Is there any reason why the official Mastodon app (I use Android) is NOT showing a warning, if you try to post a picture without ALT-TEXT?
@apps does a great UX job here and reminds me, every time I forget to add an alt text.
If needed, I can add a feature request / bug ticket.
For some years now the UI design and interaction methods shown in sci-fi movies have become ever more abstract & complex, driven by minimalist aesthetics utilizing high-res graphics, a design philosophy based on total omniscient access, heavy information density and interactive realtime visualizations (and/or visual ways of browsing) to aid exploration & expose patterns/relationships, the use of layered/spatial layouts, capable of customization/personalization, programmability (of sorts), shared state with contextually morphing representations and relying on gestural/voice controls, all designed to empower people in changing (often urgent) situations and enabling them to manage/filter a large information space.
Whilst a lot of these fantasy UIs are also just that: eye candy, clichéd kitsch and completely nonsensical graphic design wanks, in the real world instead, mainstream UI/UX design has largely moved towards becoming a bastion of boring blandness, caused by a frequently encountered design attitude which outright patronizes potential users and rejects their agency by considering everyone to be part of an homogeneous group and designers only ever wanting to cater for the lowest most "simple" (but actually simplistic!) approach. Design by template (and I don't just mean the graphic parts). This is amplified by lack of user interaction research & testing, but also by designing for the lowest common denominators of mobile OS platforms, by the guidelines imposed by app store approval processes etc.
The same patterns are everywhere, from smart watches, to ovens, cars, even in a lot of games, but especially bad on mobile. Entire generations of _people_ (not "users"!) are being conditioned to interact with machines and information systems in the form of endless self-similar sequences of deeply nested menus, popovers/modals, lists & grids and a handful of standard widgets (mostly buttons of some sort) via which every single task, large or small has to be solved. Scrolling everywhere, and maximizing whitespace of course, because what else are all these modern high res screens really for? We expect so little by now, no wonder people are considering LLMs a magic breakthrough! Meanwhile, basic text editing on a phone is still unfathomably bad and a constant, impossibly fiddly source of frustration... A general lack of undo/redo too (not just mobile, also most web apps).
We have the most capable of machines ever, incl. sensors which could be used to augment mobile interactions for so many people. Yet for many in the current breed of "professionals" in UI/UX, the design space and horizon of imagination what's possible and/or acceptable has shrunk down to the size of a shoe box and it's being defended and post-rationalized for the most inane of reasons... Liquid Glass™ on one hand, "LLM-ing all the things" on the other, relying on planet-scale infrastructure to pull off some form of glossy "intelligent assistant/slave" is NOT a scalable or even desirable solution! These are the wet dreams of aesthetes, graphic & product designers who never seem to use their own creations even just once (else they would very quickly realize the error of their ways...)
It just doesn't have to be like that! It also wasn't always like that... As with politics, we've allowed the bad-faith and/or lazy players to take over and let them dictate their overly simplistic (and frequently inconsiderate, if not abusive) world view on everyone and everything...
"I still have a dream..."
What are some writing hot takes? 🥵
Here are a few of mine (in no particular order).
1️⃣ Learn the rules so that you know when—and how—to break them.
2️⃣ "Irregardless" should not be a word.
3️⃣ The Oxford comma is critical. Use it.
"Come meet Jane, a clown and a thief" states that Jane is a clown and a thief.
By contrast, "Come meet Jane, a clown, and a thief" indicates 3 different characters.
For some years now the UI design and interaction methods shown in sci-fi movies have become ever more abstract & complex, driven by minimalist aesthetics utilizing high-res graphics, a design philosophy based on total omniscient access, heavy information density and interactive realtime visualizations (and/or visual ways of browsing) to aid exploration & expose patterns/relationships, the use of layered/spatial layouts, capable of customization/personalization, programmability (of sorts), shared state with contextually morphing representations and relying on gestural/voice controls, all designed to empower people in changing (often urgent) situations and enabling them to manage/filter a large information space.
