UX? More Like UXB...

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God, we need some better interface designers in the software game. One of the reasons I gave up socials in the first place, let alone the toxicity of the cultures they promote, was the sheer gobshite quality of their UX [User eXperience to the uninitiated] design. All of it: simply and utterly atrocious. Having said that, I've just re-signed-up to Instagram; not because I have any great urge to put my 'stuff' out there [this blog is enough for me, as crap as its interface is], rather because there are people out there whose work I would like to see unimpeded. I was motivated to re-assess Instagram, which I joined initially in the first few days of its inception, but abandoned rapidly afterwards because of the aforesaid UX issues, at the suggestion of Anne, one of our visitors from California [blog posts recent]. My original - unused - account seemed to be irrecoverable, for whatever reason, so I set up a new account in its stead. On opening said new account, I searched for my old business partner-in-crime and great photographer, John Slemp, of Atlanta, GA.

I found him, no problem; clicked follow, no problem; but clicking message was met with a messy, paned editor that really meant nothing on first or second sight. Bad interface design, 101. How to screw up user-interface experience in a nutshell. You should never be more than three [absolute max] mouse-clicks away from your intended destination, and the affordances offered should be plain and easy to follow: this much was obvious and sorted out a quarter of a century ago and more. Unfortunately, this rubbish still obtains well into the twenty-first century. Read Jef Raskin's "The Humane Interface" - itself published nearly a quarter-century ago - or refer to any of Dieter Rams' interface designs, to gain an insight as to how to do things properly. As to Instagram, I'll persist in trying to use it until such time as my design head says: "Enough, no more!" The use of the particular image above is ironic, but I'll leave you to dig around and find out why. Keep you posted...

Comments

  1. Anonymous24 December 2024 at 12:53

    Instagram does NOT care about its users esp the young!
    Stumpy: john@johnslemp.com
    Got Dave Stewart's signature and I think that I'll soon be banned from the Bull!
    ATB
    Joe

    ReplyDelete

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