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Whatever Happened to UI Affordances?

shkspr.mobi

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Re: Whatever Happened to UI Affordances?

#81

Post by tesseract »

andai wrote: post #79
todfox wrote: post #5

For more of these daily annoyances: https://grumpy.website The growing user hostility of UIs makes me want to stop developing software and even stop using computers. I started using computers because they made more sense to me than a lot of things. Now, I'm encountering these little moments of illogic and unreason every hour of the day. It's not just beginners who need little cues. I'm deeply familiar with the APIs b…

This is hilarious, but I'm puzzled by his reaction to a hamburger menu: > Oh-oh. Drag-n-drop icon used for a dropdown menu - May 8, 2021 https://grumpy.website/post/0V_dyk3EP

Horizontal lines (or sometimes an array of dots) are sometimes used as a "grip" icon to represent reorderable list rows.

Re: Whatever Happened to UI Affordances?

#83

Post by ChrisMarshallNY »

bitcurious wrote: post #38
edent wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I get that. But how do you first learn about the standard way? Admittedly, it has been several years since I used an iPhone - but I don't remember it ever telling me that slide-to-delete was a thing. I literally had to ask on Twitter to find out - https://twitter.com/search?q=delete%20podcast%20from%3Aedent... I agree that there are some things which work best hidden - pull to refresh, for example - but it needs to b…

One method I’ve seen of introducing the behavior is to have the list element slightly “bounce” sideways on load, giving a peak of the red/green color underneath.

Hey, that's a great idea!

It's a bit of a pain to implement, because I'd need to make sure that it only did it for displayed rows, and only once, but that's pretty cool.

Thanks!

Re: Whatever Happened to UI Affordances?

#84

Post by armchairhacker »

Honestly I don't think minimalism is the issue. And I love skeuomorphism, even the overdone Apple version. Minimalism is ugly but when done right, it's actually one of the clearest UXs possible: only focusing on the content and guides, no weird extras, and every design decision is meaningful because you only get a few.

Issues with today's UX are: more dark patterns, more people making apps easier (= more less experienced developers who don't understand UX), companies trying to "stand out" but hurting UX in the process (because they still want minimalism, and all of the good ways of standing out with minimalism are taken). In the author's case Android's share menu just happens to suck - he even shows Apple's menu, which is still minimalistic but actually clear.

Re: Whatever Happened to UI Affordances?

#85

Post by dejawu »

HKH2 wrote: post #12
chiph wrote: post #6

Not just on phones/tablets. If you have an application running in dark mode, and your Windows desktop is dark, you can't see the edge of the window to resize it. Also - with Windows 10 you don't grab the edge of the window, you grab the shadow. Which is not visible because shadows on dark desktops have no contrast.

In another well-known OS, the pointer can be somewhere inside the corner, and you can press a meta key and click and drag the corner without being on it exactly. I used to miss that functionality quite a bit when using Windows, but I think I use window snapping more now.

I loved that too! I use AltDrag[0] to get that functionality in Windows. It's a bit old and you may have to tweak it a bit to make it work with HiDPI, but it's now become a must-install when I set up a new machine.

[0] https://stefansundin.github.io/altdrag/

Re: Whatever Happened to UI Affordances?

#86

Post by andai »

tesseract wrote: post #81
andai wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is hilarious, but I'm puzzled by his reaction to a hamburger menu: > Oh-oh. Drag-n-drop icon used for a dropdown menu - May 8, 2021 https://grumpy.website/post/0V_dyk3EP

Horizontal lines (or sometimes an array of dots) are sometimes used as a "grip" icon to represent reorderable list rows.

I know, I've used them in my own designs. It just sounded like he saw a hamburger menu now for the first time 5 weeks ago! Or maybe it is some kind of joke?

Re: Whatever Happened to UI Affordances?

#87

Post by frereubu »

andai wrote: post #86
tesseract wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Horizontal lines (or sometimes an array of dots) are sometimes used as a "grip" icon to represent reorderable list rows.

I know, I've used them in my own designs. It just sounded like he saw a hamburger menu now for the first time 5 weeks ago! Or maybe it is some kind of joke?

This is the case for many people. Another explanation is that he was being empathetic.

Re: Whatever Happened to UI Affordances?

#88

Post by musicale »

It always amazes me when I see a post on HN or elsewhere with the vintage Mac GUI - it was visually very clear and attractive, with lots of nice, well-delineated affordances!

1980s/1990s-style graphical user interfaces were remarkable in terms of how much of the available screen real estate, CPU power, and memory they were willing to dedicate to the user interface. It reduced the visible content and available computing resources, but it made the UI very clear.

As much as I like multitouch, it isn't visually discoverable, even after you learn the basics of (tap, tap-and-hold, tap-and-drag, swipe). It's nice in a way that the whole of your tiny phone screen is used for content, but it can be frustrating trying to discover the control methods.

Re: Whatever Happened to UI Affordances?

#89

Post by kps »

failwhaleshark wrote: post #71
layer8 wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly. Flat design removes signals in order to let the UI appear simpler. But the removal of meaningful signals makes the UI more more ambiguous and harder to use. Flat design is an obfuscation, trying to cover up the actual complexity behind a visual semblance of simplicity.

Flat design is the definition of art because it creates something without the intention of usability. Functionality that is hidden isn't usable by definition. It always annoyed me in early Mac UX that there wasn't a specific affordance for additional interactive behavior. Option this, Ctrl that. Yes, they can be discovered socially and informationally, but that goes against intuitiveness.

The original Mac or Lisa was good in some ways, but it also problems with faux minimalism. In particular, Jobs insisted on a single-button mouse for 'simplicity', but that required inventing the entirely undiscoverable double click, which had to be taught, and still causes confusion today.

Re: Whatever Happened to UI Affordances?

#90

Post by lelanthran »

todfox wrote: post #5

For more of these daily annoyances: https://grumpy.website The growing user hostility of UIs makes me want to stop developing software and even stop using computers. I started using computers because they made more sense to me than a lot of things. Now, I'm encountering these little moments of illogic and unreason every hour of the day. It's not just beginners who need little cues. I'm deeply familiar with the APIs b…

There used to be a Hall of Shame for GUIs on the web that I used to read around 2002 or thereabouts. Very similar to this, only for native programs.
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