YHK - yet another hacker news clone

"The only intuitive interface is the nipple" (2012)

14 points ibobev 57 minutes ago 14 comments

gdubicki 43 minutes ago | parent

So, also the TrackPoint.

dang 39 minutes ago | parent

One past thread - I dare not look for others:

Is it true that “the only ”intuitive“ interface is the nipple”? - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4412372 - Aug 2012 (23 comments)

snarky-comments 31 minutes ago | parent

This might nicely augment the usual keyboard + mouse UI.

mcphage 31 minutes ago | parent

This was something that I believed until I had kids. It turns out, even the nipple isn't fully intuitive—some babies struggle to breastfeed, and have to be taught how to do it properly.

copperx 27 minutes ago | parent

But for some, it is.

JohnFen 11 minutes ago | parent

Babies have a reflex (not even an instinct) to do it, but that reflex only works well if conditions are pretty close to ideal. Outside of the sweet spot, there can be all sorts of difficulties. That's the nature of reflexes.

Using a nipple isn't really intuitive. It's learned.

beloch 29 minutes ago | parent

I remember hearing this quote from a HCI prof in the late 90's. I repeated this to a person who was in nursing, and they replied that helping babies figure out nipples (i.e. "latching") is actually a common problem for new mothers[1].

It's worth considering that survivor bias plays a role in the perceived intuitiveness of nipples.

___________

[1]https://breastfeeding.support/when-baby-wont-breastfeed/

sublinear 25 minutes ago | parent

What's considered intuitive isn't intrinsic to the design. It's always relative to the previous preferred design, and there is no known base case to anchor onto.

The nipple comes well after lots of crying and grasping for other things, but why would first experiences have anything to do with best experiences anyway?

I think most designers are deeply aware of this already, so why do we keep talking about design this way?

waterheater 16 minutes ago | parent

As a dad, I think nipple detection is hardwired, but latching might take some work. Two additional considerations are user interface scaling and whether or not the backend is online.

Breast Tech (Boob Tech? Breast-Computer Interface?) is amazing. We now have wireless, heated, smart breast pumps (https://www.eufy.com/collections/breast-pump), which women from days of yore (aka 25 years ago) could have only dreamed.

gregw2 14 minutes ago | parent

Yeah, this is one of those quotes that is cute/clever... until you have kids and learn or experience how common 'latching' problems are.

It's pretty distressing to watch the desperation and the struggle of a baby screaming and a mom trying but unable to feed her baby.

Then the quote sort of turns from clever into a sign of a bit of real-life ignorance.

stvltvs 6 minutes ago | parent

There's a deeply ingrained mythos around how natural and easy motherhood is, but in nature, a lot of first time mothers are rather mediocre. It takes a while learn how to do all those "natural" things like nursing the baby.

And let's not forget that babies kinda suck (intended) at doing "natural" things too.

SubGenius 11 minutes ago | parent

Robert Anton Wilson's Prometheus Rising (1983) mentions a variation of the same idea:

Any mammal hooks the bio-survival circuit to the first imprinted bio-survival object: the teat...

deadbabe 9 minutes ago | parent

It is definitely not the only intuitive interface if you’re talking about bodies.

JohnFen 2 minutes ago | parent

What's "intuitive" really just boils down to "what you're used to".