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Apps Getting Worse

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Re: Apps Getting Worse

#511

Post by scns »

torgian wrote: post #371
g_p wrote: post #247

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do wonder if to some extent the inherently subjective nature of UX/UI design is what keeps it forever going? Designers want to stay employed and not just become a "bring in one-time at the start" contractor, so they justify changes through continual enhancement or similar, assuming the current solution may be one of a few local optima rather than the global optimum. Lacking objective numerical comparison, perhaps d…

Well, take a look at fashion design. Objectively, there are a lot of really crazy designs that no one would wear in the real world. But designs for clothing always keeps changing, even if they are small, subtle changes. I think you can apply the same towards design of anything. Tastes change. While a certain design philosophy might be a godsend in 2010, it might be considered trash in 2015. To be fair, I also think a…

> Objectively, there are a lot of really crazy designs that no one would wear in the real world.

Objectivity is an ideal we can strive towards. And several crazy and expensive designs are worn in the real world. I have seen it with my own eyes. The people who are able to afford those clothes either:

- Have bad taste (A subjective judgement which is logically wrong, since it is absolute)

- Really like that look

- Don't care what anyone thinks of them

- Want to display their high status

- Want to stand out from the crowd

Re: Apps Getting Worse

#512

Post by tonyedgecombe »

HKH2 wrote: post #358
the_duke wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which apps are you referring to? I couldn't name a single open source desktop apps which has good UX or design. It's natural, since these are built by developers, not designers, and they primarily care about functionality and don't have to entice users with good looks and UX. I do know some Android apps that are pretty good, eg RedReader for Reddit.

Does Syncthing count?

No, I found it really cumbersome to use.

Although I will say that is the case for every sync product I've tried and I have tried most of them.

Re: Apps Getting Worse

#513

Post by megablast »

godelski wrote: post #177
sushisource wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hope people will use Spotify as a case study in how to fuck up a UI over time. The service itself is fine, I quite like some of the music it finds for me on discover, but the UI is on a slow death march towards complete uselessness, and some features have always been hopelessly broken (queuing). From a business standpoint I find it fascinating. It's about as perfect as an example it gets of "if it ain't broke, don'…

I hope there's some UI/UX designers that can explain this to me. It often appears that design changes are changed just to change. Doing things like changing the clock from right to left (Android). Moving a bar that's existed to another location (Spotify). Removing color hints (Signal). And so many other things. Things that basically your users have been trained to look at and then need to be retrained. Removing hinti…

I mean, they are employees. If they aren’t working, they will get fired. There work is measured in updates to the apps. They have to keep changing.

Re: Apps Getting Worse

#514

Post by scns »

mark-r wrote: post #378
smichel17 wrote: post #324

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here's a short case study. I am the maintainer of Red Moon, a FLOSS screen filter app for Android. Over a period of several years, the location of the toggle has moved from a switch at the top, to a switch and a floating action button (FAB), back to just a switch, and will soon move to just a FAB. I can provide more detail later if someone would like, but the short of it is: 1) As other features changed (permission p…

I've found that the best programs are the ones under the control of a single benevolent dictator. They can maintain their focus and consistency much better than any other structure.

I Concur. Even though i am still not a fan, since his psrsonality was really offputting to me, Steve Jobs way able to do that. And he even was able to put it into words: "Stay hungry". Complacency begets Mediocrity at best (or worse).

Re: Apps Getting Worse

#515

Post by CamperBob2 »

dmitriid wrote: post #465
CamperBob2 wrote: post #386

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly. They can be buried, and in many cases should be, but they still need to be there somewhere. Spotify seems to lose one or two useful features per calendar quarter. They're not hidden, but lost altogether. If you really want your blood pressure pumped up, try the Spotify mobile app under CarPlay sometime. At this point, it lets you do basically nothing . A 1980s-era cassette deck gave you more control over the…

For CarPly they are very limited in what they can allow you to do relatively safely. So it's basically radio+cassette player

I'm pretty sure they could implement the same transport controls that my cassette deck had in 1989. They could also enable additional features when the vehicle isn't moving, if they cared enough to do so.

What's not safe is providing an app that's so frustrating to use that it encourages the driver to touch and grope and scroll and drag all kinds of different things, looking for a commonplace UI affordance that, surely, has got to be there someplace, yet somehow isn't.

