4 ms·

Is there really much more innovation to be had with email ux? Perhaps I'm getting old, but I'm getting frustrated with having to learn new interfaces that don't

Is there really much more innovation to be had with email ux? Perhaps I'm getting old, but I'm getting frustrated with having to learn new interfaces that don't improve my experience. Each new version of Android or iOS changes the UI in small but useless ways. I mean, why change the way the clock app works in Android so frequently. It's not worth the cognitive overhead of relearning how to do simple. What is driving this? Is it that a bunch of engineers have what are essentially bullshit jobs, or do companies feel they need to keep fresh or die? My parents are about to hit 70, and these types of changes for the elderly are even more stressful. Why should they need to relearn how to use an email interface? We need software with super long term support release that just get bug fixed for ~20 years. Redesigning the UI for essential every day things is wasting time. Plus, unless you are 18 years old the even worse Snapchat style UI antipatterns create a huge impediment to doing things that should be dead simple.

herpderperator 8y ago
> Each new version of Android or iOS changes the UI in small but useless ways. I mean, why change the way the clock app works in Android so frequently. I thought the same, till I thought about it from a notch perspective. They moved it so that you could fit the system icons with a large notch like the Pixel 3 XL has. The clock was moved on the other side simply to make room for this.
- herpderperator 8y ago
  Oh, I thought you were talking about the clock in the system tray. Sorry, I completely agree with the clock app. I would wake up every morning and the UI would be different. It definitely drove me insane because I would forget how to snooze while I am groggy in the morning and end up sleeping in longer than expected because I swiped the wrong way or whatever.
jjav 8y ago
> We need software with super long term support release that just get bug fixed for ~20 years. So much this. You can have it though, by sticking with stable open source that no PM looking to make a mark can redesign every year. I've been using mutt for email since the mid 90s, no unnecessary interface changes. In 1997 I set up my very non-technical mother (now almost 90) with a very simple system built around FVWM (very customized configuration), mutt (again customized for simplicity) and emacs (for email editing, custom keybindings). To this day she uses the exact same setup every day. Nothing has changed and nothing can change, so nothing new to confuse her.

herpderperator 8y ago

> Each new version of Android or iOS changes the UI in small but useless ways. I mean, why change the way the clock app works in Android so frequently. I thought the same, till I thought about it from a notch perspective. They moved it so that you could fit the system icons with a large notch like the Pixel 3 XL has. The clock was moved on the other side simply to make room for this.

herpderperator 8y ago
Oh, I thought you were talking about the clock in the system tray. Sorry, I completely agree with the clock app. I would wake up every morning and the UI would be different. It definitely drove me insane because I would forget how to snooze while I am groggy in the morning and end up sleeping in longer than expected because I swiped the wrong way or whatever.

jjav 8y ago

> We need software with super long term support release that just get bug fixed for ~20 years. So much this. You can have it though, by sticking with stable open source that no PM looking to make a mark can redesign every year. I've been using mutt for email since the mid 90s, no unnecessary interface changes. In 1997 I set up my very non-technical mother (now almost 90) with a very simple system built around FVWM (very customized configuration), mutt (again customized for simplicity) and emacs (for email editing, custom keybindings). To this day she uses the exact same setup every day. Nothing has changed and nothing can change, so nothing new to confuse her.