this post was submitted on 13 Oct 2023
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[–] Boozilla@lemmy.world 145 points 1 year ago (4 children)

UX design got better and better for many years...but it has definitely been regressing over the past few years, IMO. It's weaponized minimalism at this point. Because it "looks cool, bro".

It's a variant of enshittification.

[–] NewNewAccount@lemmy.world 129 points 1 year ago (10 children)

The overuse of the word enshittification drives me crazy.

[–] agent_flounder@lemmy.world 93 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Enshittification of "enshittification"

/s

[–] elxeno@lemm.ee 24 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] abcxyz@lemm.ee 1 points 1 year ago

Ekshuliiii.. it should be Enshittificursion or Reshittification. Inception means something else.

I'll show myself out.

[–] p03locke@lemmy.dbzer0.com 32 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yeah, it has a very specific meaning, and people are now using it to mean "things becoming shitty". Just because "shit" is the base word doesn't mean that's what the whole word means.

[–] Iamdanno@lemmynsfw.com 12 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Enshittification doesn't mean "thing gets shittier"? Who knew?!

[–] p03locke@lemmy.dbzer0.com 14 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

No, it doesn't.

From Wikipedia:

Enshittification, also known as platform decay,[1] is a way to describe the pattern of decreasing quality of online platforms that act as two-sided markets.

From the guy who coined the term itself:

Here is how platforms die: first, they are good to their users; then they abuse their users to make things better for their business customers; finally, they abuse those business customers to claw back all the value for themselves. Then, they die. I call this enshittification.

[–] Iamdanno@lemmynsfw.com 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

That's just listing the whys and hows of "things get shittier ".

[–] Boozilla@lemmy.world -4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Being a pedant is never a good look. You're missing the larger point. The same corporate impulse that drives platform decay ripples out to things like UX design. And that impulse is: the customer doesn't matter anymore, we already got your money, only what we want matters.

[–] some_guy@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

Being intentionally ignorant is never a good look.

[–] Steeve@lemmy.ca 8 points 1 year ago

Feels like it's always been a buzzword for whatever someone doesn't like right now

[–] burliman@lemm.ee 6 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Thank you. I think it was overused even the moment it was used for its intended purpose. It feels really im14andthisisedgy to me.

[–] atetulo@lemm.ee 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I'm actually really glad we're hearing it.

It's a sign that people are finally starting to have higher standards.

I think those with low standards would get upset. Nobody likes to admit they're being taken advantage of.

[–] Boozilla@lemmy.world -2 points 1 year ago

And I think this is a dumb take, considering who coined the word and why. It's a variation of "I hate anything trendy or popular".

[–] chris@lemm.ee 6 points 1 year ago

Underuse IMO. We’ve grown complacent in so many regards.

[–] ModsAreCopsACAB@lemm.ee 3 points 1 year ago

Are they wrong for using a word correctly? Or are you wrong for being a bitch about it? Hmmm.

[–] Rai@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 1 year ago

It’s Lemmy’s “play stupid games…” variant

[–] atetulo@lemm.ee 0 points 1 year ago

What do you mean 'overuse'?

It's just now entering our vernacular.

[–] Boozilla@lemmy.world -1 points 1 year ago

Yup, and when I used it, I knew someone would bitch about that. It's funny how people get hung up on their pet peeve more than they do the more serious underlying issues we're talking about here. It's the same phenomenon politicians and wealthy elites use to keep us fighting each other over trivial culture war bullshit instead of pulling together to improve our material interests.

[–] foggy@lemmy.world 44 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Buy!!!?

[YES SPEND ALL MY MONEY]

[no]

[–] Skua@kbin.social 36 points 1 year ago (2 children)

You know that the [no] option would be [maybe later]

[–] Not_Alec_Baldwin@lemmy.world 13 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] foggy@lemmy.world 10 points 1 year ago

[keep reminding me til I accidentally click yes or just fold]

[–] Boozilla@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago

LOL, harsh facts right here.

[–] _number8_@lemmy.world 22 points 1 year ago (1 children)

applying any design language feels wrong. it's pure manipulation -- i remember being forced onto the official twitter app and couldn't believe there wasn't a scroll bar. i felt lost; the timeline felt infinite, swallowing

[–] I_Miss_Daniel@kbin.social 30 points 1 year ago (1 children)

They want you doom scrolling.

It's one reason I like kbin. I'll read to page 5 and that's my limit for a session. Endless scrolling is annoying.

[–] snooggums@kbin.social 10 points 1 year ago (1 children)

On kbin you have the choice to set it to doom scroll if you want.

Choice is the important thing with something like doom scrolling.

[–] I_Miss_Daniel@kbin.social 5 points 1 year ago

Yes.

I also like upvote and downvote separated. Some apps don't have that option.

[–] Ghostalmedia@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I would are that the design industry has gotten better about understanding a user’s core motivations, and how design can solve business problems, but it’s gotten worse at classic interaction design / HCI.

The UX industry is FULL of bootcamp people or former graphic designers who never really studied or were passionate about interaction models.

As with engineering, the demand for UX designers is so high that a lot of mediocre talent can easily get a gig.

[–] Boozilla@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago

Those scenarios you paint definitely exist.

In my decades of work experience, I've also seen it play out a few ways. Sometimes the shop creating the software is too cheap to hire a real UX designer, and they make some poor coder do their best with it (and the coder will usually admit they are not good at it and is frustrated with being coerced into it). Sometimes they hire a good UX person, but that person is constantly overridden / micromanaged by some "marketing genius" MBA type with horrible ideas of user behaviors they want to "push" and other behaviors they want to "disincentivize" in the UX.

On a few (rare) projects, I've seen it done correctly where the UX designer is considered a vital part of the team and their input is valued and they do a good job and focus on what users actually want and need.

Some businesses still understand that if your customers are happy, everything else tends to go better for your businesses. But in this era of relentless enshittification, more and more businesses are looking at their customers at naughty children and/or suckers to be exploited. I keep hoping for a massive backlash against this trend. But it feels like it has to get even worse before it will get any better. They have conditioned younger customers to just expect shit products, shit service, and shit subscriptions for everything. UX design has gotten caught up in this sea change, unfortunately.