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There haven't been that many innovations in UX on the web for a while. It's all essentially buttons, toggles and drop downs. I was expecting a lot more boutique

by ehnto 6y ago

There haven't been that many innovations in UX on the web for a while. It's all essentially buttons, toggles and drop downs. I was expecting a lot more boutique interfaces, tightly crafted to the specific use case. My guess is we are actually not very good at developing that kind of thing as an industry. Product configurators are a good example of what I mean, they are super rare and considered monumental undertakings by most agencies. Prized monoliths of culminated talent, that break in two years and get replaced by a series of drop downs because as an industry we avoid risk like the plague yet cycle agencies annually.

RickS 6y ago
It's not that we aren't very good at it, it's that nobody wants to do it. I'd liken it to building codes: given the advances in materials science, one would expect us to be building wildly more diverse styles of homes, with ornate forms and functions that were unimaginable 40 years ago. Why don't we? It turns out that consumers are cheap and unsophisticated. As hardwood becomes plywood+edging becomes MDF+veneer, people are willing to boil the quality frog to grease economies of scale, and by the time we wonder why the hell nothing in our house lasts longer than 2 years, a very heavy pendulum is in motion and that's about the end of it. There are real gains here for templatization, repeatability, speed, and maintenance. When everything is built the same way, it's easy to find someone to work on it for a low price, and the people who use it know how it works before they walk in the door. Just as every house looks like home depot, every app looks like bootstrap. Breaking these cycles requires that the masses have taste, funds, bargaining power, and lasting resolve. On average, we don't. I don't know if it's possible to separate the good from the bad. Things that used to be metal and last 30 years are now plastic that might not make it 30 days. But those same forces are the only reason it's economical to produce eg a flagship phone, which are downright miracles of manufacturing.
masswerk 6y ago
You mean, like in the age of Flash integration? Design awards used to have a "Navigation" category…
specialist 6y ago
The universe of implemented use cases, solutions to people's real world problems, has exploded. But just considering the widgets (ignoring voice, touch, haptics, need I go on?), just the actual visual language and interaction models, there's never been a better time to be a designer (UX/UI). I used to create custom (owner draw) widgets for Windows. At the time I thought they were super complex. Today, the simplest web widget dwarves anything I did. Just the typeahead combo dropbox add-on for Bootstrap has more code and subtly and capability than anything I did. > I was expecting a lot more boutique interfaces Then make them.
- ehnto 6y ago
  I don't disagree that we've got a lot of solutions, but they all use pretty much the same inputs. I'm not sure if that's a bad thing, I'm just surprised is all. > Just the typeahead combo dropbox add-on for Bootstrap has more code and subtly and capability I know there wasn't much in my comment but really what I'm thinking of is akin to a steering wheel in a car. Where you move a lever and it effects the system in a novel way. Where most of what we have is variations on text entry and boolean flipping. If we step away from web applications you do have a whole plethora of UX innovation inside video games, apps, and products in general. I am enamored with the elegance of simple portable battery packs for example. > Then make them. I think the world will remain a better place if I just stick to code, but I like the enthusiasm.

by ehnto 6y ago

RickS 6y ago

It's not that we aren't very good at it, it's that nobody wants to do it. I'd liken it to building codes: given the advances in materials science, one would expect us to be building wildly more diverse styles of homes, with ornate forms and functions that were unimaginable 40 years ago. Why don't we? It turns out that consumers are cheap and unsophisticated. As hardwood becomes plywood+edging becomes MDF+veneer, people are willing to boil the quality frog to grease economies of scale, and by the time we wonder why the hell nothing in our house lasts longer than 2 years, a very heavy pendulum is in motion and that's about the end of it. There are real gains here for templatization, repeatability, speed, and maintenance. When everything is built the same way, it's easy to find someone to work on it for a low price, and the people who use it know how it works before they walk in the door. Just as every house looks like home depot, every app looks like bootstrap. Breaking these cycles requires that the masses have taste, funds, bargaining power, and lasting resolve. On average, we don't. I don't know if it's possible to separate the good from the bad. Things that used to be metal and last 30 years are now plastic that might not make it 30 days. But those same forces are the only reason it's economical to produce eg a flagship phone, which are downright miracles of manufacturing.

masswerk 6y ago

You mean, like in the age of Flash integration? Design awards used to have a "Navigation" category…

specialist 6y ago

The universe of implemented use cases, solutions to people's real world problems, has exploded. But just considering the widgets (ignoring voice, touch, haptics, need I go on?), just the actual visual language and interaction models, there's never been a better time to be a designer (UX/UI). I used to create custom (owner draw) widgets for Windows. At the time I thought they were super complex. Today, the simplest web widget dwarves anything I did. Just the typeahead combo dropbox add-on for Bootstrap has more code and subtly and capability than anything I did. > I was expecting a lot more boutique interfaces Then make them.

ehnto 6y ago
I don't disagree that we've got a lot of solutions, but they all use pretty much the same inputs. I'm not sure if that's a bad thing, I'm just surprised is all. > Just the typeahead combo dropbox add-on for Bootstrap has more code and subtly and capability I know there wasn't much in my comment but really what I'm thinking of is akin to a steering wheel in a car. Where you move a lever and it effects the system in a novel way. Where most of what we have is variations on text entry and boolean flipping. If we step away from web applications you do have a whole plethora of UX innovation inside video games, apps, and products in general. I am enamored with the elegance of simple portable battery packs for example. > Then make them. I think the world will remain a better place if I just stick to code, but I like the enthusiasm.