Designers really need to stop treating user interfaces like they are fashion trends. Imagine you were learning to play the piano and every six months some dipshit from Pianos R Us would sneak into your house in the night and replace your piano with a completely different instrument. "Get excited! The all new piano is here!" Grumble grumble.
(I'm allowed one grumble post about the UI changes. 🙃)
@skullzy I completely agree, how would they like it if you rearranged their furniture every day without telling them.
@skullzy@mastodon.social As an artist/designer, yes.
@skullzy yes, but how could they justify their pay otherwise? There is a problem for any company in saying "we're finished". I don't know how to solve that problem, and it's not one anyone wants to solve because it means the job is over. Many, not to say most, of the changes I'm seeing are for the sake of changing things, not to improve the UI. @FreakyFwoof
@skullzy hell yeah, I hate all websites and apps UI. First they’re not intuitive and secondly they are constantly changing to other non intuitive ui.
@skullzy if they're in the US, their car should be replaced by one from the UK (and vice versa). And they have to pass a test before they're allowed on the road with the rest of us. Learning a whole new interface is exciting, isn't it?
@FreakyFwoof @skullzy Basically, it’s like grocery stores constantly rearranging their layouts and moving things around. For what? Workflow efficiency? Or to make you wander through every part of the screen looking for what you need, hoping you’ll discover new features or things you might need later? lol
@skullzy Exactly. It's all lipstick, no tongue.
Then again, maybe that's as far as it gets these days.
I know you're not supposed to mention alternatives during complaints about os's.
Many commercial OS's change more from one upgrade to the next than the change from a commercial OS to linux.
Harder to get familiar with windows 11 than Fedora, easier to adapt to Gnome than water icons.
Easier to switch than cope.
@skullzy the black keys, have moved to a special drawer underneath the keyboard because they are not used by many people anyway. The space that became available is now occupied by colourful lights and buttons, so that random notes can be played and people can use AI to play their piece for them, with agentic options to play it over and over morphing slowly to to the sounds of breaking dishes to the beat clapped by the listener. Requires wifi.
It's fucking wild how some really stupid element will show up in UI and then everyone just copies it for impossible to understand reasons.
This is about the new Mastodon testing UI.
change for the sake of fad or to just make changes needs to stop. real accessibility and UI/UX needs to be brought back as a professional skillset that every project needs, just as much as security.
@skullzy I've had an idea bouncing around in my mind for 30 years.
Fixed interfaces, held in escrow by a third party. You are welcome to fiddle with the API all you like, but changing the UI requires approval by a majority of the user base voting.
There are various models by which these could be made actually enforceable. And imagine the confidence seeing the logo down in the corner.
@skullzy
> I'm allowed one grumble post about the UI changes.
at least!
@skullzy this seems appropriate here; a monologue about product design vs. visual design:
Oct 22, 2026, 2:27 PM@skullzy Some of the youngs may not remember this, but way back in the before times, when most programs ran locally on your own machine without a network connection, some of the user interfaces were even user-reskinnable. You could move all the controls around, and make the whole program interface look like a teddy bear or a dragon or a pickup truck. And share your UI skins with your friends.
Anyway, enjoy your hamburger menus that don't look like clickable buttons.
@skullzy So I had to update my cable TV from Virgin. The interface is changed, and the remote control is different. It might be "better" - in some way. But it is different, and I had got used to the older one. It is not "better" because I was happy with the old one. I had worked out how to use it.
The same is true of UI design. It is not better if it means that people have to adapt how they work to adjust. It is worse.
UI should be for people to work better. Software should be for people to work better. Nothing else. Anything else is stuff to hide and not let anyone else know about.