Modern UI Criticism
The cluster discusses the decline in usability and discoverability of modern user interfaces compared to the intuitive, learnable designs of the 80s and 90s, criticizing trends like flattening, hamburger menus, hidden features, and gesture-based interactions.
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Discussing UI is important too, esp. when it changes in a way that wastes users brain power.
It was functional and clear, unlike modern "hide everything" UIs?
It won't keep. The UI hides so much behind modals, hamburgers, indescribable gestures (swipe, press, hard press, hold, corners). A user interface used to be a describable map from desired actions to low-state inputs (press this key, click on this image ...). Now it is just a state filled soup.
I wonder if the model has difficulties for the same reason some people do - UI affordability has gone down with the flattening, hover-to-see scrollbar, hamburger-menu-ization of UIs.I'd like to see a model trained on a Windows 95/NT style UI - would it have an easier time with each UI element having clearly defined edges, clearly defined click and dragability, unified design language, etc.?
GUIs used to be discoverable and intuitive. Now they make bash and git look user friendly.
In the 90s people worked really hard to draft up universal standards of what makes UI usable and intuitive. Most of it tends to be ignored nowadays. Try teaching an old person how to use a smart phone some time. Just some bullet points:* Apps feel generally disorganized. Buttons are unlabled. Many things are hidden somewhere between layers of unlabled buttons. In the past you could count on the menu bar giving you quick access to anything.* Lack of functionality / composability. Avoid
Aww..how cute, when user interfaces were still designed for the users!
The fact that people are "used to it" doesn't make it the best UI choice.
The best UI is the UI the users are already familiar with.
The UIs of the 80s and 90s were designed to be learned, and carefully refined through focus testing. These UIs used consistent visual affordances, and contained contextual help. Constraints on memory, resolution, and color depth discouraged the inclusion of visual elements that did not contribute directly to usability and functionality.The UIs of today are largely designed by people who have experienced GUIs for their entire lives, and assume that everyone is already familiar with conv