[JohnR]

Some time ago, I used to read papers on UI design. And now I'm just a little puzzled. What triggered this post is the new version of Wordpress. When you are in the text editor, the sidebars disappear. So you have to deliberately move the mouse to see where the buttons like "Save Draft" are.

BUT THERE'S NO GAIN. There's no extra real estate gain, no nothing. It's idiotic.

A similar thing has frustrated me on the Mac for a while. If a window has a scrollbar, it's.. not there. You have to scroll first, before you can see the scroll bar! The iPad is even worse with this kind of "here again gone again" stuff. It's just getting stupid. Whatever happened to usability testing?

[mcgsxr]

The long lost art of the UAT - before releasing the product.

Have to agree, though I likely spend less time coding.

[BobM]

My daughter just graduated from RIT with a degree in "New Media Design". She is specializing in UI/UX design. You have to hear her rant about how developers ruin everything a designer tries to do. They make changes just because it's a change, regardless of standards set up by the designers.

And don't get her started on typography. She almost literally can't walk past signs and posters without complaining about the kerning on them and etc.

[JohnR]

I can see that happening sometimes (often, even) but I wouldn't have thought it likely that Apple's developers and UI designers were not on the same page.

[jpm]

One to file under "and I thought it was just me".

I'm often left wondering if once source of the problem is trying to design for tiny to small mobile touch interfaces versus standard computer screens. Apple doggedly clinging to miniature smartphone screens for so long didn't help, but of course Windows 8 is the elephant in the room.

[*Scotty*]

Someone has made a decision that "uncluttered" looks better and because they know where the buttons and everything else is supposed to be they have no problems when when a necessary feature is hidden. However if you have never seen the program before you can't figure it out because half of what you need to use it effectively is invisible.
I agree, this is the stupidest trend I have seen yet. This behavior should be entirely controllable by the end user and easily disabled.
My 2cents.
Scotty

[ctviggen]

I agree with you on interface design -- things should not be hidden.

I also think software in general is getting worse.  Every iteration of Office seems worse than the last. I think they change it just to change it.

[*Scotty*]

The obvious thing to do is keep the version of software that is still functional and don't "upgrade" even if it is free.
Scotty

[zybar]

Some time ago, I used to read papers on UI design. And now I'm just a little puzzled. What triggered this post is the new version of Wordpress. When you are in the text editor, the sidebars disappear. So you have to deliberately move the mouse to see where the buttons like "Save Draft" are.

BUT THERE'S NO GAIN. There's no extra real estate gain, no nothing. It's idiotic.

A similar thing has frustrated me on the Mac for a while. If a window has a scrollbar, it's.. not there. You have to scroll first, before you can see the scroll bar! The iPad is even worse with this kind of "here again gone again" stuff. It's just getting stupid. Whatever happened to usability testing?

One of my responsibilities at work over the past 8 years is to lead an User Experience and Design organization.

Depending on our leadership, it is has been viewed as important and integral part of product development process or it has been viewed as something nice to have or even not needed.

In general, our goal is to design products that are easy to use, intuitive, and allow our users to get the maximum value out of their purchase.  In order to see how well or poor we are doing on these fronts, usability testing is a MUST!

Testing and measuring usability is key to creating and maintaining an excellent products!!

If more users demand usable products and vote with their wallet when they don't get it, vendors will have no choice but to focus more on usability and the user experience.

George

[zybar]

My daughter just graduated from RIT with a degree in "New Media Design". She is specializing in UI/UX design. You have to hear her rant about how developers ruin everything a designer tries to do. They make changes just because it's a change, regardless of standards set up by the designers.

And don't get her started on typography. She almost literally can't walk past signs and posters without complaining about the kerning on them and etc.

Age old battle between designers and coders...guess who usually wins?   

And guess who pays the price...yep, the users!   

George

[Tyson]

It's an infection of mobile devices and tablets - since they have less real estate, a "clean" look is preferred, maximizing the little space you have on those devices.  And that mindset is then applied to laptops or desktops and is just stupid, IMO.

