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The Decline of Usability (2020)

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Re: The Decline of Usability (2020)

#151

Post by wredue »

codeptualize wrote: post #64

There is a misconception that consistency == usability. It's an important part of usability but there is a lot more to it. Tunnel vision on consistency (or anything really) doesn't lead to good outcomes. The big picture is what matters: can someone do what they need to do? Articles like these also have lots of opinions, no research and stats, nor have decent explanations of how much impact these "problems" actually h…

>the stuff I use today is magic compared to the old crap

I… what?

Software is losing features while simultaneously becoming less usable.

The only thing software does better today than yesterday is spying on you.

Re: The Decline of Usability (2020)

#152

Post by ShadowBanThis01 »

SoftTalker wrote: post #128
ShadowBanThis01 wrote: post #84

100% on target. Windows, which advanced the state of the GUI nicely in the ‘90s, has regressed into an absolutely infuriating, incompetent UI disaster.

I have always felt that the pinnacle of Windows usability was Windows 2000 Professional. Clean, mostly intuitive, few gratuitous animations. It's been downhill ever since.

I didn't have any problem with XP. I can't recall a single major irritant in its UI.

Re: The Decline of Usability (2020)

#153

Post by [deleted] »

the_af wrote: post #54

I cannot prove it, but I think some of these UI and UX horrors are caused by the ever present need for software to change in order to demonstrate it is alive. Imagine you reach peak usability in $YourApp, in the year of our lord 2023. It's maybe not perfect , but there's no conceivable way your app's usability can improved past this point. Users are reasonable proficient, everything mostly clicks into place past the…

[deleted]

Re: The Decline of Usability (2020)

#155

Post by euroderf »

scioto wrote: post #17

When iOS introduced the long press, that pretty much did it for me: I couldn't tell what user interface element did what when I pressed on it, so I tried tapping everything. And now we have to long-press on things to make them do other things. I can't spend time tapping then long-pressing on elements to do what I think or hope the app can do.

A UI convention for "long-press-able" might be a start.

Re: The Decline of Usability (2020)

#156

Post by euroderf »

wredue wrote: post #85

“I NEED TO SAVE SCREEN REAL ESTATE SO I CAN… CHECKS NOTES… PUT A BUTTON THAT TAKES THE ENTIRE SCREEN” Yeah. This one always gets me with the whole “moving to the title bar saves screen space”. The other thing that really grinds my gears today is how many applications steal focus multiple times during launch. The number of people that have accidentally posted passwords in team chats cause of bullshit focus stealing is…

Yeah, is there a web page that tells you how to disable this focus-stealing-on-launch in most OSs ? That would be a public service.

Re: The Decline of Usability (2020)

#157

Post by ShadowBanThis01 »

bradley13 wrote: post #9

All true. It goes even farther: hiding the file structure, and even the concept of files. Ask a nontechnical Windows or Mac user where their files are stored - they have no idea. Ask if they are in the cloud - no idea. Worse - just as with UIs - there is no consistency where different apps store their data. We also shouldn't forget the idiocy of hiding file-extensions. To add insult to injury Windows lies to non-Engl…

And even if you do launch Explorer and start looking for your files, you'll find... what, THREE copies of your home-directory structure, two of which are "forbidden?"

WTF is all that shit, Microsoft?

Oh and another Explorer regression: It used to show little "+" signs next to directories that actually contained things. Microsoft GOT RID OF THOSE.

Oh... unless you happen to roll your cursor through the left pane. Then they inexplicably appear. Or did MS regress even further, from the universally-understood "+" symbol to idiotic triangles?

You can't even keep up with all of the regressions at this point.

Re: The Decline of Usability (2020)

#158

Post by indymike »

grishka wrote: post #61
li2uR3ce wrote: post #32

Despite the gutting of desktop usability for the sake of being mobile compatible, many environments still have zero presence on mobile. Can I PLEASE have my fucking scrollbar back now? I once spent a lot of my time and the time and the time of a developer trying to find a setting because there was no indication that a window had more content (a checkbox) to scroll down to. Something that would have been obvious befor…

Microsoft in particular seems hellbent on putting touchscreens in everything. They REALLY want to make it happen but seemingly no one is having it. There's ONE person I know who owns a touchscreen laptop and genuinely touches its screen on purpose. On your scrolling complaint — well, there's this desktop-specific thing that OP doesn't mention but that becomes very apparent once you start looking for it in old-school…

> Microsoft in particular seems hellbent on putting touchscreens in everything. They REALLY want to make it happen but seemingly no one is having it. There's ONE person I know who owns a touchscreen laptop and genuinely touches its screen on purpose.

When I was doing a lot Android development, it was nice to be able to test touch without loading on a phone. It was equally nice to be able to markup screenshots with the pan. I switched to Linux from Windows a couple years ago and the new laptop doesn't have touch (it does have a giant 17" panel and all day battery), so I keep a tablet that has a stylus in the bag for doing UI markup and bug reports. I may switch to the 16" Gram because it does have touch and stylus... and I won't have to carry the tablet.

Re: The Decline of Usability (2020)

#159

Post by indymike »

the_af wrote: post #54

I cannot prove it, but I think some of these UI and UX horrors are caused by the ever present need for software to change in order to demonstrate it is alive. Imagine you reach peak usability in $YourApp, in the year of our lord 2023. It's maybe not perfect , but there's no conceivable way your app's usability can improved past this point. Users are reasonable proficient, everything mostly clicks into place past the…

> I cannot prove it, but I think some of these UI and UX horrors are caused by the ever present need for software to change in order to demonstrate it is alive.

The sad thing is this is largely driven by managers trying to keep their teams looking busy, and not by customer request. Most of the time, users will ask to make something work better or actually work. Make-work requests often site some internal usability/HIG guidelines without having any user interest at all.

Re: The Decline of Usability (2020)

#160

Post by incongruity »

ProxCoques wrote: post #120

UX designer here who has done nothing but design web, mobile and related UI since about 2000, mostly working for or at large consumer brands (and now thinking of retiring). I'd definitely agree with the idea that change for change's sake is responsible for a lot of usability problems. But a bigger problem is the near extinction of any professional discussion or capable analysis of design by the people who are doing i…

As someone who works as a service designer and design strategist, I agree, 100%. I’ve seen a general decline in rigor in the field. Many are back to making things “pretty” with poorly done research (if that) asking small-minded questions rather than thinking about context, ecosystem and systemic effects of their design decisions.
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