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Apps Getting Worse

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Re: Apps Getting Worse

#621

Post by nickkell »

surye wrote: post #590
nickkell wrote: post #243

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was very sorry to notice Spotify getting worse and worse. It seems that now the app won’t display anything without an internet connection, or certain items that were downloaded don’t appear in the list. What’s the point of downloading songs for offline use if you can’t even navigate to them? The desktop app is also getting worse. After a certain period of time clicking play simply has no effect, so it needs to be r…

> What’s the point of downloading songs for offline use if you can’t even navigate to them? So you can listen to them without consuming potentially expensive mobile data.

I understand the point of the downloading media over wifi rather than mobile data. What I'm saying is that once I'm "offline" I can't navigate to a screen where I can click play on them

Re: Apps Getting Worse

#622

Post by scns »

rhizome wrote: post #595
scns wrote: post #511

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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'…

Humans are never objective. Ever. Not only that, this inherent and fundamental subjectivity means they could never know what objectivity looks like in order to judge whether something is indeed objective. Because their criteria are subjective. It's not an ideal, it's a legend.

Yes, Kant named it: "Das Ding an sich" ie "The thing, in itself". We can never perceive it in its totality, since our senses always deceive us, thus: objectivity is impossible.

Re: Apps Getting Worse

#623

Post by rutierut »

lordnacho wrote: post #488
rutierut wrote: post #471

One ridiculous example is Revolut. I'm nut sure but I think they change their UX/UI about once a month, it's so extremely frustrated that a banking app, which is just a tool, not for entertainment, has to be figured out again and again because they keep changing it. Without adding anything. The UX never improves, just changes...

I was going to say just this. Where are my recent transactions? How do I change the currency? Where are my account details? How do I pay someone? All these things worked and were clear at some point in the past. Now you can still do them but first you have to click the wrong things a few times first before you find it. Purely UI though, the actual sending of money still seems to work.

Right?? What kind of maniac is in charge of product there?

Re: Apps Getting Worse

#624

Post by spronkey »

eloisius wrote: post #422
uniqueid wrote: post #212

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't say this view has it entirely backwards because part of the phenomenon is due to the strengths of the web today and of Electron. But the 'backward' part of the argument is that native Apple software could , but no longer does, provide its own strengths to counter the web and Electron. I love (old) Mac software and I hate Electron software yet if I sat down to create a commercial app today, I'd use Electron. H…

Agree. I hate every electron app I use, but even my longtime macOS favorites are beginning to feel only marginally better. They keep spicing up the UI, removing things that used to be reliable constants across applications and hiding more and more things behind ... menus like I'm on a mobile device, revealing or moving UI elements on mouse hover. Little details like the title bar of of every window behaving the same…

I generally agree. MacOS appears to be stagnating in its capabilities, even if there is a constant churn of UI and features. The Human Interface Guidelines-based approach of old seems to have been blurred thanks to the iOS mashups we are now seeing, and native apps that used to feel substantially better aren't really better enough anymore.

However, for me the big issue with Electron or other web-tech apps is the performance - they all feel incredibly slow and laggy, engorge themselves on my machine's resources, and generally slow down substantially the longer they have been open.

Considering my main gripe about macOS when compared to say, Windows, has been the general performance of the UI and apps, this isn't a particularly welcome phenomenon.

Re: Apps Getting Worse

#625

Post by hopesthoughts »

mastazi wrote: post #205

There should be a new category of apps, where you can still get the contents offered by a given service (Spotify, Youtube, your favourite news service etc.) while at the same time not using the built in UI. For example, imagine a web app that embeds Youtube videos, that will show you every new video published by channels you choose. No home page suggestions, no "trending", no "you might be interested in". You could d…

When applied to everything, it's an RSS reader. For instance, Youtube offers RSS, so why not just put them in there? If you can find a podcast feed, you could put those in there, too. RSS readers aren't just for news sites.

