3 ms·

> And don't even get me started on the worst usability disaster of the last 5 years: Material design. Would be interested to hear it. To me it seems to work pr

by harryf 11y ago

> And don't even get me started on the worst usability disaster of the last 5 years: Material design. Would be interested to hear it. To me it seems to work pretty well in the Google Maps app on mobile - mostly intuitive. What problems do you see?

creshal 11y ago
Floating action buttons for me. I can never remember where those bloody things are, because they move around on the screen, and Google does not really care about the contrast to whatever it's floating on, so it blends in with the environment far too well.
smt88 11y ago
Material has the same issues as any flat design. It doesn't provide affordances[1]. If something is just a rectangle, you don't know whether it's button or not. Sometimes, things look like text but are actually clickable. There's a Google app (I can't remember which) where a text-entry box is the same color as the top bar. So you just see the red top bar, and then an arrow that indicates "go back". That's it. If you tap the top bar, suddenly a cursor appears, and you realize you can enter text. I constantly find myself confused in Google apps because of that exact issue. Problems with flat (and Material) design have been written about extensively[2][3][4]. Recently, there was even a study showing that young people are more confused by UIs than they used to be because of flat design. It takes them longer to figure out where to click. 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affordance#As_perceived_action_possibilities https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affordance#As_perceived_action... 2. https://www.nngroup.com/articles/clickable-elements/ https://www.nngroup.com/articles/clickable-elements/ 3. https://medium.com/tech-in-asia/material-design-why-the-floating-action-button-is-bad-ux-design-acd5b32c5ef https://medium.com/tech-in-asia/material-design-why-the-floa... 4. http://www.matthewmooredesign.com/almost-flat-design/ http://www.matthewmooredesign.com/almost-flat-design/

by harryf 11y ago

creshal 11y ago

Floating action buttons for me. I can never remember where those bloody things are, because they move around on the screen, and Google does not really care about the contrast to whatever it's floating on, so it blends in with the environment far too well.

smt88 11y ago

Material has the same issues as any flat design. It doesn't provide affordances[1]. If something is just a rectangle, you don't know whether it's button or not. Sometimes, things look like text but are actually clickable. There's a Google app (I can't remember which) where a text-entry box is the same color as the top bar. So you just see the red top bar, and then an arrow that indicates "go back". That's it. If you tap the top bar, suddenly a cursor appears, and you realize you can enter text. I constantly find myself confused in Google apps because of that exact issue. Problems with flat (and Material) design have been written about extensively[2][3][4]. Recently, there was even a study showing that young people are more confused by UIs than they used to be because of flat design. It takes them longer to figure out where to click. 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affordance#As_perceived_action_possibilities https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affordance#As_perceived_action... 2. https://www.nngroup.com/articles/clickable-elements/ https://www.nngroup.com/articles/clickable-elements/ 3. https://medium.com/tech-in-asia/material-design-why-the-floating-action-button-is-bad-ux-design-acd5b32c5ef https://medium.com/tech-in-asia/material-design-why-the-floa... 4. http://www.matthewmooredesign.com/almost-flat-design/ http://www.matthewmooredesign.com/almost-flat-design/