If you have two folders open in Microsoft Windows, and drag an item from one to the other... there are 3 possible actions (as of a decade ago) that might happen according to an set of rules the user can't be expected to know....
It might copy the file
it might create a shortcut to the file
it might move the file
This is just a tiny example of the inconsistency of one of the oldest and most stable parts of the UI on a desktop. To coounteract this, I always taught about right-click and drag/drop to actively select which was to happen.
Throw in a phone, or the internet, and the UI de jure force through the web... how dare they cast aspersions on the users.... it's not their fault.
That's fair to say! But I think the takeaway is less about "who is to blame" and more about "what should you ask of users?" No matter what the precise cause, most users will struggle to do anything complex, and you should design your products wi†h that understanding.
>according to an set of rules the user can't be expected to know
This is consistent, it's just never properly communicated. If the source and destination are on the same drive, dragging executes a move by default; if the source and destination are on different drives, dragging makes a copy by default.
macOS has this problem too, where you just flat out can't cut/copy/move files with the same shortcuts and verbiage you'd use for text (or the option in the menu is greyed out for no reason).
Up until about 2010, this was basic user knowledge. That's like asking 'what's a web browser' which, ironically, in 1995 more people would have known what a drive was than a web browser.
If you have two folders open in Microsoft Windows, and drag an item from one to the other... there are 3 possible actions (as of a decade ago) that might happen according to an set of rules the user can't be expected to know....
It might copy the file
it might create a shortcut to the file
it might move the file
This is just a tiny example of the inconsistency of one of the oldest and most stable parts of the UI on a desktop. To coounteract this, I always taught about right-click and drag/drop to actively select which was to happen.
Throw in a phone, or the internet, and the UI de jure force through the web... how dare they cast aspersions on the users.... it's not their fault.