Gosh, yes, I find this style of obtuse labeling of buttons to be really annoying. It's especially prevalent when you're trying to get to API docs on some new framework you're checking out. Like, don't tell me I want to get started. Take me to the docs so I can decide if it's worth my time.<p>On reflection, this progression from <i>function</i> to <i>call to action</i> to <i>obfuscated self-help-ish verbiage</i> seems more like a general trend in marketing at all levels. Obviously, it must work in A/B testing, but I'm not sure it works in the general case. Here in the 2020s I think it serves as a kind of regurgitation of 1960s argle-bargle that's a callback to what's embedded in the brains of the children of boomers who picked up their parents' linguistic preference for out-there-isms to describe sensations of freedom from the old rigid hierarchies of the 1950s. So it's an appeal to nostalgia as much as a form of vaguely insulting corporate-speak.
Sometimes, when faced with button choices "OK" and "Maybe Later", I open devtools and relabel the latter to "Fuck off" before clicking on it. I used to think it futile, but now I understand that this allows me to dismiss the modal without myself being pushed by a button.
I don't buy the politically laden, existentially fraught spin being sold here....<p><i>"Users have to accept the spelled out mantra and change their attitude before accessing the next piece of information."</i><p><i>"The user should transform themselves into a “doer,” rather than being considerate, evaluating options"</i><p><i>"Before proceeding, users should identify with this new aristocratic class."</i><p>C'mon. It's just a way to visually emphasize an important next step.<p>Is the text sometimes self-indulgent and annoying? Yeah, it's marketing copy. That's nothing new.
Ah yes. This is one of the marvels of having browser APIs that want to give you (almost) complete control over the machine, and let you do (almost) anything...<p>Upside: You can do almost anything.<p>Downside: You have to manage (almost) everything yourself.<p>Downside: It lets other people do real dumb/annoying/inconvenient/stupid things, and you get to deal with the result.
> BPY represents a shift to turning user interfaces into a decision theatre that, by redefining long established elements, tricks users into performing work for the system they’re using.<p>Spot on.<p>A good example is Credit Karma UK's email alerts for credit score rise or fall, offering a button "Find out why". A click doesn't find out why. It lands you on a page of credit record info which might allow you to find out why, with considerable work and upsell-dodging.<p>As here, much BPY is simply false advertising at the UI core.
A particularly intriguing (to me) version of this kind of
user-centered copy is not uncommon on sites in French and uses first-person verbs: “I accept,” “I start”. As opposed to the infinitive “Comment,” “Sign in,” etc.
<i>tricks users into performing work for the system they’re using.</i><p>Yeah, I mean we have been doing work for these systems. We’re all basically data entry for a giant database that ends up I suppose getting mined for value and maybe producing AI.<p>That was Larry pages Initial goal with Google anyway, his goal was to create an AI not a search engine, and the search engine was simply a means to that, I feel sad for him as seems like openai got there first.