4 ms·

And it's quite sad. Over the years it feels like UX has become stagnant and rather sterile.

epolanski 4y ago
UX? I would be even happy with more UI variety. I remember jobs and gates being asked at a d8 conference in 2008 how they imagined desktops in 10/15 years. Gates spoke about voice and motion as controls, while jobs argued that on desktop there wasn't much to change because customers were probably already used to things in certain way and any disruption without a net advantage was just not gonna happen. He also said that the only chance for a ux change were mobile devices as they were a fresh start for everyone.
worthless-trash 4y ago
I write that off as the "magnetic aura" affect. When so many apps/pages are written the ones that have the closest UX to the UX the user already has are the ones that are going to be successful. You can deviate only slightly from the existing 'critical mass' or risk not getting adpoted.
derefr 4y ago
UX for VR/AR must be a developing subfield right now, no?
- solardev 4y ago
  Is anyone still seriously pursuing that? I thought it was a burst bubble by now.
  - selfhoster11 4y ago
    VR hardware is barely entering the stage where it's affordable, yet becoming more useful for mainstream tasks. It's far from being a bubble, let alone from bursting.
    - hulitu 4y ago
      I can't wait for MS Word VR/AR plugin.
    - solardev 4y ago
      I feel like I've been hearing this since the Nintendo VirtualBoy, and then again with the failed VRML craze, and then again with Oculus, and then again with that leaping whale thing, and then again with the Microsoft and Google versions... yet fundamentally nothing has changed. It's glasses that project 3D images. So what? Who actually wants this stuff? The novelty wears off after a game or two, and aside from super niche industries (remote surgeries?) there's never been a convincing use case...
      - selfhoster11 4y ago
        One hypothetical killer app for me is the ability to have unlimited displays arranged spatially (the last part is important - virtual desktops on normal displays just don’t work for me), as well as visualisation of complex system states in a way that can make use of our built-in spatial reasoning abilities. You need pretty dang dense VR displays for this, and the old stuff was nowhere close to being usable.
solardev 4y ago
In contrast, I'm so so happy that UX has largely settled on "this works and people know it" researched best practices. We don't need to be reinventing the steering wheel or AC controls for no reason (looking at you, Tesla). The 90s and early 2000s were a hellscape of design nightmares between geocities, MySpace, iframes, and everyone and their grandma trying out new designs. 99% of it was trash. The bog standard website doesn't have to be someone's art project anymore, and that's a great thing for usability. UX isn't stagnant, it's just matured since its infancy. (edit: for example, consider Google's material vs Apple's design systems, where they agree or disagree, even though they are both pretty mature by now. What should a primary call to action look like so it's obvious? How should you navigate a multi layered app? How should notifications work? Etc. Still a lot of interesting problems, they're just more nuanced now. Or look at some of the best selling design apps with complex features and UIs, they are innovating plenty. Or dashboards. Or DevEx stuff. Lots of fun new developments out there, even though some of the older problems have been satisfactorily solved!)
- hulitu 4y ago
  > UX isn't stagnant, it's just matured since its infancy. I'm sorry to tell you but the kid got polio and, as an adult, is quiet disabled.
- selfhoster11 4y ago
  Material is mature in the same way that a corpse or old cheese turns "mature". Mature, sure it is, but is it acceptable? I would say it's not. Sometime after skeumorphic design started dying off, UX has gone in an extremely bad direction. UIs have dropped key affordances and visual cues in favour of oversimplified design elements. UI/UX designers started to optimise for juicing the maximum amount of money and attention out of users too - the focus on "calls to action" and notifications is one example. Features that are 10x force multipliers for users when used sparingly in designs, have been overused to the extent that they become cognitive burdens. Apps are getting redesigned on a whim, confusing users who cannot adjust. UX designers are having fun with the new landscape, but users are not. It's time this is recognised, and designers start to pull more pages from Apple's design handbook, and not Google's.
hulitu 4y ago
Stagnant ? No. The favourite sport of UX people is moving elements around, autohiding things and moving things to titlebar.
selfhoster11 4y ago
FWIW I agree. Old UI/UX wasn't perfect but it beats deserts of blank space and hamburger menu hellscapes.

