Ask HN: Bad user experience angers and depresses me – what can I do about it?
When I encounter what I strongly believe to be indefensibly poor design, I get feelings of anger and depression; anger that such stupid decisions could be made and that I must deal with them, and depression that I am largely powerless to change the situation. In particular, poor design that is part of public service (subways, signs, etc) really makes me feel as though I am getting exploited, and for some reason I almost actually feel they are personal attacks on me. I currently try to justify why poor design decisions are made and to give the "system" the benefit of doubt. Perhaps there are cost constraints, time constraints, or perhaps the intended use case is not the one I am in -- but a lot of the time I arrive at this conclusion: "this design is simply indefensible -- had the creator, or anybody involved actually tried the design, just once, surely they would notice the problems and fix this". Furthermore, the fixes are sometimes very obvious. So, I think to myself, is the whole world just lazy? Stupid? Apathetic? Why would somebody make this thing the way it is, and think it is acceptable? I had listed examples, ranging from NYC subway gripes, double doors where one door is locked and the handles are ambiguous, cell phone gripes, google maps, windows, etc, but there is no space for it in this post. So, for the sake of helping me, please just assume that my assessments of certain designs are accurate, and that they are undeniably awful, and had the designer(s) attempted to use their design once they would have realize this -- and that it's not just me. Lastly, and more to the point, I feel awful that such banalities can have such a profound effect on me. I realize that I may come off as whiny or arrogant or whatever -- I accept that. But it really, truly, pisses me off when I encounter bad user experience, and I honestly don't want it to. What can I do about this? 1 comments on Hacker News.
When I encounter what I strongly believe to be indefensibly poor design, I get feelings of anger and depression; anger that such stupid decisions could be made and that I must deal with them, and depression that I am largely powerless to change the situation. In particular, poor design that is part of public service (subways, signs, etc) really makes me feel as though I am getting exploited, and for some reason I almost actually feel they are personal attacks on me. I currently try to justify why poor design decisions are made and to give the "system" the benefit of doubt. Perhaps there are cost constraints, time constraints, or perhaps the intended use case is not the one I am in -- but a lot of the time I arrive at this conclusion: "this design is simply indefensible -- had the creator, or anybody involved actually tried the design, just once, surely they would notice the problems and fix this". Furthermore, the fixes are sometimes very obvious. So, I think to myself, is the whole world just lazy? Stupid? Apathetic? Why would somebody make this thing the way it is, and think it is acceptable? I had listed examples, ranging from NYC subway gripes, double doors where one door is locked and the handles are ambiguous, cell phone gripes, google maps, windows, etc, but there is no space for it in this post. So, for the sake of helping me, please just assume that my assessments of certain designs are accurate, and that they are undeniably awful, and had the designer(s) attempted to use their design once they would have realize this -- and that it's not just me. Lastly, and more to the point, I feel awful that such banalities can have such a profound effect on me. I realize that I may come off as whiny or arrogant or whatever -- I accept that. But it really, truly, pisses me off when I encounter bad user experience, and I honestly don't want it to. What can I do about this?
When I encounter what I strongly believe to be indefensibly poor design, I get feelings of anger and depression; anger that such stupid decisions could be made and that I must deal with them, and depression that I am largely powerless to change the situation. In particular, poor design that is part of public service (subways, signs, etc) really makes me feel as though I am getting exploited, and for some reason I almost actually feel they are personal attacks on me. I currently try to justify why poor design decisions are made and to give the "system" the benefit of doubt. Perhaps there are cost constraints, time constraints, or perhaps the intended use case is not the one I am in -- but a lot of the time I arrive at this conclusion: "this design is simply indefensible -- had the creator, or anybody involved actually tried the design, just once, surely they would notice the problems and fix this". Furthermore, the fixes are sometimes very obvious. So, I think to myself, is the whole world just lazy? Stupid? Apathetic? Why would somebody make this thing the way it is, and think it is acceptable? I had listed examples, ranging from NYC subway gripes, double doors where one door is locked and the handles are ambiguous, cell phone gripes, google maps, windows, etc, but there is no space for it in this post. So, for the sake of helping me, please just assume that my assessments of certain designs are accurate, and that they are undeniably awful, and had the designer(s) attempted to use their design once they would have realize this -- and that it's not just me. Lastly, and more to the point, I feel awful that such banalities can have such a profound effect on me. I realize that I may come off as whiny or arrogant or whatever -- I accept that. But it really, truly, pisses me off when I encounter bad user experience, and I honestly don't want it to. What can I do about this? 1 comments on Hacker News.
When I encounter what I strongly believe to be indefensibly poor design, I get feelings of anger and depression; anger that such stupid decisions could be made and that I must deal with them, and depression that I am largely powerless to change the situation. In particular, poor design that is part of public service (subways, signs, etc) really makes me feel as though I am getting exploited, and for some reason I almost actually feel they are personal attacks on me. I currently try to justify why poor design decisions are made and to give the "system" the benefit of doubt. Perhaps there are cost constraints, time constraints, or perhaps the intended use case is not the one I am in -- but a lot of the time I arrive at this conclusion: "this design is simply indefensible -- had the creator, or anybody involved actually tried the design, just once, surely they would notice the problems and fix this". Furthermore, the fixes are sometimes very obvious. So, I think to myself, is the whole world just lazy? Stupid? Apathetic? Why would somebody make this thing the way it is, and think it is acceptable? I had listed examples, ranging from NYC subway gripes, double doors where one door is locked and the handles are ambiguous, cell phone gripes, google maps, windows, etc, but there is no space for it in this post. So, for the sake of helping me, please just assume that my assessments of certain designs are accurate, and that they are undeniably awful, and had the designer(s) attempted to use their design once they would have realize this -- and that it's not just me. Lastly, and more to the point, I feel awful that such banalities can have such a profound effect on me. I realize that I may come off as whiny or arrogant or whatever -- I accept that. But it really, truly, pisses me off when I encounter bad user experience, and I honestly don't want it to. What can I do about this?
Hacker News story: Ask HN: Bad user experience angers and depresses me – what can I do about it?
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February 16, 2020
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