[ctviggen]

The obvious thing to do is keep the version of software that is still functional and don't "upgrade" even if it is free.
Scotty

Unfortunately, I don't have control over it.  I'm using three different versions of Office:  one at home, one at work on my desktop, and one at work when I log into work remotely.   I bought the one I'm using at home, but my work has purchased the others.  It's heck trying to find things in each.  Why do they keep moving things around?!!

[BobM]

Wouldn't it be nice if we could just continue using the old version of <insert your favorite operating system here> and be happy with it for a long, long time. But software manufacturers keep making upgrades to insert new features that most of us will never use. Then they say they will no longer support what you paid for and love, or turn off key features that everyone uses (i.e. Quicken's downloads, Turbo Tax's schedule D, etc.) thereby forcing you to upgrade for a fee.

I'm still not certain that I am more pissed off when I am forced to pay for an upgrade and not see a noticeable difference between new and old, or in seeing a completely different interface that forces me to work in a different way.
 

[ctviggen]

You know, I thought things were going crazy when I walked up to a laptop running windows 8 and couldn't figure out how to use it.  Where did everything go?  Who thought this was a good idea? 

On the other hand, windows 8.1 on my phone makes perfect sense.  For a phone, not a home/work computer. 

[Tyson]

You know, I thought things were going crazy when I walked up to a laptop running windows 8 and couldn't figure out how to use it.  Where did everything go?  Who thought this was a good idea? 

On the other hand, windows 8.1 on my phone makes perfect sense.  For a phone, not a home/work computer. 

But then companies would not be lazy if they did that!  Hahaha

[ArthurDent]

I agree with you on interface design -- things should not be hidden.

I also think software in general is getting worse.  Every iteration of Office seems worse than the last. I think they change it just to change it.

I believe you hit the nail on the head. How can they sell us a "new & improved" version if they don't change something somewhere. Then of course they have to release a "new & better improved" version to correct what was messed up in the previous version. The height of planned obsolescence. Just my $.02, I get the same thing with AutoCAD releases every year now.

[zybar]

I think some of you are generalizing and feeding into the stereotypes. 

I have been involved with the development and support of enterprise class software for the last 20 years and I can tell you that we have never intentionally put out a release just for the sake of saying we have a new and improved product.  If we did that, we would get killed by our customers and they would go elsewhere.

In terms of upgrading...

It simply isn't feasible and economically viable to support all versions of software forever. 

If you want/need new functionality and bug fixes, you will need to upgrade at some point.

Just my 2 cents from the other side of the fence.

George

[Goosepond]

Yeah, you'd think some of these S/W companies were in business to make money! What the hell is wrong with them anyway?

Gene

[Tyson]

I think some of you are generalizing and feeding into the stereotypes. 

I have been involved with the development and support of enterprise class software for the last 20 years and I can tell you that we have never intentionally put out a release just for the sake of saying we have a new and improved product.  If we did that, we would get killed by our customers and they would go elsewhere.

In terms of upgrading...

It simply isn't feasible and economically viable to support all versions of software forever. 

If you want/need new functionality and bug fixes, you will need to upgrade at some point.

Just my 2 cents from the other side of the fence.

George

Me too, I was at Mercury Interactive for a while and then at HP after the acquisition.  I'm at Oracle now.  Where are you at? 

I agree, enterprise software has a pretty rational release/update schedule, mainly because the customers are large and easily pissed off, so there's a lot of direct accountability for new releases and changes.  On the other hand, I think consumer markets don't have that level of direct accountability and you end up with the type of stuff mentioned here.

[zybar]

Me too, I was at Mercury Interactive for a while and then at HP after the acquisition.  I'm at Oracle now.  Where are you at? 

I agree, enterprise software has a pretty rational release/update schedule, mainly because the customers are large and easily pissed off, so there's a lot of direct accountability for new releases and changes.  On the other hand, I think consumer markets don't have that level of direct accountability and you end up with the type of stuff mentioned here.

I am at EMC.

George