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UI redesigns are mostly a waste of time

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Re: UI redesigns are mostly a waste of time

#91

Post by speedplane »

mrighele wrote: post #87
calinet6 wrote: post #13

> To preface the article, I primarily work on, and prefer, back-end code. I've been involved in both web and software development for over 4 years now Cool, cool. To preface this comment, I'm a user experience designer, and I've been doing web software development and design for over 20 years. In reality, your conjecture turns out to be largely untrue. Visual design quality does have an impact. Main principle you wan…

> Basically, users perceive your product to be more usable if it's aesthetically pleasing. On the other side, it will be less usable while i have to relearn how to use it. This is not an issue if it happens from time to time, you pay upfront a decrease of productivity and will be rewarded greatly later on. But in the era of SaaS we are constantly subject to a stream of redesigns, sometimes small, other times global.…

I don't mind functional UI updates (e.g., adding a search bar, when previously you had to scroll). But design changes are made simply for design purposes by big-tech companies are frustrating because when they do an update, it puts pressure on everyone else to follow their design to avoid looking out of date.

For example, just a few months ago, Google used square rectangles for the search bar, and advocated "cards" with sharp corners in their material design standards. However, just recently, they updated gmail and google search to use rounded rectangles in the search bar instead of rectangles. Are rectangles better or worse than rounded rectangles? Yes? No? The answer is, it doesn't matter for usability. But because Google is so big and has such influence, now, if your site uses a rectangular search bar with sharp corners users will perceive it as "dated".

There are many similar examples of this. Microsoft's metro UI was cool and popular for maybe a full 6 months. Clean Helvetica font was everyone's aspiration, then Google pushed Lato, and now it's Robato, until they change their mind again. Small 11pt font used to be the norm, then very large readable 14pt font was the norm, and now we're back to something like 12pt. Single page applications a while ago were avoided, then became so popular they were effectively a pre-requisite, and now they should only be used "where appropriate".

I think Google make these changes not to make their site look good and refreshing, but to make everyone else's look old and dated.

Re: UI redesigns are mostly a waste of time

#92

Post by speedplane »

atoav wrote: post #30
userbinator wrote: post #5

I've noticed that it's a commonly accepted fact in most other areas of software development that mass rewriting of large and extensively-used pieces of code is a bad idea precisely because it'll probably introduce plenty of new bugs that were either never a problem in the existing code, or was noticed and already fixed there in the past. Yet when it comes to UI, those introduced bugs --- breakages of users' existing…

Many creative professionals (that includes programmers) will go and do the thing they like instead of doing the thing that is needed. For architects that could be a ron of glass and open spaces while the people who use this space would rather have a space with lots of cosy private corners and spots, for programmers it is insisting on certain frameworks, languages or patterns despite hurting the project. For sounddesi…

> Many creative professionals (that includes programmers) will go and do the thing they like instead of doing the thing that is needed.

I'll add to your list of examples: lawyers representing their clients often want to make new precedent with the court and the direction of the law, rather than just getting their client our of a burdensome lawsuit.

Re: UI redesigns are mostly a waste of time

#93

Post by Aeolun »

calinet6 wrote: post #13

> To preface the article, I primarily work on, and prefer, back-end code. I've been involved in both web and software development for over 4 years now Cool, cool. To preface this comment, I'm a user experience designer, and I've been doing web software development and design for over 20 years. In reality, your conjecture turns out to be largely untrue. Visual design quality does have an impact. Main principle you wan…

In my experience, only about 40% of redesigns actually are a visual upgrade. All the others are just a visual change.

Visual changes are irrelevant at best, and actively harmful at worst.

By all means, improve the website and the design, but actually improve it.

Re: UI redesigns are mostly a waste of time

#94

Post by deepstream »

calinet6 wrote: post #13

> To preface the article, I primarily work on, and prefer, back-end code. I've been involved in both web and software development for over 4 years now Cool, cool. To preface this comment, I'm a user experience designer, and I've been doing web software development and design for over 20 years. In reality, your conjecture turns out to be largely untrue. Visual design quality does have an impact. Main principle you wan…

Funny thing about AUE is that it hides usability issues. People get dazzled by the look, and feel it's better than it is.

This means the OP is correct. New paint doesn't make it more useful. To really help users, optimize for usable design, not just aesthetics.

Re: UI redesigns are mostly a waste of time

#95

Post by d0100 »

TheOtherHobbes wrote: post #70
wvenable wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's the difference between a re-design and constant refinement of a design? I believe in making products aesthetically pleasing. I spend a lot of time ensuring my products look good because I know that this is the first impression of any product. I'm constantly improving the design of my products in subtle (and sometimes not subtle) ways. Full redesigns are the design equivalent of full software rewrites . They su…

Redesigns tend to happen because someone in management decides they want to remake the UI in a way that appeals to them, whether or not it makes sense to anyone else. The MS ribbon was a classic redesign. It broke the standard menu metaphor and crashed productivity for no good reason. Flat design was in a similar league, but not quite as bad. Is that a button or a text element? How can anyone tell? Refinement is a mu…

I am guessing that only Office power users hated the MS ribbon.