Whilst a lot of these fantasy UIs are also just that: eye candy, clichéd kitsch and completely nonsensical graphic design wanks, in the real world instead, mainstream UI/UX design has largely moved towards becoming a bastion of boring blandness, caused by a frequently encountered design attitude which outright patronizes potential users and rejects their agency by considering everyone to be part of an homogeneous group and designers only ever wanting to cater for the lowest most "simple" (but actually simplistic!) approach. Design by template (and I don't just mean the graphic parts). This is amplified by lack of user interaction research & testing, but also by designing for the lowest common denominators of mobile OS platforms, by the guidelines imposed by app store approval processes etc.
The same patterns are everywhere, from smart watches, to ovens, cars, even in a lot of games, but especially bad on mobile. Entire generations of _people_ (not "users"!) are being conditioned to interact with machines and information systems in the form of endless self-similar sequences of deeply nested menus, popovers/modals, lists & grids and a handful of standard widgets (mostly buttons of some sort) via which every single task, large or small has to be solved. Scrolling everywhere, and maximizing whitespace of course, because what else are all these modern high res screens really for? We expect so little by now, no wonder people are considering LLMs a magic breakthrough! Meanwhile, basic text editing on a phone is still unfathomably bad and a constant, impossibly fiddly source of frustration... A general lack of undo/redo too (not just mobile, also most web apps).
We have the most capable of machines ever, incl. sensors which could be used to augment mobile interactions for so many people. Yet for many in the current breed of "professionals" in UI/UX, the design space and horizon of imagination what's possible and/or acceptable has shrunk down to the size of a shoe box and it's being defended and post-rationalized for the most inane of reasons... Liquid Glass™ on one hand, "LLM-ing all the things" on the other, relying on planet-scale infrastructure to pull off some form of glossy "intelligent assistant/slave" is NOT a scalable or even desirable solution! These are the wet dreams of aesthetes, graphic & product designers who never seem to use their own creations even just once (else they would very quickly realize the error of their ways...)
It just doesn't have to be like that! It also wasn't always like that... As with politics, we've allowed the bad-faith and/or lazy players to take over and let them dictate their overly simplistic (and frequently inconsiderate, if not abusive) world view on everyone and everything...
"I still have a dream..."
@strypey When I click on the link, a new tab opens in which I'm not logged in. This is probably perfectly ordinary, and something that I should understand...but I don't.
@Quasit
> When I click on the link, a new tab opens in which I'm not logged in
Ah, it's treating it as a standard webpage link, instead of a fediverse link.
> This is probably perfectly ordinary, and something that I should understand
Absolutely not on you. This is a #UX fail in the app you're using. Some of the apps I use with my Mastodon account, including @moshidon, do a pretty good job of telling the difference, and opening fediverse posts in-app.
Which app are you using there?
@firefoxwebdevs
This is - I believe - the best UX so far. If a feature is activated *after* a user interaction, this is good enough opt-in approach, that also balances a little marketing. I, for example, would like an AI tab grouper; but I wouldn't be able to know it exists if I dont firefox changelog (that avg user never do).
Hey! I'm waking up from my winter slumber and looking for #UX / UI / product roles or projects. I love to work with kind people, move with intent and fix things.
I'm here for all parts of the process, from research to strategy, working with devs, or building design systems, incl. illustrations! And I know a lot about OS design as well thru coaching Prototype Fund teams at Superbloom.
Where? Remote/Berlin-based.
Portfolio: https://www.juliaracsko.com/
Boosts appreciated!
The number one worst thing about Apple's liquid glass redesign, for me, is the icons. As someone with astigmatism, those soft edges make me feel like I'm not wearing my glasses. It's excruciating.
The entire design system has accessibility and usability issues, but that's the one that affects me.
Just watched a Mark & Scott segment (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-3I1mLYkxU
) poking at the “apps are dead / SaaS is dead / UX is dead, it’s all just chat now” idea, and it landed for me more than I expected.
