A design I didn't write

Описание и применение

Пользователи использовали интерфейс перевода для классификации и извлечения данных, показывая, что жесткая структура продукта ограничивала гибкость. Удаление искусственных границ улучшило опыт.

Задача

Customers used the translation interface to perform classification and extraction tasks, revealing that the product’s internal mapping of capabilities was too rigid.

Результат

The product’s rigid UI mapping limited user flexibility; removing the artificial boundaries allowed customers to use the engine more naturally, improving usability.

Рабочий процесс

• 1. Customer pasted a spreadsheet column into the translation box. 2. They entered an instruction to categorize each row. 3. The engine returned labels for each row. 4. The customer copied the results into the next column. 5. The author realized the translation box was being used for extraction.
• 6. The author offered an API to streamline the workflow. 7. Customers rejected the API, preferring the existing copy‑paste method. 8. The author acknowledged that the internal walls were unnecessary and removed them.

Доказательства

They had a spreadsheet — thousands of rows of text in a single column. They pasted it into the translation box and, instead of asking for another language or another voice, typed an instruction to categorize each row.

Источник

I laughed when I saw it. Then I stopped laughing, because it was exactly the job I'd built the other tool for — and they'd done it in the translation box, without ever opening the room I'd furnished for precisely this.

Источник

They didn't want it. The current shape was best, they said — and they were right, the same way they'd been right about the box.

Источник