TUIs are great for experienced users, but are terrible for inexperienced users.
A good example of where a simple GUI is useful is POS systems. Sure, you could use a TUI, but you'd have to train every 16 year old kid who works for you for 2 weeks over summer, which is going to cost you.
On the other hand, I've noticed that airlines still use a terminal emulator for their booking and check in system. They're amazingly fast at using it, most of the commands are 1 or 2 letters. But you're dealing with a smaller group of trained and skilled employees, with a much lower turnover and a much higher overall training requirement.
There's probably also legacy reasons why airlines use a TUI, but it seems that the staff never have any issues using it, I've never seen them having to consult a manual.
I developed POS systems for a friend who starts and runs places (restaurant-bars) that are the most successful in the region; always packed, making him pure gold. He insists on never hiring '16 year old kids during the summer' but rather have his decades long trained staff move from old to new place to properly train the new staff there. The system we made for him was absolutely optimized for hitting the screen as little and as fast as possible per order. This made it unusable for beginners however he argues he made a lot more money because of it: no queues at ordering so no risk of people walking away bored (this is very common with people who are not usual bar goers), less error prone etc.
If everything is ran like a gig economy then simple and wizard like interfaces are a must but for long running companies with long term staff it probably will show less efficient over time although no one will probably measure that in most companies.
A lot of projects we did were web interfaces on top of DOS or terminal projects; usually the companies did not want to replace the legacy because their seasoned employees who basically made all the money for them were very used to the old system. But now short term hires could do some specific tasks as well via the web interface.
If you put a number next to the on screen menu, and a small keypad below the screen, they can use the screen in the beginning and naturally start using the keypad to speed up orders over time. They'll teach themselves because in crunch time they'll want to become faster so they can get more orders to make more tips, etc
No, I did not say that. I said that there are plenty of cases in which those less intuitive interfaces + a bit of training pays off. I even added an example where we built intuitive web interfaces on top of DOS/terminal programs to make them more accessible for 'new people'. Nothing wrong with it, just wanted to provide a case (mentioned by the parent) where a company makes significant profits because of a faster workflow with a hard to use (for beginners) interface.
My local (tiny) bank went from TUI->GUI->TUI because the, again decade long employees who train their colleagues and follow ups, found it awfully inefficient with all the wizards and forms spread out over multiple pages and design elements where more option buttons could have been. It's not a contest either; for most cases a carefully crafted GUI works better; in some cases, a TUI or very dense (considered ugly) GUI works better. I miss the Expert Mode button in web applications.
TUIs suffer from a lack of discoverability, I have to type in "help" or look up the man page to actually figure out how to do anything.
Put me in front of an airline booking system, and I'm going to be completely lost. Put me in front of a computer opened to an airlines website, and I can probably figure out how to order myself some tickets.
Not always true. "Type customer reservation number" is very discoverable.
A car dashboard has little text but there is no way to guess the meaning of some engine failure LEDs if you have never seen a car before.
It's about usability design. The airline website has been carefully designed to guide inexperienced users.
In the same way TUI can have guided "conversations" that are often easier for complete beginners, and become less verbose over time, as needed.
Back in my cashier days all the registers had 2x40 char LCD screens and that was it. Training was all of two days, and most of that was loss prevention and how to bag properly.
TUIs are great for experienced users, but are terrible for inexperienced users.
For most users in a professional setting, they will spend far more time as an experienced user than they will as an inexperienced user. Why optimize to the first 6 months or so of a persons job, when they might work there for years, or even decades?
Because some jobs have an average turnover <6 months, so it makes sense to optimise those first months.
Apart from low skill jobs, there's also seasonal work. For example fruit picking and packing. There's only 1 or 2 months a year that they're operational, so it makes sense to optimise those systems for inexperienced users.
Sure, there will be some who work every year for decades, but there will also be a lot of seasonal workers who only ever work one or two seasons.
Comments
TUIs are great for experienced users, but are terrible for inexperienced users.
A good example of where a simple GUI is useful is POS systems. Sure, you could use a TUI, but you'd have to train every 16 year old kid who works for you for 2 weeks over summer, which is going to cost you.