I loved it, it's do much easier to find stuff if you already don't know where it is.

Great design for the casual Wordster.

Re: UI redesigns are mostly a waste of time

#96

Post by achow »

> The people who use your application, don't like change. They like to go on autopilot after they've learned something, it's just plain easier for them.

This oft repeated quote. The thing is if this was the case we wouldn't have moved beyond command line interface. That was hands down the most performant user interface design for the people who were in the know.

But not so for new users and when new commands needed to be introduced.

Re: UI redesigns are mostly a waste of time

#97

Post by txt »

+1 ..I've been buying coffee recently from 7-11 in the morning, and I noticed there credit card swiper UI. When I use my debit card, ive always used 'credit' not debit, and im sure a huge % of people do the same, and here are the steps... Swipe card Is this a debit card? Y/N I Click No Do you want cash back? Y/N I Click No Then you must click cancel to run to bring up credit option ( but no instructions to do so) Then click credit, then click okay to the amount. Then its finally completes the purchase.. now each step takes a few seconds after each click, and you must use there stylus because just usingyour fingers wont work! I know this is a random comment, but UI related and ivd just noticed this recently, every 711 here on long island has the same machines! It doesnt seem like alot of steps but i bet the lines would move alot faster if they tweaked the UI a tiny bit!

Re: UI redesigns are mostly a waste of time

#98

Post by asark »

underwater wrote: post #67
ddoolin wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google Maps I can't agree with you on...but Gmail and Facebook, certainly.

If Facebook shipped this [1] tomorrow, you don't think people would be up in arms? 1: https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn%3AANd9GcSNUb...

... which one's supposed to be bad? If the website'd[0] had a UI similar to the left back when I briefly tried it in ~2010, I might've stuck around. I stopped using it after a couple weeks because I couldn't figure out where anything was, or where anything I posted was going to "go".

In terms of mobile UI, left looks like it'd let me answer the question "why's my badge have a number on it?" very efficiently, and to prioritize badge-number-dropping activities by category, which is great.

[EDIT] [0] Yes I know this is a mobile UI, not the desktop website, I'm saying left is clearer than the website was and, from what I see of it on other people's screens, is.

[EDIT AGAIN] I'd buy the argument that right has higher "engagement", though.

[ONE MORE TIME] man I shouldn't post pre-coffee. I initially took this to be old-left-new-right which is obviously wrong. Basic point stands, I don't get what's wrong with this as a user though it may well make metrics worse.

Re: UI redesigns are mostly a waste of time

#99

Post by icelancer »

TheOtherHobbes wrote: post #70
wvenable wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's the difference between a re-design and constant refinement of a design? I believe in making products aesthetically pleasing. I spend a lot of time ensuring my products look good because I know that this is the first impression of any product. I'm constantly improving the design of my products in subtle (and sometimes not subtle) ways. Full redesigns are the design equivalent of full software rewrites . They su…

Redesigns tend to happen because someone in management decides they want to remake the UI in a way that appeals to them, whether or not it makes sense to anyone else. The MS ribbon was a classic redesign. It broke the standard menu metaphor and crashed productivity for no good reason. Flat design was in a similar league, but not quite as bad. Is that a button or a text element? How can anyone tell? Refinement is a mu…

> The MS ribbon was a classic redesign. It broke the standard menu metaphor and crashed productivity for no good reason.

I thought I'd eventually get used to it. Nope. It's still significantly less productive than a standard menu.

Re: UI redesigns are mostly a waste of time

#100

Post by atoav »

mjburgess wrote: post #90
atoav wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Many creative professionals (that includes programmers) will go and do the thing they like instead of doing the thing that is needed. For architects that could be a ron of glass and open spaces while the people who use this space would rather have a space with lots of cosy private corners and spots, for programmers it is insisting on certain frameworks, languages or patterns despite hurting the project. For sounddesi…

On the flip side, you could see a person selling their labour as having some right/stake in doing something which interests them. These outcomes are then compromises which give something to the producer, as well as to the customer.

I completely agree. This is exactly why I said, if this happens you didn’t choose the right person for the job.

The same person who butchers your UI might be very good for creating print designs that above all need to sell the company CI.

For critical redesigns you need a designer who is mostly about analyzing and rethinking the user experience behind it. Better even, split it in two: one entity should only do the analytical part and guide the direction, the other should implement it with a little bit of wiggle room. Make sure there is some overlap between the two

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