4 ms·

Old UIs were like woodshops, with brightly-colored tools stored in a series of labelled tool chests. Everything got reorganized once every other year, which was

Old UIs were like woodshops, with brightly-colored tools stored in a series of labelled tool chests. Everything got reorganized once every other year, which was annoying but understandable. New UIs are like shoe stores, with off-white shoes stored in unlabelled off-white shoeboxes. Everything is shuffled around randomly once per quarter, which is exhausting and not understandable. Why did this happen?

ncann 5y ago
> Why did this happen? UI/UX people need to make their mark to justify their salary, that's why.
- fendy3002 5y ago
  Uhh I don't know if UX takes part here. The new design really ignore ux. I guess it must be UI & marketing people.
  - numpad0 5y ago
    My guess is marketing roles just pays a whole lot better than anything in the society today thanks to extreme focus onto the Web. It is plain stupid to seek career in actual hard engineering when just consuming alcohol and socializing in suits lands you mid six figures. People often criticized that we are spending finest of a generation into extracting clicks just few years ago but it's not even that.
  - CRConrad 5y ago
    "UX" is mostly just the new "sexy" term for UI. Look how many UI designers there used to be; now they're (almost) all "UX designers".
warning26 5y ago
To be fair, classic Windows had its share of poor UI choices. Remember those days of a system tray with 25 icons in it?
- Nition 5y ago
  I've got the opposite problem here. I like showing all the active icons (although I also try to keep them to a minimum) and Windows 11 removed the option to always show all. Now any time you install something with a new icon, you have to go to the taskbar settings again and manually allow it to show.
- gruez 5y ago
  that sounds more of a problem with all the random apps you install than being a "windows" issue. microsoft can take steps to mitigate it (eg. by making hiding system tray icons by default), but calling it a "poor UI choice" on their part doesn't make much sense. it's like blaming firefox for allowing sites with annoying banners and not having adblocker by default.
  - ntSean 5y ago
    Am I supposed to practice driver minimalism to prevent a slew of tray icons from occupying my screen? It is poor design by having that be the form of which quick access to settings is provided. The tray icon paradigm simply invites clutter.
    - gruez 5y ago
      > Am I supposed to practice driver minimalism to prevent a slew of tray icons from occupying my screen? The taskbar icons are added by programs that are running. Disabling autorun for them prevents them from starting, and therefore the icons from showing up. I'd say 90% of the time disabling autorun for the companion program doesn't break any functionality.
- eloisius 5y ago
  I do, but I'd say that was an okay design and that bloatware bundlers abused it. It was simple to use and made a lot of sense for your "always on" applications like AIM, but definitely didn't need to be occupied by an icon for your printer drivers.
- userbinator 5y ago

ncann 5y ago

> Why did this happen? UI/UX people need to make their mark to justify their salary, that's why.

fendy3002 5y ago
Uhh I don't know if UX takes part here. The new design really ignore ux. I guess it must be UI & marketing people.
- numpad0 5y ago
  My guess is marketing roles just pays a whole lot better than anything in the society today thanks to extreme focus onto the Web. It is plain stupid to seek career in actual hard engineering when just consuming alcohol and socializing in suits lands you mid six figures. People often criticized that we are spending finest of a generation into extracting clicks just few years ago but it's not even that.
- CRConrad 5y ago
  "UX" is mostly just the new "sexy" term for UI. Look how many UI designers there used to be; now they're (almost) all "UX designers".

warning26 5y ago

To be fair, classic Windows had its share of poor UI choices. Remember those days of a system tray with 25 icons in it?

Nition 5y ago
I've got the opposite problem here. I like showing all the active icons (although I also try to keep them to a minimum) and Windows 11 removed the option to always show all. Now any time you install something with a new icon, you have to go to the taskbar settings again and manually allow it to show.
gruez 5y ago
that sounds more of a problem with all the random apps you install than being a "windows" issue. microsoft can take steps to mitigate it (eg. by making hiding system tray icons by default), but calling it a "poor UI choice" on their part doesn't make much sense. it's like blaming firefox for allowing sites with annoying banners and not having adblocker by default.
- ntSean 5y ago
  Am I supposed to practice driver minimalism to prevent a slew of tray icons from occupying my screen? It is poor design by having that be the form of which quick access to settings is provided. The tray icon paradigm simply invites clutter.
  - gruez 5y ago
    > Am I supposed to practice driver minimalism to prevent a slew of tray icons from occupying my screen? The taskbar icons are added by programs that are running. Disabling autorun for them prevents them from starting, and therefore the icons from showing up. I'd say 90% of the time disabling autorun for the companion program doesn't break any functionality.
eloisius 5y ago
I do, but I'd say that was an okay design and that bloatware bundlers abused it. It was simple to use and made a lot of sense for your "always on" applications like AIM, but definitely didn't need to be occupied by an icon for your printer drivers.
userbinator 5y ago