“Show me the thing I was JUST looking at” is one of the most pervasive UX fails in modern computing send post
- Post scrolls out of view
- Notification vanishes
- Video autoplays into oblivion
- Hero carousels into oblivion
- Modal popup hides content mid-scroll
- Search gives different results for same input
- Search results update mid-click
- Second alert hides first alert
- “Continue watching” nowhere to be found
- Web page breaks the back button
- Android back button is •always• broken
- iOS doesn’t have a back button
- etc etc etc
SHOW ME THE THING I WAS ••JUST•• LOOKING AT
(And no, this is not a request for Windows Recall, that’s like fixing a burst water main by trying to stuff a giant bucket underneath the house’s foundation)
Several replies about saving and restoring state at some platform level, and yeah, sure, that’s one part of this idea and interesting — but what I’m talking about is at least as much “Leave things where I left them!” as it is about restoring past state.
Like…I leave a messy pile of papers on my desk, but it’s •my• mess. I want my computer to be at least as predictable as my paper pile.
Using modern software is like trying to flip through one of those giant old-school paper encyclopedias with two toddlers who missed their naps and a cat all in my lap.
ME: Ah! Here’s the…
TODDLER 1: [flips to a different random page]
TODDLER 2: I’m HUNGRY!!!
TODDLER 1: [rips a page out]
CAT: Here is a dead mouse I found for you [plop]
TODDLER 2: [suddenly slams book shut]
TODDLER 1: [pees pants, while climbing on my head]
@inthehands delighted to see the rant continues ;-)
@akamran
In my head? Always
@inthehands one of the biggest bummers about this is that back/forward caching in browsers has been around forever and really helps with this kind of thing, but then the JS thought leaders decided to ignore all that because using native browser features is apparently for chumps. Thus ruining web UI forever after.