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Another prime example why UI redesigns are a waste of time - https://debugandrelease.blogspot.com/2019/03/ui-redesigns-are-mostly-waste-of-time.html https://deb

Another prime example why UI redesigns are a waste of time - https://debugandrelease.blogspot.com/2019/03/ui-redesigns-are-mostly-waste-of-time.html https://debugandrelease.blogspot.com/2019/03/ui-redesigns-ar...

throwaway66666 7y ago
But what if you have a total of 3000 engineers. What will all of them do? Perhaps a handful of them can investigate and try new things?
- btown 7y ago
  Or maybe you have them work on complementary products to your... oh wait Twitter leadership has no desire for a B2B presence, so it can't build B2B tools. Oops.
- rurp 7y ago
  Every web app I've used extensively had bugs. A few of those 3000 devs could focus on improving the existing functionality, rather than changing the color and location of various bells and whistles.
degenerate 7y ago
I personally prefer the "slow walk" of UI improvements instead of a full-blown UI redesign. Examples are eBay, Paypal, and (in a way) Amazon. eBay and Paypal are both stuck in a half-design stage, where 50% of the pages are designed and 50% of the very functional pages have been redesigned but not rolled out... in perpetual beta, because the redesign cannot accompany all the features of the old. Amazon very slowly rolls out new button designs and side-menus, probably whenever Bezos is sleeping. But some of the buttons in the rarely-used sections of their site are still using the old familiar yellow JPGs.
- robryan 7y ago
  eBay and PayPal are an inconsistent mess. The changes often make it hard to even Google to find what you are looking for. Some pages on PayPal as far as I can tell seem completely inaccessible from the UI and require you to know the endpoint.
Chris_Chambers 7y ago
Do me a favor. Visit your own link on mobile, then scroll down a little bit. Then scroll up, just one pixel will suffice. See what happens? Now here’s the most important part. I need you to respond to my comment and promise me you’ll never link to that site again.
rurp 7y ago
Thanks, that was a rereshing read. So many companies do these, sometimes I feel like I'm the only person in tech who hates UI redesigns that don't add or fix any functionality. Moving around and changing the appearance of UI elements is worse than useless, it takes users longer to perform the actions that are the actual reason they use the site.
fuball63 7y ago
The article is based on the assumption that upper management is just trying to throw out new UI for no reason other than to say they did something new. The reality is these companies change the UI because some metric told them that the new design will bring in the most ad revenue with the least risk. They know most people don't care, and those that do will become apathetic. They don't care about your taste or feelings, just about the percent likelyhood you will click on an ad. I'm not saying this to be overtly adversarial to these companies, but it is a little naive to think they 1) are just arbitrarily changing things or 2) don't know that people will hate it, but it's a calculated risk.

throwaway66666 7y ago

But what if you have a total of 3000 engineers. What will all of them do? Perhaps a handful of them can investigate and try new things?

btown 7y ago
Or maybe you have them work on complementary products to your... oh wait Twitter leadership has no desire for a B2B presence, so it can't build B2B tools. Oops.
rurp 7y ago
Every web app I've used extensively had bugs. A few of those 3000 devs could focus on improving the existing functionality, rather than changing the color and location of various bells and whistles.

degenerate 7y ago

I personally prefer the "slow walk" of UI improvements instead of a full-blown UI redesign. Examples are eBay, Paypal, and (in a way) Amazon. eBay and Paypal are both stuck in a half-design stage, where 50% of the pages are designed and 50% of the very functional pages have been redesigned but not rolled out... in perpetual beta, because the redesign cannot accompany all the features of the old. Amazon very slowly rolls out new button designs and side-menus, probably whenever Bezos is sleeping. But some of the buttons in the rarely-used sections of their site are still using the old familiar yellow JPGs.

robryan 7y ago
eBay and PayPal are an inconsistent mess. The changes often make it hard to even Google to find what you are looking for. Some pages on PayPal as far as I can tell seem completely inaccessible from the UI and require you to know the endpoint.

Chris_Chambers 7y ago

Do me a favor. Visit your own link on mobile, then scroll down a little bit. Then scroll up, just one pixel will suffice. See what happens? Now here’s the most important part. I need you to respond to my comment and promise me you’ll never link to that site again.

rurp 7y ago

Thanks, that was a rereshing read. So many companies do these, sometimes I feel like I'm the only person in tech who hates UI redesigns that don't add or fix any functionality. Moving around and changing the appearance of UI elements is worse than useless, it takes users longer to perform the actions that are the actual reason they use the site.

fuball63 7y ago

The article is based on the assumption that upper management is just trying to throw out new UI for no reason other than to say they did something new. The reality is these companies change the UI because some metric told them that the new design will bring in the most ad revenue with the least risk. They know most people don't care, and those that do will become apathetic. They don't care about your taste or feelings, just about the percent likelyhood you will click on an ad. I'm not saying this to be overtly adversarial to these companies, but it is a little naive to think they 1) are just arbitrarily changing things or 2) don't know that people will hate it, but it's a calculated risk.