakes -- xinetd and crucial.com
Twice today I've suddenly stopped what I was doing and thought, they must
have set out to make this awkward... The first incident was also the
simplest one, in xinetd config files you'll often find "disable = yes".
Firstly this is insane because you should assume something's off and people
will turn it on if they want it. This is a basic principle that should be
stuck to. Secondly the option is strange to read. "enable = yes" or better
"enable = true" is much easier to mentally parse than "disable = yes".
The second one annoys me as it's a step backwards, Crucial UK have a memory selection tool that tells you how much memory your laptop can take. In the past it'd present all the options and highlight one in yellow as a recommendation. I used it every six months and it was simple, intuitive and consistent.
Today I went to buy some memory for an Inspiron 5160 (which has the backspace key one row in and is driving me nuts!). In order to make the "experience" simpler for the less willing to actually read the page buyers they've changed to only offering one on the initial page and hiding the others behind the "All memory upgrades" tab. They almost missed out on my custom as I want 2 1GB chips and the name of the tab distracted me. While I'd like it to all be put back on the same page if they won't do this then maybe they'll rename it, "all upgrades for selected model" perhaps?
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Posted: 2005/06/12 16:21 | /misctech | Permanent link to this entry | This entry + same date
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