[averynicepen]

I bristled at the title, article contents, and their spreadsheet example, but this does actually touch on a real paint point that I have had - how do you enable power users to learn more powerful tools already present in the software? By corollary, how do you turn more casual users into power users?

I do a lot of CAD. Every single keyboard shortcut I know was learned only because I needed to do something that was either *highly repetitive* or *highly frustrating*, leading me to dig into Google and find the fast way to do it.

However, everything that is only moderately repetitive/frustrating and below is still being done the simple way. And I've used these programs for years.

I have always dreamed of user interfaces having competent, contextual user tutorials that space out learning about advanced and useful features over the entire duration that you use. Video games do this process well, having long since replaced singular "tutorial sections" with a stepped gameplay mechanic rollout that gradually teaches people incredibly complex game mechanics over time.

A simple example to counter the auto-configuration interpretation most of the other commenters are thinking of. In a toolbar dropdown, highlight all the features I already know how to use regularly. When you detect me trying to learn a new feature, help me find it, highlight it in a "currently learning" color, and slowly change the highlight color to "learned" in proportion to my muscle memory.

[DaiPlusPlus]

> how do you enable power users to learn more powerful tools already present in the software?

On-the-job-training, honestly; like we've been doing for decades, restated as:

Employer-mandated required training in ${Product} competence: consisting of a "proper" guided introduction to the advanced and undiscovered features of a product combined with a proficiency examination where the end-user must demonstrate both understanding a feature, and actually using it.

(With the obvious caveat the you'll probably want to cut-off Internet access during the exam part to avoid people delegating their thinking to an LLM again; or mindlessly following someone else's instructions in-general)

My pet example is when ("normal") people are using MS Word when they don't understand how defined-styles work, and instead treat everything in Word as a very literal 1:1 WYSIWYG, so to "make a heading" they'll select a line of text, then manually set the font, size, and alignment (bonus points if they think Underlining text for emphasis is ever appropriate typography (it isn't)), and they probably think there's nothing more to learn. I'll bet that someone like that is never going to explore and understand the Styles system on their own volition (they're here to do a job, not to spontaneously decide to want to learn Word inside out, even on company time).

Separately, there are things like "onboarding popups" you see in web-applications thesedays, where users are prompted to learn about new and underused features, but I feel they're ineffective or user-hostile because those popups only appear when users are trying to use the software for something else, so they'll ignore or dismiss them, never to be seen again.

> By corollary, how do you turn more casual users into power users?

Unfortunately for our purposes, autism isn't transmissible.

[itishappy]

> When you detect me trying to learn a new feature, help me find it...

"It looks like you're trying to learn a new feature. Would you like help?"

I miss Clippy.

[grouchy]

Clippy!

[grouchy]

The gamelike progressive tutorial idea is interesting. But games have a fixed learning path. Professional tools don't generally have that linearity.

Doesn't that suggest the "curriculum" has to be personalized? And if it's personalized, aren't we back to something generative?

[averynicepen]

Yes, and that's the point. In my opinion, this is the perfect use case for generative AI, one that takes advantage of the strengths of the technology while avoiding its weaknesses.

The generative UI example in the article is an example of the complete opposite of this idea - obtuse implementation of generative AI where it creates more problems than solutions. Yes, there is value in the idea of personalized UI. But UI/UX derives a lot of its value from consistency, as the other comments in this thread have mentioned. Losing that in exchange for personalization is a huge net negative, in my opinion.

[Arainach]

Generative UI is incompatible with learning. It means every user sees something different, so you can't watch a tutorial or have a coworker show you what they do or have tech support send you a screenshot.

The solution could be search. It's not a House of Leaves.

[cheschire]

I break out blender every six months or so in order to create a model for 3d printing. It needs to be precise and often has threads or other repetitive structures.

Every. Single. Time. I spend at least the first 3 hours relearning how to use all the tools again with Claude reminding me where modifiers are, and which modifier allows what. And which hotkey slices. Etc etc.

[grouchy]

I guess what if you had Claude in the app, and it didn't just tell you what to do, it could even surface ephemeral UI for each task?

This is really what generative UI would enable.