topic Re: Why is ArcGIS Pro so hard to learn? in ArcGIS Pro Questions

Why is ArcGIS Pro so hard to learn?

Anonymous User — Fri, 29 Jul 2022 21:36:53 GMT

Hello everyone,

So this isn't meant to be a rant...I'm honestly interested in this from a quasi-scientific - how our brains work angle. I have been using ArcGIS Pro for a year and a half now. I'm an "old" (aged 40) ArcMap user. I do not have time to do Esri trainings to learn Pro - I have work to do. So I jumped in with no training and learn as I go. Many of you are probably similar. So my question to you is - why is ArcGIS Pro so hard to learn?

Here's today's example - open a style set and sort the items in the style set alphabetically by name. I couldn't do this intuitively. Isn't that insane? I had to google how to sort it alphabetically. Am I just "old" and my brain doesn't work "the new way"?! 🙂 (What my brain wanted to do was right click the items and click "sort"! That must be an ArcMap thing. There is no right click sort - go ahead, try it, ha!)

Thanks all,

Andrea

Re: Why is ArcGIS Pro so hard to learn?

Brian_Wilson — Fri, 29 Jul 2022 22:04:20 GMT

It's like Mac vs Windows. Apple seems to go the extra distance. Microsoft chases Apple year after year and tries to copy features and then gets them wrong.

Microsoft and Esri seem to have a "we'll finish it later" attitude. Maybe if they turned out finished products we'd stop coming back every year for the updates?

(40 = old ha ha ha)

Re: Why is ArcGIS Pro so hard to learn?

jcarlson — Fri, 29 Jul 2022 22:10:26 GMT

Generally speaking, the more a piece of software is capable of doing, the harder it is to make it "intuitive".

For myself, Pro has not been difficult to learn, but I came into it with no ArcMap experience at all, and I only use a small subset of its features in my work. That's another sticking point for lots of folks, that the software is supposed to be able to do everything that ArcMap can, so even keeping track of what features are the same, which ones aren't in Pro, which ones have different names, and which ones have slightly different buttons or interfaces... well, it's a lot. You'd be forgiven for finding it a hard transition from software that you probably have many years of experience with. Brand new is easier to learn than a massive change from something similar.

I don't know what your workload is, but you should be open with your employer about getting time to train. If they want you to perform your best work, then they need to allocate an appropriate amount of time for you to keep up with changing technology. Basically forcing you to learn complex software as you go is bad management, in my opinion.

Oh and to your example, just click the header. Having not come from ArcMap, I didn't even think to right-click, I just always click on table headers and assume sorting will happen. So there's another example of ArcMap / ArcGIS Pro differences that are harder to change than learn from scratch.

Re: Why is ArcGIS Pro so hard to learn?

Anonymous User — Fri, 29 Jul 2022 22:17:20 GMT

Thanks, @jcarlson I figured it was an ArcMap-learned habit. That's so funny that you don't think to right - click. I mean - does this look like something I'm supposed to know I can click on?! lol. You can click all day on the ArcMap interface and it won't do anything. 🙂

Re: Why is ArcGIS Pro so hard to learn?

SteveCole — Fri, 29 Jul 2022 22:29:44 GMT

Agree with everything mentioned so far. I'm also from the Arcmap entrenched camp and will not fully migrate to Pro until it's no longer possible to use Arcmap. For me, it's a bad UI design. Every action sets off a game of Where's Waldo as you work to catch up with where you're supposed to click next-

left screen click->right screen click-> top ribbon pane click....

The movement to the calcite based help documentation also has eliminated a lot of detail that used to be present in the help documentation. I'd much prefer the level of detail and organization of a 9.x or even early 10.x ArcGIS Help Doc over the current system.

Re: Why is ArcGIS Pro so hard to learn?

Anonymous User — Fri, 29 Jul 2022 22:49:40 GMT

For me it's the UI design as well. No Zen of Python or Unix Philosophy to be found here...

Like @Brian_Wilson said about Microsoft chasing Apple. But ESRI is chasing nobody. Everybody else has a ribbon and a notification/popup bell so I guess we should too. They just serve no purpose other than cognitive overheard for the user. Sure in ArcMap I had 40 buttons of toolbars but at least I put those there, organized them, and know what they did. Thumbs up on the docs as well especially the new arcpy docs.

Re: Why is ArcGIS Pro so hard to learn?

JoshuaBixby — Sat, 30 Jul 2022 13:20:40 GMT

I can agree with you on the help. Over time, the help has gotten less technical and more fluffy, for lack of a better term. More pages and more words doesn't always make for better documentation.

Re: Why is ArcGIS Pro so hard to learn?

jcarlson — Sun, 31 Jul 2022 21:45:21 GMT

Just to add another comment on here, for those folks who, like me, don't like playing Where's Waldo with the ribbon tabs. Pro does let you customize the ribbon, and while it can be time-consuming to set up initially, it's possible to make your own tab of the ribbon with all the buttons and tools that you actually need, and then you can ignore the other tabs entirely.

