What I find weird is how many professional web developers contact me to ask what theme I’m using on my blog, a straight HTML website with 42 lines of inline CSS. I even was asked once with JS library I was using. (there is no JS, it’s a blog !)

None of those sending me those emails bothered to even look at the code. None even thought it was possible that this was NOT a "theme" somewhere on the web.

Yet I’m seen as the weird one in the industry.

I don't understand how a couple of naive emails translates to the disrespect of an entire class of people.

Well the parent expresses surprise at how many such emails they receive. I don't think the disrespect an entire class of people, they just say "it's not a couple naive emails, it's a lot more than I would expect".

It's a humble brag, not substantive.

You mentioned "professional web developers", not "professional UI designers".

That's the point.

I always find it frustrating to read HN comments expressing hatred towards mobile and whitespace-rich designs.

These designs exist based on user research, as most people find them pleasant and intuitive. I don't understand what's wrong with these design patterns.

Research by and on whom?

I don't doubt in the slightest that fancy mobile-y design styles look nice and are often intuitive at T=0, but we've lost a lot of throughput and information density by going for them as an industry.

It's the same as trying to write code on a phone, but backwards

All too often being 'mobile first' means being desktop last. It feels like a betrayal when UX becomes a zero sum tradeoff between new users and the enthusiast users who built the platform and community to be what it is. User research metrics will favor the new users every time because inexperienced users tend to be the majority. Eventually, the enthusiast users leave, causing many to wonder why the original culture and appeal of a website disappeared.

But none of that matters, the conversion rate went up 5% so the product manager still gets promoted :)

Microsoft went with whatever Windows 8 was based on user research too. Just because someone did a few interviews it doesn't make it good. :)

In this case I have to agree though. Linking to LinkedIn is simply ridiculous. What's next, linking to a high school yearbook?

All terrible UIs are said to be based on some amount of "user research" and are usually called "pleasant and intuitive" only by people promoting them.

Can you name a single failed interface that wasn't?

How would you like it if reading this comment downloaded a 2mb react bundle?