I found Pogue's hyperventilation over Follow a bit bizarre as well. Did he really not understand the concept (which was borrowed) or was he playing Devil's Advocate for mass consumption? Or did he simply find following people in a Q&A site an odd mix? Following questions and topics makes perfect sense to me.
"...the only question I have for Quora is, “Why not make this thing easier for normal people to figure out?”"
Other than the Question/Search box (which at first I found confusing because it was, well, rather innovative), maybe he'd like a bit more user messaging each step of the way to put his mind at ease.
I wonder how feels when he opens the box to his new Mac/iPhone/iPod/etc. each year without any instruction manuals?
I'll preface this with a mention that I haven't taken the time to check out Quora yet. The only interaction I've had is to read the occasional answer someone links on twitter.
> Following questions and topics makes perfect sense to me.
But he didn't mention questions as a source of confusion. Those would be almost understandable (new message for new answer). As to topics, is it new questions, new answers? What type of events trigger a notification in my Quora stream? As to following users its the same question, what events trigger a notification?
For things like twitter its fairly straight forward to the point that normal people look at you funny. "Why would I want to know what someone had for breakfast?" is a perfect example of great UI (though, perhaps a deficit in marketing). The reason its great is that the entire system is easily and directly communicable to non-techies. The "What are you doing right now?" (which I just noticed is now "What's happening?") is such a simple thing that most people don't realize that its an example of genius UI.
I have just formulated a theory that technical folks are at a disadvantage for identifying and creating a great UI experience. A stereo type of technical folks is that they like to solve puzzles. So a UI that presents tiny puzzles in the form of "What do you suppose this does?" are like tiny injections of happy directly into the blood stream. So if the annoyances are unnoticeable they can be a good thing.
The fact that you switched from "confusing" to "innovative" means that while they may have a good idea hidden in that particular UI device, it is not good UI because it requires the user to figure it out. Good UI is not something you figure out. Good UI is "I know what this is and what it will do without ever having seen or used it before."
"...the only question I have for Quora is, “Why not make this thing easier for normal people to figure out?”"
Other than the Question/Search box (which at first I found confusing because it was, well, rather innovative), maybe he'd like a bit more user messaging each step of the way to put his mind at ease.
I wonder how feels when he opens the box to his new Mac/iPhone/iPod/etc. each year without any instruction manuals?