Or (worse) providing an app that frequently (but not always) fails to return to the same screen and playback state that was active when the engine was last shut off. That's the #1 unforgivable sin in any autosound system, and... yup... they somehow managed to pull it off.

It's as if the Spotify dev team is managed by B. F. Skinner himself, and they think we're all a bunch of lab rats.

Re: Apps Getting Worse

#516

Post by nemacol »

Jumping on the band wagon

Muscle memory is a thing and moving buttons around makes using the app harder.

Similarly, I want apps to realize that is not the only app I have on my phone and my life is not going to revolve around using it.

I long for a culture of Software as a Tool, like the hammer in my garage, it exists for when I need it. It does not beckon me for attention or email me about how the handle got updated. It will not need a huge update the moment I pick it up. I do not want to log into my hammer.

Perhaps I am nostalgic for pre-fast internet software. You acquire some bit of software and install it and it is what it is until you, the person using the thing, goes and installs the newest version.

You would get used to the bugs in the version you had - knowing they wouldn't go away - but the software still had utility and you kept using it. Now I get used to something and it changes every 2 weeks and every not and then it breaks something I liked leaving me frustrated and complaining into the void.

Re: Apps Getting Worse

#517

Post by gtyras2mrs »

exporectomy wrote: post #58
Laforet wrote: post #31

Back in the skeuomorphism era, Twitter offered an awesome and innovative iPad app (version 4.x) that had a UX design based on three overlapping layers with navigation tabs on the side. One could effortlessly switch between your own timeline, another user's timeline and a series of tweet threads. With the amount of visual elments on screen it was very information dense and easy to follow. I had just bought a retina Ge…

What's best for the 7 billion is bound to be different to what's best for a few power users. It makes sense for them to be different apps, perhaps provided by 3rd parties if Twitter won't do them all. I find these "7 billion" apps are often effortlessly smooth for basic tasks that I don't want to spend mental effort on. They seem to know what I want to do and make that just about the only option.

The problem I find is that when apps are created for the common-denominator, they alienate the power users that usually create the content that the rest consume.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1%25_rule_(Internet_culture)

The Twitter app for example, is perfectly ok for me as a lurker/consumer -- but is most often criticised by the people who i follow (and who are active tweeters)

Re: Apps Getting Worse

#518

Post by dmitriid »

CamperBob2 wrote: post #515
dmitriid wrote: post #465

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For CarPly they are very limited in what they can allow you to do relatively safely. So it's basically radio+cassette player

I'm pretty sure they could implement the same transport controls that my cassette deck had in 1989. They could also enable additional features when the vehicle isn't moving, if they cared enough to do so. What's not safe is providing an app that's so frustrating to use that it encourages the driver to touch and grope and scroll and drag all kinds of different things, looking for a commonplace UI affordance that, sure…

Yep, I'm frustrated by the same issues myself :)

Re: Apps Getting Worse

#519

Post by benrbray »

krono wrote: post #510
MrDresden wrote: post #506

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having worked in the mobile space for the last decade, it is my experience that these UI/X changes usually are a side effect of new management (after a purge) or from way on high (the c-suite). Neither one of these groups know much about UI/X but hold strong personal opinions which they automatically believe must hold true for all users. I am currently in a tug of war over such UI/X change for a feature in a banking…

My pet theory is that Spotify doesn't want you to choose your own music but steer you towards specific songs instead. Either to increase your level or length of engagement with the service, or because some songs earn them more cash than others.

Hey me too. I'm pretty sure when you shuffle, it's not actually random, but weighted by some combination of licensing fees / paid promotion.

Re: Apps Getting Worse

#520

Post by WA »

phkahler wrote: post #57
WA wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are high quality apps, maybe more than ever. Maybe not on the Mac, but for iOS. In my experience, people actually pay for quality, even more than they used to. Back in the say, an app was like 99 cents. Nowadays, most apps are way more expensive or have some kind of subscription, which is okay for apps that are maintained and improved over many years.

>> In my experience, people actually pay for quality, even more than they used to. I'm willing to pay for quality. The main problem is convincing me of the quality before buying.

Subscription-based pricing actually solves this – in a way.
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