UX? I would be even happy with more UI variety. I remember jobs and gates being asked at a d8 conference in 2008 how they imagined desktops in 10/15 years. Gates spoke about voice and motion as controls, while jobs argued that on desktop there wasn't much to change because customers were probably already used to things in certain way and any disruption without a net advantage was just not gonna happen. He also said that the only chance for a ux change were mobile devices as they were a fresh start for everyone.

worthless-trash 4y ago

I write that off as the "magnetic aura" affect. When so many apps/pages are written the ones that have the closest UX to the UX the user already has are the ones that are going to be successful. You can deviate only slightly from the existing 'critical mass' or risk not getting adpoted.

derefr 4y ago

UX for VR/AR must be a developing subfield right now, no?

solardev 4y ago
Is anyone still seriously pursuing that? I thought it was a burst bubble by now.
- selfhoster11 4y ago
  VR hardware is barely entering the stage where it's affordable, yet becoming more useful for mainstream tasks. It's far from being a bubble, let alone from bursting.
  - hulitu 4y ago
    I can't wait for MS Word VR/AR plugin.
  - solardev 4y ago
    I feel like I've been hearing this since the Nintendo VirtualBoy, and then again with the failed VRML craze, and then again with Oculus, and then again with that leaping whale thing, and then again with the Microsoft and Google versions... yet fundamentally nothing has changed. It's glasses that project 3D images. So what? Who actually wants this stuff? The novelty wears off after a game or two, and aside from super niche industries (remote surgeries?) there's never been a convincing use case...
    - selfhoster11 4y ago
      One hypothetical killer app for me is the ability to have unlimited displays arranged spatially (the last part is important - virtual desktops on normal displays just don’t work for me), as well as visualisation of complex system states in a way that can make use of our built-in spatial reasoning abilities. You need pretty dang dense VR displays for this, and the old stuff was nowhere close to being usable.

solardev 4y ago

In contrast, I'm so so happy that UX has largely settled on "this works and people know it" researched best practices. We don't need to be reinventing the steering wheel or AC controls for no reason (looking at you, Tesla). The 90s and early 2000s were a hellscape of design nightmares between geocities, MySpace, iframes, and everyone and their grandma trying out new designs. 99% of it was trash. The bog standard website doesn't have to be someone's art project anymore, and that's a great thing for usability. UX isn't stagnant, it's just matured since its infancy. (edit: for example, consider Google's material vs Apple's design systems, where they agree or disagree, even though they are both pretty mature by now. What should a primary call to action look like so it's obvious? How should you navigate a multi layered app? How should notifications work? Etc. Still a lot of interesting problems, they're just more nuanced now. Or look at some of the best selling design apps with complex features and UIs, they are innovating plenty. Or dashboards. Or DevEx stuff. Lots of fun new developments out there, even though some of the older problems have been satisfactorily solved!)

hulitu 4y ago
> UX isn't stagnant, it's just matured since its infancy. I'm sorry to tell you but the kid got polio and, as an adult, is quiet disabled.
selfhoster11 4y ago
Material is mature in the same way that a corpse or old cheese turns "mature". Mature, sure it is, but is it acceptable? I would say it's not. Sometime after skeumorphic design started dying off, UX has gone in an extremely bad direction. UIs have dropped key affordances and visual cues in favour of oversimplified design elements. UI/UX designers started to optimise for juicing the maximum amount of money and attention out of users too - the focus on "calls to action" and notifications is one example. Features that are 10x force multipliers for users when used sparingly in designs, have been overused to the extent that they become cognitive burdens. Apps are getting redesigned on a whim, confusing users who cannot adjust. UX designers are having fun with the new landscape, but users are not. It's time this is recognised, and designers start to pull more pages from Apple's design handbook, and not Google's.

hulitu 4y ago

Stagnant ? No. The favourite sport of UX people is moving elements around, autohiding things and moving things to titlebar.

selfhoster11 4y ago

FWIW I agree. Old UI/UX wasn't perfect but it beats deserts of blank space and hamburger menu hellscapes.