I have this saying I like to repeat to myself a lot when it comes to software development. "don't lie to your users"
It sounds obvious but so many developers don't get it, or at least don't see the whole picture and there is a moment in this podcast that illustrates my point perfectly.
At 42:00 Chris looks down at the recording software and it says "connection unstable". he gets upset, and starts asking why and how the connection could be unstable but because the software cant talk back it never answers his question... Obviously we don't want software to talk (yet) but my point is that it notified him that it detected an issue but refused (lied) to tell him the reason why, or how it detected the issue.
Was the connection unstable because it lost 50% of packets? is the latency over 5 seconds? is the recording software lagging due to CPU?
The software *knows* the issue, otherwise it couldn't have detected it. but the developer decided to lie to the user. probably because they thought the user wouldn't understand. but this just leaves the user in the dark and easily frustrated which leads to them quickly loosing confidence in your software.
Don't lie to your users, if there is an issue tell them about it and what it is. even if they don't understand at least you will still have a user.
Video link with time: https://blossom.primal.net/979bf277264f6c42a99be43a33ade167e2711f103247ee243653f1ebd3dcec8d.mp4#t=2520
P.S. nostr:npub1dtf79g6grzc48jqlfrzc7389rx08kn7gm03hsy9qqrww8jgtwaqq64hgu0 might be better to use OBS to record long podcast (vlogs) then some internet connected thing. but idk, I don't vlog :)
Many people are scared to show "complex errors" to users and default to generic messages. When I was working as a PM I remember having a meeting where UX designers insisted that it's a better user experience.
I never agreed; at the time I thought I was wrong, afterall they've been doing UX for a long time, now I'm not so sure.
It’s not an issue with design. A good error could explain the problem without spitting out the full console style error, BUT it should also give you a path to see the full error and a way to remedy it.
