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?
GUIs suck, but if you think they've been getting worse you're just doing a nostalgic fallacy. We all hate change when we're not in the right mindset. It's also perfectly reasonable not wanting to relearn shit you already know how to do. With free software there often are some old farts keeping that these programs in working order so you can just keep on using your 40 year old text editor and 30 year old mail client, but with a lot of proprietary software and especially online services, you're basically forced to upgrade, which sucks.
BUT I'm actually fairly convinced people treat UI design way more seriously than back in the day, and the occasional good idea does indeed proliferate. Some software may be getting worse as it's getting more bloated or ruined by the marketing department, but the overall state of the art is improving I think.