Productivity software, computer maintenance tools, creative software suites, integrated development environments, habit trackers, language learning apps, video games, video streaming libraries, pretty much anything that involves a screen feels bad. It's so odd that every bit of software's UI/UX feels both overly designed/bloated but also simultaneously barren and empty. Software design seems increasingly unable to fulfill its basic functionality. So many of the bits of software that we interact with feel identical but also somehow feel distinctly bad.
I can't articulate how capitalism is to blame but if any of you could help I would appreciate it.
You’d think that there would be some sort of universal visual/technical language we can all agree upon but it seems that there is no real driving aesthetic philosophy for systems we use every day. Aside from getting users to interact with a payment system/outlet all of the software we use has dreadful UI/UX.
Paying for something is very easy. Simple and intuitive (most of the time), it’s usually one to four clicks/taps but actually using a thing is seemingly more difficult. Using a common feature of a product can be somewhere between two to nine clicks/taps. I don’t think everything should be command-line interfaces (CLI) of course, but I will say that CLI at least usually allow users to get what they want.
I know it’s usually answered with “because money”, but how and why are UI/UX so universally bad for pretty much every bit of software we all use? It feels kind like how every car (fuck cars) had the same weird amorphous shape that is both considered “normal” must also universally unappealing.
What happened?
I've taken the black pill with regards to UI, which is that all UI is shit. UI only becomes "good" when you're used to it, and "good" UI that you encounter in the wild only seems that way because it's similar enough to UI that you're used to that it behaves close to your expectations. So UI will always seem to be getting worse, because new UI will always have elements that you're not used to making it seem bad, but UI will also always slowly get better, because you'll be getting used to it through exposure.
The only correct take. Anyone who has to do tech support for their boomer parents will learn this the hard way. There's never a time when a site redesign wouldn't cause them to completely panic. And the time when they finally acclimate to the new design is also the time when the site has another site redesign, beginning the cycle all over again.
There is no good UI. The least bad UI is the one you've used the most.
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there's good principles like the three click rule and understanding that a screen isn't a piece of paper