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from the designer-egomania-vs-user-ergonomics dept.
In a not so recent (2015) study Flat Design vs Traditional Design: Comparative Experimental Study scientists measure the performance of current and past interface styles. They reference multiple past articles and studies (some freely avaliable like Ref 3 or Ref 11) so they are not walking new ground, just measuring some more.
Some interesting background:
The density of screen information [in flat design] is often extraordinarily low [10].
...
The main criticism was that flat design ignores the three-dimensional nature of the human brain, which is extremely sensitive to visual cues linking interfaces to the real world. The removal of affordances from interactive interface objects means that users regularly perceive interactive elements as non-interactive, and non-interactive elements as interactive.
Despite these limitations flat design is becoming more and more common, and criticism of experts in HCI [Human-Computer Interaction] and usability is generally ignored by the software industry and graphic designers.
They used different tests: finding a word in text, finding an icon among others and finding clickable objects in a webpage. The process included eye tracking and recording of mouse motions. Subjects were students below 30 years old and already using similar interfaces, so effects in older or disabled persons were not studied. Font tests showed similar times, but worse cognitive load (derived from eye motions) for flat style. Icon tests showed worse times and mental load for flat style, a more complex task pushing the brain out of semiautomatic mode. Webpage tests were also against flat style, with high miss and false alarms indicators.
The conclusions were clear:
Our experimental study supports the opinion expressed by many HCI and usability experts that flat design is a harmful tendency in area of user interfaces, and should be replaced by interfaces based on the design principles developed over decades of research and practice of HCI and usability engineering.
Now we have more proofs that "flat design is inferior to traditional design", we aren't just whiny users opposed to change that don't understand what is going on. Based in personal experiences, and those of older persons around me, my conclusion is that any "UI/UX expert" that keeps parroting the modern interfaces is just a fad-following graphic designer at best (I expect more from those too... but they keep on disappointing me), and in any case should not be allowed into the HCI field. There were other studies, and this one is around 4 years old, so maybe it's time to get back into saner styles. Not that I hope things will improve quickly, after realizing that — since this study — things have slid more and more into simpleton mode.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Mykl on Monday February 11 2019, @03:19AM (3 children)
I can't agree more with the premise behind TFA. Some of the interface elements within iOS now are so pared back, they may as well be hidden.
I was using the 'Share' popup screen in iOS' "News" app for a couple of months before realising that the options presented on the screen are actually part of an (invisible) horizontal set of options which can be scrolled if you scroll further to the right. There is no indication on the screen (well, apart from about 5-10% of an almost invisible white button on a light grey background) that there is anything else to choose from.
I blame this on Apple appointing Jony Ive to their software division. The guy makes beautiful looking hardware, but really has no place in the software world, where minimalism is actually making our lives harder.
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Monday February 11 2019, @03:35AM (2 children)
My friend's first job out of Caltech was to work on Mentor Graphics' [mentor.com] Electronic Design Automation suite.
At the time it was written in PASCAL and full of Apollo-specific code. Rather than use p2c - which in my own experience while the C was largely unreadable, the accuracy of the translation was unquestionable - Mentor, in it's infinite wisdom, rewrite an entire $250k/DevSeat tool in C++ - starting in 1985; C++ really did _not_ work until 1998 or so.
He had two, maybe three managers. One was a Hardware Manger who was _expected_ - and told my friend and his teammates that he'd be "learning software on the job". He assigned my friend to write a utility to translate various file formats into each other.
A week later, Rod checked in his completed code then asked Mister Learning Code On The Job to assign him a new project. "YOUR JOB IS NOT TO DO NEW PROJECTS IT IS TO WORK ON YOUR FILE TRANSLATOR!"
Rod got laid off when the very first - _profoundly_ buggy - release of Mentor's C++ product shipped. It's failure to be... uh... "accepted" by the marketplace led to mass layoffs. Quite ironically, had Mentor instead chosen to write a new tool in hexadecimal machine code, well that would have taken Rod _two_ weeks.
Three, tops.
He went on, in partnership with a close friend, to purchase an Old Folks Home, which worked out really well.
When his partner Dianne got her home foreclosed, she and Rod hit the books - in the Law Library! Dianne kept her home, now they do "Law And Motion", that is, legal research and brief writing for attorneys.
As a hobby, Rod submits - unsolicited - Habeas Corpi for inmates who he feels were unjustly accused, but has yet to actually spring anyone.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 4, Funny) by Whoever on Monday February 11 2019, @06:28AM (1 child)
Ah, "late.0" Good times.
(Score: 2) by fadrian on Monday February 11 2019, @01:54PM
I started when that company had 300 people and bugged out halfway through the 8.0 debacle. I've never regretted it.
That is all.