4 ms·

> Especially the contrast/magic number discussion. It's crazy how many user interfaces these days blur design elements to where you can't tell were controls are

> Especially the contrast/magic number discussion. It's crazy how many user interfaces these days blur design elements to where you can't tell were controls are. The recent trend to eliminate window title bars is particularly infuriating, but buttons that don't look like buttons because they blend into the background are another pet peeve - or have light gray on dark gray. Ugh! Contrast serves a purpose! Modern UX design fads appear to be a UX trainwreck. It's kind of sad when the supposed experts choose to badly screw up stuff that had already been figured out. Sometimes it seems UX rule one is: show you're better than your users by invalidating their investment and making your UI harder to use once they've gotten used to it.

laurent92 5y ago
It’s boring when UIs have a stark contrast; What makes light contrasts beautiful is rarity. Perhaps in the future, extremely elusive UIs with very faint variations will be the top of the design fashion after using cookies to know the user’s tolerance to light contrast. For example, today’s movies are pitch black because they want to upsell 5000:1 screens. The sole reason it didn’t happen to software yet is because we don’t receive any kickback from screen manufacturers, as opposed to movies.
- paulryanrogers 5y ago
  Yet UIs are too often services increasingly necessary to live and excel in life. So all these rare and beautiful designs keep out users with vision problems, or at minimum push them to use more tooling to work around that shit.
datavirtue 5y ago
Exactly,I seriously can't wait until our modern UIs are made illegal by a modification to the disabilities act. I'll probably throw a party.
- kj4ips 5y ago
  I vaguely remember a pizza delivery company facing a fine, because its website actively broke screen readers, and therefore was considered as discriminating against the blind. Memory says a blind would-be customer complained loudly, but was ignored before they engaged the authorities with a formal complaint.
- heavyset_go 5y ago
  I don't think you'd even need a modification to laws, you'd just need actual enforcement of existing laws when it comes to accessibility and tech.
devoutsalsa 5y ago
We’re in an era of S(uper)UX.
osigurdson 5y ago
I'm not a web designer but I personally don't have any issue with "modern" UI design. It looks clean to me and I don't have any trouble distinguishing things. Just a data point.
- iratewizard 5y ago
  I've been doing software engineering for about 16 years now and 10 of them have been specializing in design, UI and UX. Modern UI principles are good. A stark improvement from the days when hapless engineers were in charge of design because nobody considered it. There are always bad trends and bad apples, but they stick out a lot more now. Mostly because they're contrasted so sharply with good design everywhere.
IgorPartola 5y ago
Honestly this all sounds very old fart “they don’t build them like they used to” and “back in my day”. That isn’t to say I disagree with the sentiment entirely. But: A hidden button doesn’t clutter up what the user interacts with so long as the user knows how to find the button. I like clever interfaces after I figure them out. I don’t like them before because they make me feel stupid. But as soon as they make me feel smart after I figure them out, I suddenly enjoy them so long as they meet the second goal: make me productive. Take Snapchat for example. It has a really clever UX where you tap on your face and it will bring up filters. I honestly don’t know if there is a dedicated button for this somewhere. I certainly felt dumb right up to the point where someone showed this feature to me and and then it felt very neat. So maybe when the pendulum swings from clutter-free to discoverable again we could find some compromise between 1000 buttons on the screen that all do something and no visible buttons and figure out clever AND discoverable interfaces. And before yet another startup with their idea for a UI walk through GUI pops up, no those things aren’t the answer. They suck and I would prefer they didn’t exist. If your UI needs it, you designed a bad UI.
- riedel 5y ago
  The problem starts if you have to make assumptions about the ability of the user to figure things out. Smart user interfaces too often leave people behind because it is far too complicated to test UX for discrimination. Good design guidelines like the OP help. However, I agree there is the slight possibility for smart UX: First build it with your grandma and a user with a switch input in mind (a11y personas) and let the kids do the learning curve...
scim-knox-twox 5y ago
> It's kind of sad when the supposed experts choose to badly screw up stuff that had already been figured out. Most "experts" I meet know... nothing. They don't know basics of their jobs, they don't think how their design / code will have effect for people other then... them.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]

laurent92 5y ago

It’s boring when UIs have a stark contrast; What makes light contrasts beautiful is rarity. Perhaps in the future, extremely elusive UIs with very faint variations will be the top of the design fashion after using cookies to know the user’s tolerance to light contrast. For example, today’s movies are pitch black because they want to upsell 5000:1 screens. The sole reason it didn’t happen to software yet is because we don’t receive any kickback from screen manufacturers, as opposed to movies.

paulryanrogers 5y ago
Yet UIs are too often services increasingly necessary to live and excel in life. So all these rare and beautiful designs keep out users with vision problems, or at minimum push them to use more tooling to work around that shit.

datavirtue 5y ago

Exactly,I seriously can't wait until our modern UIs are made illegal by a modification to the disabilities act. I'll probably throw a party.

kj4ips 5y ago
I vaguely remember a pizza delivery company facing a fine, because its website actively broke screen readers, and therefore was considered as discriminating against the blind. Memory says a blind would-be customer complained loudly, but was ignored before they engaged the authorities with a formal complaint.
heavyset_go 5y ago
I don't think you'd even need a modification to laws, you'd just need actual enforcement of existing laws when it comes to accessibility and tech.

devoutsalsa 5y ago

We’re in an era of S(uper)UX.

osigurdson 5y ago

I'm not a web designer but I personally don't have any issue with "modern" UI design. It looks clean to me and I don't have any trouble distinguishing things. Just a data point.

iratewizard 5y ago
I've been doing software engineering for about 16 years now and 10 of them have been specializing in design, UI and UX. Modern UI principles are good. A stark improvement from the days when hapless engineers were in charge of design because nobody considered it. There are always bad trends and bad apples, but they stick out a lot more now. Mostly because they're contrasted so sharply with good design everywhere.

IgorPartola 5y ago

Honestly this all sounds very old fart “they don’t build them like they used to” and “back in my day”. That isn’t to say I disagree with the sentiment entirely. But: A hidden button doesn’t clutter up what the user interacts with so long as the user knows how to find the button. I like clever interfaces after I figure them out. I don’t like them before because they make me feel stupid. But as soon as they make me feel smart after I figure them out, I suddenly enjoy them so long as they meet the second goal: make me productive. Take Snapchat for example. It has a really clever UX where you tap on your face and it will bring up filters. I honestly don’t know if there is a dedicated button for this somewhere. I certainly felt dumb right up to the point where someone showed this feature to me and and then it felt very neat. So maybe when the pendulum swings from clutter-free to discoverable again we could find some compromise between 1000 buttons on the screen that all do something and no visible buttons and figure out clever AND discoverable interfaces. And before yet another startup with their idea for a UI walk through GUI pops up, no those things aren’t the answer. They suck and I would prefer they didn’t exist. If your UI needs it, you designed a bad UI.

riedel 5y ago
The problem starts if you have to make assumptions about the ability of the user to figure things out. Smart user interfaces too often leave people behind because it is far too complicated to test UX for discrimination. Good design guidelines like the OP help. However, I agree there is the slight possibility for smart UX: First build it with your grandma and a user with a switch input in mind (a11y personas) and let the kids do the learning curve...

scim-knox-twox 5y ago

> It's kind of sad when the supposed experts choose to badly screw up stuff that had already been figured out. Most "experts" I meet know... nothing. They don't know basics of their jobs, they don't think how their design / code will have effect for people other then... them.

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]