gemini://jacksonchen666.com/posts/2023-10-18/19-50-24/index.gmi

2023-10-18 19:50:24Z (last updated 2023-10-19 10:40:15Z)

I think there's something that's common between everyone that I've seen quite a bit in technology: Nobody reads. At least, people read, but they find the starting point too quickly, and land on the wrong starting point.

I've had times where I read something, then completely misunderstand it, proceed to continue on the basis of that misunderstanding, and then realize later that I've misunderstood the thing.

And I've thought of something: Can misreadings be attributed to incorrect/poor emphasis in the design of things?

Let's say you run into some problem with the Linux kernel. You go and report it, and then you get told to "bisect the bug" and linked to the documentation about bisecting kernel bugs.

Now, you the reader, do as I instruct before you go do it:

1. Open that page

2. Casually find the first step in the process (no looking harder or something)

3. Come back to this page

After you done that, I have a question:

What were your eyes drawn to first?

If you were drawn to the `git bisect start` command, you started on the wrong step. And I won't fault you for doing that.

There are multiple issues with that page:

The list of steps is an unordered list. This makes noticing "you're on the wrong step" harder, and has definitely lead to confusion.

The first bullet point does not stand out, but the `git bisect start` command does stand out. That's probably why your eyes was drawn to that first.

Here's my bio, roughly to how it is shown in Tusky:

> jackson ☑️

> @jacksonchen666

> word, annoy, joke, question mark

> serial bookmarker (18k), excessive screenshoter, data hoarder, computer user, self hosted server manager, minecraft accounts holder, mediocre circle clicker, fruit catcher, Phigros player...

What was your eye drawn to first?

(The rest of the bio is trimmed off, since that's not the main topic.)

If you missed "word, annoy, joke, question mark", well I wouldn't blame it on you either. I would've missed that, and in fact, I did!

There's big spacing after the display name, username, and the first line of my bio.

You might have quickly skipped to the second line of my bio ("serial bookmarker[...]") as your eyes was drawn towards that when looking for the bio, but in fact, that was not where the bio started. It was grouped with the display name and username.

The problem here is separation. There was no immediately clear separation with the names stuff from the bio. No lines, nothing. Just suddenly, bio.

Here's your goals:

1. Find the "Permalink" link

2. Find the "Summary" link

3. Find the owner of the git repository ("~jacksonchen666")

4. Find line 4 of the file

5. Do all of the above with just your eyes

(For point 5: Sorry if you're vision impaired. I'm not sure of an alternative.)

If you're ready, you can head to the .gitignore file for my website, do all of those, and try timing yourself (in your head is fine too).

After you done that, here's my question: How fast/easy was that?

Did you have to look at the entire page for a specific thing, or did you hit the right thing very quickly?

If you're not used to looking at sourcehut pages, you may had to take some more time to search the page. If you use sourcehut quite a bit though, you would know where you want to look for what you want, and you would do that with minimal error and quickly.

When emphasis on certain elements are considered, it can be easier to find things, or there wouldn't be any issues with finding things.

I've explored some stuff where people can get confused on where the "starting point" is at. I also shown sourcehut and how it tries to not be too confusing, and easy to find the things you want.

If you only read the start of paragraphs of this blog post, then you might've missed a lot. That kind of misreading is not included, only "oh wait, I looked at the wrong thing" kind of thing.

Starting at the Wrong Place

Finding a kernel bug

Finding the first line of my bio

SourceHut

Conclusion