For my work, there are only about 2 dozen things across all the ribbon tabs that I ever click on, so being able to put those all in 1 spot, and not having all the other things I don't use, is really nice.

Re: Why is ArcGIS Pro so hard to learn?

DucksInaRiver — Tue, 02 Aug 2022 15:04:29 GMT

I've been an ArcMap user for only 6 years, but in that 6 years I have learned a great deal and was efficient and knowledgeable. I took one formal collegiate level course on it then learned the rest on the job. I changed jobs and my new one has fully migrated over to Pro (which is great!), but instead of my planned soft transition over to it I am thrown in head first. I am beyond frustrated. I knew it would be a learning curve but since I was somewhat proficient in ArcGIS Online I thought my familiarity with the tool icons might help. NOPE. I am trying to do super simple tasks like add data from my Organization's shared feature layers and creating maps for reference of project areas and so on, and I am consistently unsuccessful. We don't have a GIS department so I'm on my own for the most part. I search for the How To's or 'where's the tool' and even the instructions provided aren't consistent with the options I'm seeing. The Customize Ribbon seemed promising until I created a toolbox for zooming in and out and panning in a Layout view and all of the tools are greyed out and useless to me. I can't figure out why these simply rectangle zooms aren't standard in the first place? Just a lot of these really simple things are not at all easy to find or create in Pro and I am beyond frustrated. I've reached out multiple times to our ESRI product manager for course recommendations covering geoprocessing (just the basics, simple stuff) and cartographic skills courses and he hasn't replied for weeks despite follow ups. I'm trying my best over here but I'm running out of patience and curse words.

From a brain standpoint in terms of learning, I think for those of us who've been in ArcMap for a while have simply settled into muscle memory territory. ArcMap wasn't a cake walk to learn either but once it clicked it got so much easier. I trust that I'm going to get there with Pro but I can't help but think sometimes that the designers often get really deep into the higher functions of GIS related to modeling, and they provide a tools platform in the standard design that caters to those, and they forget that a lot of us are really just using these from a Planning perspective that allows us to demonstrate visuals of vector and raster data to strengthen our reports. We just want to add the data and make a pretty map. All of those tools for the making the map part ought to be in their own tab and include design elements that any basic skilled cartographer would need...I'm talking text boxes, fonts & colors, panning, zooming, scales, and so on. I shouldn't have to dig through the Customize encyclopedia to create one and then they're all greyed out anyway. You can tell I'm over it haha!

Re: Why is ArcGIS Pro so hard to learn?

Brian_Wilson — Tue, 02 Aug 2022 16:20:56 GMT

GIS users here who have basic needs have 95% of those needs met now by our web apps. We try to accommodate any requests first by enhancing the existing apps, then by creating custom apps for them, and finally by doing requested work for them.

Both ArcMap and ArcPro are simply needlessly hard to use for that 95%.

For most of that remaining 5%, they have to come to us, because there's no way to keep enough ArcGIS in your head for more than about 2 weeks after that expensive instructor-led training. A few people have focused tasks they do in Pro, but they have no idea what they are doing, they just follow bullet lists of instructions. I am trying to move those tasks into web apps because it's stupid giving them 1000 tools when they need just 1.

Now let's talk about the licensing on Enterprise and how I need to allocate a "Creator" license to someone to do one very simple task once a month or quarterly... that model is broken too.

Re: Why is ArcGIS Pro so hard to learn?

BarryNorthey — Wed, 03 Aug 2022 16:00:47 GMT

I think that jcarlson nailed a lot of it. Pro does so many things and most people only use/need a small subset of its functionality. I would classify the learning difficulties under three broad categories: prior GIS experience/bias, failure to document and visual vs textual learners.

In my organization (now retired), those lacking ArcGIS Desktop (AGD) experience had no preconceived notion of where Pro places the Zoom To Rectangle tool so it is in the right spot. The “missing” Zoom To Rectangle tool was a major complaint of AGD users; Pro sucks.

I did a lot of in-house training of natural resource managers and the most common complaint was that “I only do this infrequently and forget”. My response was to take a few minutes and document what you did in your own words; few (nobody) would put in the effort. We could not get people to complete even simple Item Description metadata so ended up with lots of undocumented spatial data of limited utility/reliability especially as staff turned over. Document, build a Task, build a Model; the tools are there.

My GIS exercises were the usual bulleted instructions. Most people could follow these but there were many who could not visualize the instructions. I began doing the exercises using Camtasia Studio with voice overs and the uptake was great. Oh, now I see.

Final note. I found that out of every 10 students, the light bulb went on immediately for 2 of them, it was a dimmer switch for about 5-6 who got it if they worked at it and the bulb was burned out for the rest. So, it came down to aptitude and effort.

