The easiest way to describe what I'm about to "say" is an example.
I recently bought a new VR headset, the HP Reverb G2. I'm pretty much a happy camper, but once in a while, I have noticed that the sound switched to my desktop speakers or that the headset went black for a couple of seconds. Why? Now, for someone who is just another consumer, that is a good question.
However, I have been writing code since 1978, and I have built quite a few PCs along the way, so I tried to google "reverb g2 switch sound black display" and found a couple of threads at Reddit where the problem seemed to be very common. After reading roughly the same amount of text as the Bible, I ended up finding someone who suggested updating the firmware. The headset is two weeks old, but I know.
I tried googling that, and after being sent around the whole internet a couple of times, I finally found a web page where I could download a new firmware. At this point most of my friends would have given up ages ago, but being the nerd that I am, I was stubborn.
The software I downloaded was an exe file, which would also scare some of my friends, but I double clicked it and nothing happened for a while. Then I double clicked it again, and this time I had an error message, which I after more googling found out was a good sign that I was now running the latest firmware. No warning about not turning anything off or keeping the headset plugged in. It did fix my problem, but what if my mother had tried something similar? That would probably have bricked the headset in a split second.
Some years ago I used to work with SGI computers running Unix/Linux and a software package (Inferno) that was pretty much an advanced version of Adobe After Effects, except this one was roughly a million $. At one time this giant and extremely expensive machine turned out not to be able to colorgrade a 45 min video I was working on ("It was made for doing commercials"), so instead I took a Mac that the customers used for checking their mail and installed Final Cut. That worked!
The first week I almost couldn't work though, because I went "Yes! How hard does it have to be?" all the time, and raised my hands above my head in triumph. The Mac was intuitive and very easy to use, and on top of that it did the job. Why didn't any other computer / software work like this?
I spoke to a colleague, who said: "When you use a computer, it's your responsibility to learn stuff", and then he continued telling about how easy it was to open a shell and write some cryptic syntax. "Or", i said "you could just have a checkbox, with an informative text, popping up when you need it". Any computer or other thingie I buy, I buy to make my life easier. It's a tool, like a hammer or a driller.
My LG washing machine has Wifi (for what?), but figuring out how to centrifuge, without washing the clothes one more time, is quite a challenge for any hacker, not being helped by the dark grey text an a black background.
Even in Elite Dangerous you stumble upon menu items that makes absolutely no sense to most people. Yes, I know what volumetric effects do, or what ambient occlusion is, but that's only because I've worked with CGI for decades. Some of the graphics settings in ED is 100% gibberish.
My point: You need to remember that most of the people using your code or whatever are not developers. One of my friends doesn't know how to copy or move a file, and he calls Chrome "The Internet". If you use the word "file" or "browser", you will see him freeze like a robot running out of battery, and something sounding like a 1 kHz sine wave comes out of his ears. It's that kind of people that use your software.
Please, use a little more time and effort to make it user friendly. You don't know how much people would appreciate it
I recently bought a new VR headset, the HP Reverb G2. I'm pretty much a happy camper, but once in a while, I have noticed that the sound switched to my desktop speakers or that the headset went black for a couple of seconds. Why? Now, for someone who is just another consumer, that is a good question.
However, I have been writing code since 1978, and I have built quite a few PCs along the way, so I tried to google "reverb g2 switch sound black display" and found a couple of threads at Reddit where the problem seemed to be very common. After reading roughly the same amount of text as the Bible, I ended up finding someone who suggested updating the firmware. The headset is two weeks old, but I know.
I tried googling that, and after being sent around the whole internet a couple of times, I finally found a web page where I could download a new firmware. At this point most of my friends would have given up ages ago, but being the nerd that I am, I was stubborn.
The software I downloaded was an exe file, which would also scare some of my friends, but I double clicked it and nothing happened for a while. Then I double clicked it again, and this time I had an error message, which I after more googling found out was a good sign that I was now running the latest firmware. No warning about not turning anything off or keeping the headset plugged in. It did fix my problem, but what if my mother had tried something similar? That would probably have bricked the headset in a split second.
Some years ago I used to work with SGI computers running Unix/Linux and a software package (Inferno) that was pretty much an advanced version of Adobe After Effects, except this one was roughly a million $. At one time this giant and extremely expensive machine turned out not to be able to colorgrade a 45 min video I was working on ("It was made for doing commercials"), so instead I took a Mac that the customers used for checking their mail and installed Final Cut. That worked!
The first week I almost couldn't work though, because I went "Yes! How hard does it have to be?" all the time, and raised my hands above my head in triumph. The Mac was intuitive and very easy to use, and on top of that it did the job. Why didn't any other computer / software work like this?
I spoke to a colleague, who said: "When you use a computer, it's your responsibility to learn stuff", and then he continued telling about how easy it was to open a shell and write some cryptic syntax. "Or", i said "you could just have a checkbox, with an informative text, popping up when you need it". Any computer or other thingie I buy, I buy to make my life easier. It's a tool, like a hammer or a driller.
My LG washing machine has Wifi (for what?), but figuring out how to centrifuge, without washing the clothes one more time, is quite a challenge for any hacker, not being helped by the dark grey text an a black background.
Even in Elite Dangerous you stumble upon menu items that makes absolutely no sense to most people. Yes, I know what volumetric effects do, or what ambient occlusion is, but that's only because I've worked with CGI for decades. Some of the graphics settings in ED is 100% gibberish.
My point: You need to remember that most of the people using your code or whatever are not developers. One of my friends doesn't know how to copy or move a file, and he calls Chrome "The Internet". If you use the word "file" or "browser", you will see him freeze like a robot running out of battery, and something sounding like a 1 kHz sine wave comes out of his ears. It's that kind of people that use your software.
Please, use a little more time and effort to make it user friendly. You don't know how much people would appreciate it
Why? Why didn't Asus just rename the bloody file themselves?!?!?
What does "enter BIOS Utility" even mean?!? How do you enter a utility? Shrink down a lot and look like a bit? Also, if it so complicated that Asus have to warn against it, why even mention it? Why don't they just make it simple and easy???