I was just setting up new phones for my parents last week. And seriously, y'all (making the software) have ruined computers.
Modern apps are so obnoxious and distracting and unusable it’s getting ridiculous. Tapping a verify link in an email would slide the email screen out, then slide in a browser, wait a second or two, then slide out the browser, then slide in the play store, then wait a moment, then slide in the app itself, which then had to update the screen after another second or two. Multiple screen changes flashing before my eyes made even me feel dizzy and confused. My mother had raised eyebrows and shook her head like she just got lost.
Then once you get in the apps, there's so many distractions that make the UI unusuable. "Hey did you know about this?" "Tap this to do this thing!" "Look over here!" not to mention various notification and permission prompts. The permission prompts are especially concerning because now there's so many of them to even start using a messaging app, for example, that you train yourself to just click through them instead of scrutinize them.
We've essentially gotten rid of text labels on icons, making it anyone's guess as to what the icon with the 3 colored circles does, or an icon with a shape, two lines, and another shape that I can't even describe succinctly. So many gestures make navigating the software a guessing game. My poor mother was like, "So to go to the last app I do this" only to gesture "back" in the same app, "Oh, I meant this", only to bring up the app selector. Nothing is discoverable anymore. Those little "learn how to use your phone" tutorials do nothing for you in "the real world." My father, who used to teach Commodore computers to his community, could no more figure out how to use a phone than his students could a Commodore.
We were in much better times when computers came with 100 page manuals and you had to go to a class or ask a techie how to use them.
I'm not even going to talk about the privacy problems in all this software.
I had to keep apologizing to my parents for my industry making the experience so bad and downright confusing.
Then once you get in the apps, there's so many distractions that make the UI unusuable. "Hey did you know about this?" "Tap this to do this thing!" "Look over here!" not to mention various notification and permission prompts.
I feel a lot of modern UI/UX design isn't to serve the user, but rather the company itself. It's no surprise that it's unusable garbage because the user is merely a resource to exploit, not a human to deliver value to. See: Windows 11, smart TVs, and growth hacking.
Yes it's strange, outside of a couple of really great features (maps navigation is what comes to mind) my mobile phone is more and more something I avoid than seek to use and help me with the routine of my life.
At this point, 90% of what I do on my phone is probably text messages and maps. The rest of it is too inconsistent, changes too often, and is too demanding. I have to spend so much time turning off notifications and permissions for apps that I almost never bother installing new ones anymore.
"Hey did you know about this?" "Tap this to do this thing!" "Look over here!" not to mention various notification and permission prompts.
This kind of thing is a pet peeve of mine. I think those things are attempts to mitigate some of the fallout from the fact that UIs no longer think discoverability is an important thing. So, instead of the UI itself incorporating discoverability, we're presented with these nearly-useless nags.
That is in part because of the users, because so many of them don't want to explore the UI or try to figure out how it works. Instead, they just want to know what they have to click on to do the thing that they want to do. I've tried to teach so many people how to use these things that just refuse to actually look around, and instead look at me helplessly instead of reading what the screen says. Bear in mind, that is when UI are made to be discoverable.
I just lump it in with all the other changes that signal that companies don't really want people to think about what they're doing on the devices anymore. They just want them to look where they want them to.
because so many of them don't want to explore the UI or try to figure out how it works.
I've become one of them. It used to be that it was safe to experiment, because anything really damaging could be undone (which is an important part of discoverability). At some point, that stopped being a thing I could count on, so I've come to view experimentation as a risky thing.
But those nags don't solve the problem. They're really annoying, get in the way, and are rarely actually helpful. Nowadays, when they come up, I just close them without reading and get a bit irritated.
A huge problem with touch UIs is the lack of mouse-hover discoverability. At least with desktop applications that don't have labels on UI elements, usually a hover will raise a tooltip description.
Touchscreens are just incredibly restricted control interfaces in general
They're trying to replace physical buttons with actions like swipes and in my experience swipes, pinches, double taps, all that stuff only works some of the time
A right click on a physical mouse works every time
Comments
I was just setting up new phones for my parents last week. And seriously, y'all (making the software) have ruined computers.
Modern apps are so obnoxious and distracting and unusable it’s getting ridiculous. Tapping a verify link in an email would slide the email screen out, then slide in a browser, wait a second or two, then slide out the browser, then slide in the play store, then wait a moment, then slide in the app itself, which then had to update the screen after another second or two. Multiple screen changes flashing before my eyes made even me feel dizzy and confused. My mother had raised eyebrows and shook her head like she just got lost.
Then once you get in the apps, there's so many distractions that make the UI unusuable. "Hey did you know about this?" "Tap this to do this thing!" "Look over here!" not to mention various notification and permission prompts. The permission prompts are especially concerning because now there's so many of them to even start using a messaging app, for example, that you train yourself to just click through them instead of scrutinize them.
We've essentially gotten rid of text labels on icons, making it anyone's guess as to what the icon with the 3 colored circles does, or an icon with a shape, two lines, and another shape that I can't even describe succinctly. So many gestures make navigating the software a guessing game. My poor mother was like, "So to go to the last app I do this" only to gesture "back" in the same app, "Oh, I meant this", only to bring up the app selector. Nothing is discoverable anymore. Those little "learn how to use your phone" tutorials do nothing for you in "the real world." My father, who used to teach Commodore computers to his community, could no more figure out how to use a phone than his students could a Commodore.
We were in much better times when computers came with 100 page manuals and you had to go to a class or ask a techie how to use them.
I'm not even going to talk about the privacy problems in all this software.
I had to keep apologizing to my parents for my industry making the experience so bad and downright confusing.
I feel a lot of modern UI/UX design isn't to serve the user, but rather the company itself. It's no surprise that it's unusable garbage because the user is merely a resource to exploit, not a human to deliver value to. See: Windows 11, smart TVs, and growth hacking.
Yes it's strange, outside of a couple of really great features (maps navigation is what comes to mind) my mobile phone is more and more something I avoid than seek to use and help me with the routine of my life.
At this point, 90% of what I do on my phone is probably text messages and maps. The rest of it is too inconsistent, changes too often, and is too demanding. I have to spend so much time turning off notifications and permissions for apps that I almost never bother installing new ones anymore.
This kind of thing is a pet peeve of mine. I think those things are attempts to mitigate some of the fallout from the fact that UIs no longer think discoverability is an important thing. So, instead of the UI itself incorporating discoverability, we're presented with these nearly-useless nags.
That is in part because of the users, because so many of them don't want to explore the UI or try to figure out how it works. Instead, they just want to know what they have to click on to do the thing that they want to do. I've tried to teach so many people how to use these things that just refuse to actually look around, and instead look at me helplessly instead of reading what the screen says. Bear in mind, that is when UI are made to be discoverable.
I just lump it in with all the other changes that signal that companies don't really want people to think about what they're doing on the devices anymore. They just want them to look where they want them to.
I've become one of them. It used to be that it was safe to experiment, because anything really damaging could be undone (which is an important part of discoverability). At some point, that stopped being a thing I could count on, so I've come to view experimentation as a risky thing.
But those nags don't solve the problem. They're really annoying, get in the way, and are rarely actually helpful. Nowadays, when they come up, I just close them without reading and get a bit irritated.
A huge problem with touch UIs is the lack of mouse-hover discoverability. At least with desktop applications that don't have labels on UI elements, usually a hover will raise a tooltip description.
Touchscreens are just incredibly restricted control interfaces in general
They're trying to replace physical buttons with actions like swipes and in my experience swipes, pinches, double taps, all that stuff only works some of the time
A right click on a physical mouse works every time