3 ms·
I used to work in UI (within game development) and there are very good reasons for this. Almost every time someone decided to do something different, usually th
by Agentlien 4y ago
I used to work in UI (within game development) and there are very good reasons for this. Almost every time someone decided to do something different, usually thinking themselves innovative, it meant disregarding conventions and confusing and frustrating players. There were some exceptions, but experienced designers know when to stick to conventions and the short of it is "most of the time".
The most frustrating experience for our team was regarding the design of a widget meant to convey a number of properties and statistics about some in-game object. Our very experienced Senior UI Designer came up with something which was simple, clean, and looked great.
A manager without UI knowledge didn't like it and mandated that it was replaced by his own unique vision, despite protests. This resulted in half a year of iteration and tests, bumping against problem after problem which needed to be solved. Readability, contrast under different circumstances, data edge cases, you name it.
Meanwhile, our senior designer was forced to follow along, protesting and reminding everyone at each step that he had a perfectly fine solution to begin with. In the end, after months of painful iteration the manager had a brilliant idea, suggesting a fix for the final remaining issue. He had now, by ordering our Senior Designer how to perform each iteration and then evaluating it together, designed the perfect widget. Our senior opened up his original rejected design and showed that it, indeed, followed that specification to a T.
- bluGill 4y agoOne wonders how much the original could have been improved by starting with that, and then testing. Of course a senior designer should get close to ideal, but taking a good start and then testing normally reveals minor flaws.
- Agentlien 4y agoYes, that poor guy was so endlessly frustrated both by the waste of time and the complete lack of appreciation for his skills and expertise.
- dehrmann 4y agoA more senior designer would have known to convince the manager at the outset that the design was actually his idea.
- Agentlien 4y agoUsually the designer in question could do that, but... Let us just say that the manager in question was the reason several people quit and at least one person was fired for insubordination. He was not reasonable or easy to work with.
- P5fRxh5kUvp2th 4y ago> I used to work in UI (within game development) and there are very good reasons for this. Almost every time someone decided to do something different, usually thinking themselves innovative, it meant disregarding conventions and confusing and frustrating players. There were some exceptions, but experienced designers know when to stick to conventions and the short of it is "most of the time". Well here's why you're wrong! hint: you're not wrong. Even as a technical person it drives me nuts when interfaces change for the sake of it. I've come to dislike designers over the years. Not because I dislike designers, but because it seems like form has taken too much precedence over function and often that form changes as the old guard is replaced with the new.
- hsn915 4y ago> I used to work in UI (within game development) and there are very good reasons for this. Almost every time someone decided to do something different, usually thinking themselves innovative, it meant disregarding conventions and confusing and frustrating players. This is very easy to disprove: UI design follows trends. The current trend is flat UI, so everyone is doing it. Before that, there used to be a different trend, and everyone was following it. These trends have nothing to do with helping users. Doesn't flat UI confuse and frustrate users? My contention is that it does, yet everyone is doing it. Constant popups to remind people to sign up for news letters? Frustrating. Too much negative space and not much useful functionality on the UI? Confusing and frustrating. Hiding features that people want to use all the time behind a hamburger menu? Removing functionality all together because the designer couldn't figure out a way to fit it into his design? Almost everytime some application does a "redesign" to "modernize" their UI, they do it by following current trends, and the result is an objectively worse UI: - Users are confused and frustrated. - Previously accessible functionality hidden behind more menus or removed altogether. - Slower/Jankier overall performance. Really nothing about it has anything to do with caring about the actual user experience.