Re:How many layers of UI inconsistencies are in Windows 11?
by rolenthedeep on Monday January 02, 2023 @03:09PM
(#34222978)
UI design is trending in a bad direction. UIs are being designed as some sort of modern art piece rather than a tool that is designed to be used by humans.
My favorite example is VS Code vs Rider.
VS code looks like a toy. A big stack of unlabeled vage icons that require a decade of context to intuit. Compiling your program takes three clicks and a context switch away from your code! Unless you're a normal person who hasn't memorized those icons, and then it's six or seven clicks while you fumble through the menus.
Rider is a classic ugly UI. everything has labels or tooltips. There's a goddamn toolbar with all your common controls. Building your code requires one single click.
Not a single person is going to stare at your landing page like it's a genuine Picasso. Your ui is not going to be placed in the museum of modern art.
A UI is a tool. If someone has to ask you how to use it, it's not very good. If your users are fumbling through menus after the first hour, it's a bad design. If a user has to have the documentation open at all times to decode your hieroglyphic icons, it's a bad design.
As for my own UI design, the core philosophy is first-order accessibility. If you have to do a task every time you open the program, then that task is accessible with one or zero clicks. If a user asks me what a button does, it gets a better label or a helpful tooltip as well as a mention in the docs. My UIs look like something out of windows 95: simple controls laid out in a grid in clearly delineated functional groups. Everything is labeled and laid out in a way that places the most common controls in VERY OBVIOUS and CONVENIENT locations. It's ugly because it's designed to be used and not looked at.
If a user spends time in my program that isn't related to the task they're doing, I've done something wrong. If someone has to ask me how to do something, it means I have to rethink my design. If users are relying on documentation to navigate my program, I need to redesign.
I respect ui designers who build helpful and useful UIs. I don't respect designers who drop all text and sprinkle a dozen abstract images on a vast barren wasteland of screen space.
My favorite example is VS Code vs Rider.
VS code looks like a toy. A big stack of unlabeled vage icons that require a decade of context to intuit. Compiling your program takes three clicks and a context switch away from your code! Unless you're a normal person who hasn't memorized those icons, and then it's six or seven clicks while you fumble through the menus.
Rider is a classic ugly UI. everything has labels or tooltips. There's a goddamn toolbar with all your common controls. Building your code requires one single click.
Not a single person is going to stare at your landing page like it's a genuine Picasso. Your ui is not going to be placed in the museum of modern art.
A UI is a tool. If someone has to ask you how to use it, it's not very good. If your users are fumbling through menus after the first hour, it's a bad design. If a user has to have the documentation open at all times to decode your hieroglyphic icons, it's a bad design.
As for my own UI design, the core philosophy is first-order accessibility. If you have to do a task every time you open the program, then that task is accessible with one or zero clicks. If a user asks me what a button does, it gets a better label or a helpful tooltip as well as a mention in the docs. My UIs look like something out of windows 95: simple controls laid out in a grid in clearly delineated functional groups. Everything is labeled and laid out in a way that places the most common controls in VERY OBVIOUS and CONVENIENT locations. It's ugly because it's designed to be used and not looked at.
If a user spends time in my program that isn't related to the task they're doing, I've done something wrong. If someone has to ask me how to do something, it means I have to rethink my design. If users are relying on documentation to navigate my program, I need to redesign.
I respect ui designers who build helpful and useful UIs. I don't respect designers who drop all text and sprinkle a dozen abstract images on a vast barren wasteland of screen space.