What they’re really arguing (I think) is about where you put certainty. If something is repetitive and has real stakes, money, security, compliance, even just “don’t embarrass me,” you don’t want the workflow to live in a conversation you have to recreate from scratch every time. You want the boring version: a stable flow, clear steps, predictable outcomes. If there’s one fuzzy step (like turning a receipt into text), fine, but the rest should be locked down.
The expense report rant is a great example because it’s not even a tech problem, it’s a systems problem. The “solution” shouldn’t be “teach an assistant to click around my terrible UI.” It should be “why does this process still exist like this?” Why are receipts still photos? Why isn’t the transaction data coming straight from the card provider? The automation is kind of impressive, but it also feels like treating symptoms while the disease keeps partying.
They also call out travel booking as the same category: stuff where small errors are expensive. And the “chat is the new interface” take falls apart once you remember that humans still need review screens, structured input, and guardrails. They mention tools that generate little choice menus on the fly, which is interesting (it blurs the line), but it doesn’t change the core point: if you do it often, you should bottle it into something dependable.
Verdict: “please don’t replace good software with vibes.” Enjoyed it.
#software #ux #saas #product #dev
@markrussinovich
@shanselman
Hey! I'm waking up from my winter slumber and looking for #UX / UI / product roles or projects. I love to work with kind people, move with intent and fix things.
I'm here for all parts of the process, from research to strategy, working with devs, or building design systems, incl. illustrations! And I know a lot about OS design as well thru coaching Prototype Fund teams at Superbloom.
Where? Remote/Berlin-based.
Portfolio: https://www.juliaracsko.com/
Boosts appreciated!
People often struggle to find good follows on Fedi. I just realized I have a great resource for this: the list of everyone I've cited for the Product Picnic newsletter over the past year and a bit!
If your feed feels "dead" or not interesting, inject some active #UX #tech #product #research people into it (as well as authors/academics writing about these topics):
@iris_meredith
@GIFmodel
@davidgerard
@tottinge
@doriantaylor
@ronbronson
@emilymbender
@RayNewman
@Chronotope
@mulegirl
@dcr
1/
Just watched a Mark & Scott segment (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-3I1mLYkxU
) poking at the “apps are dead / SaaS is dead / UX is dead, it’s all just chat now” idea, and it landed for me more than I expected.
What they’re really arguing (I think) is about where you put certainty. If something is repetitive and has real stakes, money, security, compliance, even just “don’t embarrass me,” you don’t want the workflow to live in a conversation you have to recreate from scratch every time. You want the boring version: a stable flow, clear steps, predictable outcomes. If there’s one fuzzy step (like turning a receipt into text), fine, but the rest should be locked down.
The expense report rant is a great example because it’s not even a tech problem, it’s a systems problem. The “solution” shouldn’t be “teach an assistant to click around my terrible UI.” It should be “why does this process still exist like this?” Why are receipts still photos? Why isn’t the transaction data coming straight from the card provider? The automation is kind of impressive, but it also feels like treating symptoms while the disease keeps partying.
They also call out travel booking as the same category: stuff where small errors are expensive. And the “chat is the new interface” take falls apart once you remember that humans still need review screens, structured input, and guardrails. They mention tools that generate little choice menus on the fly, which is interesting (it blurs the line), but it doesn’t change the core point: if you do it often, you should bottle it into something dependable.
Verdict: “please don’t replace good software with vibes.” Enjoyed it.
#software #ux #saas #product #dev
@markrussinovich
@shanselman
RE: https://mastodon.social/@PavelASamsonov/116013288677053285
Excellent list of #UX folk to follow. I love that the Fediverse is slowing growing into a reasonable replacement for the old, now dead, "design twitter" we used to enjoy
People often struggle to find good follows on Fedi. I just realized I have a great resource for this: the list of everyone I've cited for the Product Picnic newsletter over the past year and a bit!
If your feed feels "dead" or not interesting, inject some active #UX #tech #product #research people into it (as well as authors/academics writing about these topics):
@iris_meredith
@GIFmodel
@davidgerard
@tottinge
@doriantaylor
@ronbronson
@emilymbender
@RayNewman
@Chronotope
@mulegirl
@dcr
1/
