I think repeating jobs should be as easy as possible so the function should be turned on by default and it should start with just a single press of the button without any warning dialogs that have to be dismissed. A beep before proceding, and maybe a short pause after the head moves to the position of the first cut (long enough to allow the user to lift the lid to cancel the job in case they somehow managed to start it accidentally) would be OK though, IMO.
Basically, my opinion is that people can learn how the machine works and adding a bunch of extra stuff will just make it take longer 99% of the time. Learning that “pressing the glowing button makes the machine go” is pretty simple. The 1% of the time when the machine is being used by someone who hasn’t learned how the machine works, that person will probably be being extra careful. It’s hard to imagine what they might think pressing the glowing button will do, but once the fans start whirring more loudly and the head starts moving, they’re likely to figure it out pretty quickly. And if they don’t figure it out, the worst that will happen is the machine will start running (and possibly finish) running the previous job - something that might waste some material.
If an inexperienced user has put some rare material into their laser cutter, or if they put their new Macbook in there, one would hope that they would be extra, extra careful and not just start pressing the pretty button willy-nilly. I do feel sorry for the Glowforge support person who will inevitably have to deal with this (hopefully) exceptionally uncommon occurrance though. “All I did was put my priceless painting into my laser cutter, close the lid, and press the enticing button. It’s YOUR fault.”
The UI should have an option to clear the Glowforge’s memory so households with kids don’t have to worry about them starting a machine if it’s left unsupervised. This would also be handy for people who are worried about their designs being cut without permission. Maybe pressing the button while the lid is up can initiate the memery wipe. (Someone pressing the button while it’s not glowing because the lid is up prolly means they don’t know what they’re doing (so protecting them from themselves might be a good idea), aren’t being careful (ditto), or they actually want the memory cleared.)
I’d bet that the vast majority of jobs are done once, not multiple times. So your 99% number is a few percent.
This is a laser we’re talking about, not an inkjet printer. And we all know people don’t read manuals. Setting the defaults in such a way that accidental reprints are unlikely is a good idea. I can see an argument for single-press reprints (though I currently disagree), but I don’t think reprints on by default for everyone is a good idea.
I understood that. I was just clarifying why I felt the option should be off by default (but that there should be a preference setting to change that)
UX design always needs to respond to actual user needs, situations, and experiences. That’s why I wrote “currently” on single-press reprints, because additional information might cause me to change my mind. But I probably won’t change my mind on an option (the default) that is easy to change and will be used by a minority of people. I’ll give you an example of a change I made a while back. In a login screen, initially I had a Keep Me Signed In button that was on by default. Since almost everybody wanted this option turned on, it made sense. But actual experience changed my mind. 1) Those people who wanted it turned on only had to turn it on a single time and then never touch it again while those people signing in to, say, a shared computer, had to remember to turn it off every time or they would have problems; 2) Support people needed to do sign ins at times. These people had to turn off the option off every time which was annoying and easy to forget. In the end, I changed it so that the majority of people didn’t get the default they probably wanted but nobody complained, and the majority of actual uses (not users) got the default that worked better for them. Had I not looked at the totality of uses, I would not have understood this.
Of course, ultimately, the Glowforge people need to decide if this feature is a priority and, if so, how they’ll do it.
I’d say either way would be OK, but you’re right that starting with it “off” by default would be easy enough to change.
My Trotec has a repeat function in it and, so far as I know, it can’t be turned off. If you hit one of the buttons, I believe the symbol looks like a “return” symbol ( <┘ ) it’ll start cutting the last job. It’s easy enough for me to avoid pressing that button unless I’m ready to run the job again.
My Trotec has a repeat function in it and, so far as I know, it can’t be turned off. If you hit one of the buttons, I believe the symbol looks like a “return” symbol ( <┘ ) it’ll start cutting the last job.
Yes, if the GF had multiple buttons, then “always on” would be great. Since there’s only one button, and repeating the previous job would suck if done by accident, it should either be off by default, or triggered by something hard to do by accident, such as a long button presss…