Re: Apps Getting Worse

#626

Post by hopesthoughts »

mattbk1 wrote: post #210
mastazi wrote: post #205

There should be a new category of apps, where you can still get the contents offered by a given service (Spotify, Youtube, your favourite news service etc.) while at the same time not using the built in UI. For example, imagine a web app that embeds Youtube videos, that will show you every new video published by channels you choose. No home page suggestions, no "trending", no "you might be interested in". You could d…

In a perfect world, all of those would work in an RSS reader.

They do. Well in a good RSS reader, anyway.

Re: Apps Getting Worse

#627

Post by spronkey »

lucb1e wrote: post #329
foxrider wrote: post #261

What I think is a key contributing factor here is that we lost the ability to say "no" to updates. Before the modern era of appstores users could refuse to update the app and in doing so throw a wrench into company's plans to just ruin the user experience.

> we lost the ability to say "no" to updates we... did?

Yes. Through a combination of increased network-dependence of apps, increased pace in general of updates, system-level updates that are required for security, app updates that are required for system updates and/or security, or simply because the app just ceases to function at all without the updates, and SaaS, we have in many ways lost the ability to say "no" to updates by remaining on older software.

Re: Apps Getting Worse

#628

Post by BugWatch »

qwertox wrote: post #250

These last three hours I was fighting with a health app which is supposed to be the software counterpoint of a Bluetooth weight scale. It simply did not work. And the reviews on Google Play were 1 star reviews, because the app simply stopped working. I wasn't using this app for years, since I've written a Python script to read out the scale via a Raspberry Pi, but I wanted to change some weight thresholds in the scal…

I own an ancient glass one that was just digital. The display stopped working at one point for no bloody reason.

So, eventually I gutted its controller/display and replaced it with arduino, HD44780-based display, and HX711 mass sensor module (that reads the existing four sensors), with any form of wireless module for communication being easily addable, if needed.

Now, it's 1-gram precise, which is enough to be used as a large kitchen scale if need be (I plan on adding a switch), I've added supports customized calibration, and customized averaging (it takes N measurements, and displays that).

Further, I plan a smart home integration, and will replace the display and functionality with smartphone app with current user selection (presets + guest), logging, etc. (and subtraction of the phone's weight from the total).

It never supported those "fancy" additional measurements as water and/or fat percentage, but I guess those are relatively easily addable as well (aluminium/copper tape as sensors?). With this, formulas used for calculations would be the greater challenge.

Really, this is the only option of 100% future proofing ones hardware - do it yourself... plus, it is saved from a landfill.

Re: Apps Getting Worse

#629

Post by BugWatch »

spronkey wrote: post #627
lucb1e wrote: post #329

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> we lost the ability to say "no" to updates we... did?

Yes. Through a combination of increased network-dependence of apps, increased pace in general of updates, system-level updates that are required for security, app updates that are required for system updates and/or security, or simply because the app just ceases to function at all without the updates, and SaaS, we have in many ways lost the ability to say "no" to updates by remaining on older software.

This. So much this. I won't rant here again, but I have ranted about it here in the recent past.

Having a dead man's switch in an app is particularly annoying, especially when the new version intentionally cripples the previous functionality.

Re: Apps Getting Worse

#630

Post by Griffinsauce »

franga2000 wrote: post #468
Griffinsauce wrote: post #461

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is one simple reason that enables all the shit mentioned in other replies: as much as we like to pretend, the impact of design is very hard to measure. A product experience is nuanced, part of a journey, with learning curves, preferences and problems. Much of this is completely ignored in the measurement of the success of design changes. There are lots of reasons people tend to screw with things that are fine,…

This seems like a solved problem as well. Don't people use focus groups anymore? Or have an open feedback forum where people can submit feedback and use user ratings to see which issues are the most important to the most users. Many companies already do have forums like this and they're filled with UI complaints having sometimes thousands of upvotes, but it's all for nothing because almost none of them actually use t…

Focus groups tell you about the effectiveness of design changes, not the impact on business metrics.
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