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Why is ArcGIS Pro so hard to learn?

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07-29-2022 02:36 PM
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by Anonymous User
Not applicable

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

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23 Replies
KoryKramer
Esri Community Moderator

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

KoryKramer_0-1660591618050.png

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

KoryKramer_1-1660591687324.png

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

KoryKramer_2-1660591838199.png

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.

BarryNorthey
Frequent Contributor

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.

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DucksInaRiver
Occasional Contributor

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!

Brian_Wilson
Honored Contributor

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.

by Anonymous User
Not applicable

@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! 🙂

BarryNorthey
Frequent Contributor

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.

by Anonymous User
Not applicable

@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

Brian_Wilson
Honored Contributor

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.

 

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MichaelDSnider
New Contributor

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". 

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GISTeam2
Emerging Contributor

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 ? 

 

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