This reminds me of those older systems that had a learning curve, where employees were trained in them, but they were efficient to use. Navigation was all keyboard-based, making extensive use of the function keys. You'd be talking to an employee and while they were using the system, they'd be confident and hitting all kinds of memorized keys to jump around and look up parts or orders or whatever. As those systems get replaced with more "intuitive" web-based UIs, where navigation is done with a mouse, and they are sold with the prospect that there isn't much of a learning curve, it seems there are more folks that don't get to that level of confidence and efficiency. Maybe it's due to lack of training, or the software isn't designed for efficient use, or web-based UIs tending to change more frequently, or the backend systems being less responsive and reliable... I'm not sure. But it sure feels like I encounter more people saying "well the system isn't doing what I want it to do today" or "let me just figure this out I'm not seeing it here". I like seeing software empower people, not make them feel inferior, so hopefully it's a temporary trend. Or maybe my view is just skewed through the lens of nostalgia. I hope I never see the day when grocery store checkers have to fumble through an ill thought out web-based UI...
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