PS. I am using the dirt-cheap ArcGIS Personal Use option for fun at home and if you think that 40 is old, well . . . just wait.

Re: Why is ArcGIS Pro so hard to learn?

Brian_Wilson — Wed, 03 Aug 2022 16:08:50 GMT

I volunteered in the science center at a prominent national park for a few months and their data management was hopelessly out of control. They really needed a full time data manager. Lots of them did know how to use ArcGIS though.

We need to work on short videos for a web apps, I think that's a good idea. It's not really worth training people here to use desktop GIS, they don't really need it vs the effort to learn it.

Re: Why is ArcGIS Pro so hard to learn?

Anonymous User — Wed, 03 Aug 2022 18:22:55 GMT

@BarryNorthey thank you! An excellent explanation. As for age, it's all in what you compare it to. My quotes around 40 being "old" were meant to make fun of the 20-somethings who, I think, actually think that 40 is old. It is amusing to me. 🙂 Oh and also, ArcGIS Pro makes me feel old - so there is that aspect as well! ha

Re: Why is ArcGIS Pro so hard to learn?

Anonymous User — Wed, 03 Aug 2022 19:17:54 GMT

@DucksInaRiver I feel the frustration - You're not alone! Do you have a GIS user group by you? They are a good resource to talk with.

No soft transition for me either. Although we still use ArcMap sometimes as it's a great tool when Pro doesn't work right.

Muscle memory is probably right. I also think Pro developers are developing for the very high functions of GIS but we can't get a Catalog window that works right, for example. I don't do any of the fancy ArcGIS Pro things that Esri promotes! 🙂

Re: Why is ArcGIS Pro so hard to learn?

DucksInaRiver — Mon, 15 Aug 2022 17:54:30 GMT

Do you have any insight as to why a customized ribbon may then have the carefully curated collection of tools completely grayed out and unusable? That was my most recent experience on that front.

Re: Why is ArcGIS Pro so hard to learn?

SteveCole — Mon, 15 Aug 2022 19:10:40 GMT

Maybe because they're still context sensitive? For example, a tool might be related to rasters so you still have select a raster layer in the TOC in order to activate the tool.

That being said, I still recall instances where I wanted to place a tool in Arcmap someplace else and typically there might be multiple versions of that command, depending on context (think of the Properties for the Data Frame, Properties of a graphic object, etc). If you chose the wrong one, it would still be greyed out even though you expect it to be enabled.

Re: Why is ArcGIS Pro so hard to learn?

KoryKramer — Mon, 15 Aug 2022 19:32:15 GMT

Also, it can help to make sure you have 'Show command IDs on ScreenTips' enabled:

That way you can confirm the exact ID to ensure it is the command you meant:

When you hover over the command when you're customizing, check to make sure it is the correct one:

If you're determined, you can go to All Commands to expose the search, and then actually type in the full command ID and it will give you exactly what you're looking for. These are definitely some tricks that aren't obvious, so we're looking at improving this part of the customize experience.

Re: Why is ArcGIS Pro so hard to learn?

BarryNorthey — Tue, 16 Aug 2022 17:08:08 GMT

Try placing one of the greyed out tools on the Quick Access Toolbar to see if you get the same result.

Do you have an appropriate View open.

Perhaps identify one of the tools (ID) that you are having trouble with so others can test.

Re: Why is ArcGIS Pro so hard to learn?

MichaelDSnider — Sat, 12 Nov 2022 22:56:20 GMT

Age does not matter. I am a young student and find ArcGIS to be very frustrating and unintuitive. The conspiracy part of my brain thinks that Esri wants to keep it difficult enough for it to be inaccessible to the normal person. But, the rational part of my brain understands that software often starts out difficult to use and becomes more efficient over time.

A great example of how ArcGIS fights the human brain is the attribute table use. Why can't you copy columns, but you can copy rows? That doesn't make sense. Anyways, I feel sometimes that using ArcGIS is like learning a new language, it is hard because I don't understand the underlying reasons for making it difficult to interface with. I really hope that ArcGIS can make a simpler version like Stata or SPSS is a simpler version of "R".

Re: Why is ArcGIS Pro so hard to learn?

GISTeam2 — Thu, 08 Jun 2023 11:11:51 GMT

As mentioned previously, many GIS users are familiar with and like using ArcMap. But also, some GIS users do not consider themselves as GIS but have to use GIS for, what they may consider to be, a small part of their job.

This is the biggest problem that I can see for ArcGIS Pro. The design of ArcGIS Pro sort of assumes that all ArcGIS Pro users are thought of, by themselves and others, as GIS Professionals who are really interested in GIS and Esri. In reality, this is not always the case and occasional GIS users will not have the time or inclination to learn the much more complex setup and interface. I mean even project folders may be a step too far for people who just want to view a network shape file in a network map document. Maybe ArcGIS Pro Light will be required ?