On the other hand, I've noticed that airlines still use a terminal emulator for their booking and check in system. They're amazingly fast at using it, most of the commands are 1 or 2 letters. But you're dealing with a smaller group of trained and skilled employees, with a much lower turnover and a much higher overall training requirement.
There's probably also legacy reasons why airlines use a TUI, but it seems that the staff never have any issues using it, I've never seen them having to consult a manual.
I developed POS systems for a friend who starts and runs places (restaurant-bars) that are the most successful in the region; always packed, making him pure gold. He insists on never hiring '16 year old kids during the summer' but rather have his decades long trained staff move from old to new place to properly train the new staff there. The system we made for him was absolutely optimized for hitting the screen as little and as fast as possible per order. This made it unusable for beginners however he argues he made a lot more money because of it: no queues at ordering so no risk of people walking away bored (this is very common with people who are not usual bar goers), less error prone etc.
If everything is ran like a gig economy then simple and wizard like interfaces are a must but for long running companies with long term staff it probably will show less efficient over time although no one will probably measure that in most companies.
A lot of projects we did were web interfaces on top of DOS or terminal projects; usually the companies did not want to replace the legacy because their seasoned employees who basically made all the money for them were very used to the old system. But now short term hires could do some specific tasks as well via the web interface.
Unfortunately, as a company developing POS systems, you can't just tell your customers that.
You're right on the minimal taps thing though. It shouldn't take more than 3 taps to send a basic order through (e.g. a beer).
If you put a number next to the on screen menu, and a small keypad below the screen, they can use the screen in the beginning and naturally start using the keypad to speed up orders over time. They'll teach themselves because in crunch time they'll want to become faster so they can get more orders to make more tips, etc
Expert mode. Most applications would do well with that.
Well, in this case, he ordered a custom made POS for all his bars/restaurants. So it was a specific case.
So the solution is for everyone to hire decades-trained staff?
No, I did not say that. I said that there are plenty of cases in which those less intuitive interfaces + a bit of training pays off. I even added an example where we built intuitive web interfaces on top of DOS/terminal programs to make them more accessible for 'new people'. Nothing wrong with it, just wanted to provide a case (mentioned by the parent) where a company makes significant profits because of a faster workflow with a hard to use (for beginners) interface.
My local (tiny) bank went from TUI->GUI->TUI because the, again decade long employees who train their colleagues and follow ups, found it awfully inefficient with all the wizards and forms spread out over multiple pages and design elements where more option buttons could have been. It's not a contest either; for most cases a carefully crafted GUI works better; in some cases, a TUI or very dense (considered ugly) GUI works better. I miss the Expert Mode button in web applications.
Hiring decades-trained staff is often a good idea.
Usability research proved this to be false again and again but unfortunately text is not showy enough.
TUIs suffer from a lack of discoverability, I have to type in "help" or look up the man page to actually figure out how to do anything.
Put me in front of an airline booking system, and I'm going to be completely lost. Put me in front of a computer opened to an airlines website, and I can probably figure out how to order myself some tickets.
Not always true. "Type customer reservation number" is very discoverable. A car dashboard has little text but there is no way to guess the meaning of some engine failure LEDs if you have never seen a car before.
It's about usability design. The airline website has been carefully designed to guide inexperienced users.
In the same way TUI can have guided "conversations" that are often easier for complete beginners, and become less verbose over time, as needed.
TUIs require training. After training they are often very fast to use.
They are probably talking about what TUIs get with replaced with in practice, rather than an optimum replacement GUI.
I'd love to see this research. I've wondered about it myself
Back in my cashier days all the registers had 2x40 char LCD screens and that was it. Training was all of two days, and most of that was loss prevention and how to bag properly.
For most users in a professional setting, they will spend far more time as an experienced user than they will as an inexperienced user. Why optimize to the first 6 months or so of a persons job, when they might work there for years, or even decades?
Because some jobs have an average turnover <6 months, so it makes sense to optimise those first months.
Apart from low skill jobs, there's also seasonal work. For example fruit picking and packing. There's only 1 or 2 months a year that they're operational, so it makes sense to optimise those systems for inexperienced users.
Sure, there will be some who work every year for decades, but there will also be a lot of seasonal workers who only ever work one or two seasons.