Netflix has got to be the absolute nadir of bad UI design: horizontal scrolling as a feature, majority of content hidden, some content which reveals itself on rollover --other content which has to be clicked on, autoplaying videos on hover, elements which push other elements aside if you accidentally mouse over them, etc. etc. It's almost like someone decided to deliberately combine every element of bad user interface design into one atrocious lump of crap.
And what makes it worse is that, not only is Netflix hugely successful, but everyone else now is copying their fuck-awful design, seemingly in the mistaken belief that it's a "winner". Amazon Prime has similar [lack of] usability and the BBC has also crippled their iPlayer interface, of late, by changing it to ape Netflix.
And, if we're talking bad UI design in general. You'd also have to go a long way to beat eBay. In addition to various interface 'quirks' which seem designed to deliberately annoy the user, their site reminds me of V'Ger in the Star Trek film [0]. It seems to be an accretion consisting of various mis-matched elements, many dating back to more primitive times.
I think there are at least two categories. One is bad because its minimalist in some sense, like HN and Craigslist. The other is bad because it's optimized to push you to do something, not for your enjoyment. Design choices that make you buy more or watch whatever are being pushed are not the same as those that maximize usability. It's not all evil, I think there needs to be some way to get people out of their rut and experience new things. But most successful site are in full exploitation mode and optimized to take your money or attention, not to allow you to use them more easily.
I think it's just a case of being first is what matters for network effects. I forget who said it, but someone made the wise observation that beating an incumbent requires you to be not 2x or 3x better but 10x better.
This seems to show up at a lot of companies. There's more money in dominating a new or emerging market than in improving the quality where you are already #1, because customers probably put up with your bullshit.
>Even here on HN, abysmal layout and lack of features but successful forum.
Strong disagree. HN layout is not abysmal but optimised for simplicity above anything. It's not looking for attention, so i think it's very good at what it does.
HN's layout is plain and simple and effective. It loads fast and unlike the vast majority of websites these days, it actually loads all its content from the same domain. I'm so sick of popping open uBlock Origin's inspector panel to block junk on so many websites these days and finding that the site domain is little more than a blank frame which loads in all its content from dozens of external domains.
Whatever happened to creating and hosting your own 'stuff'?
>Whatever happened to creating and hosting your own 'stuff'?
The same thing that happened to scrivenery, where the printing press was invented, then industrial printing, then electronic publishing, and eventually if you wanted to write a book you no longer needed to make the paper and ink and manually inscribe the text in painstaking detail, then bind every copy individually.
People want to host their content on the web, they don't want or need to have to build all of the infrastructure by hand first. Only programmers care about the plumbing.
The search engine for amazon.com is awful too. It's can be painful trying to get the results you want to come up. The horrid filter deserves a special mention.
I remember using amazon for the first time ~15 years ago or so, and I was shocked at how bad the search was. I couldn't believe this was the top shopping site on the web..
I hate the way Amazon's search lumps together what its algorithm obviously believes to be "similar" items --even if your search terms specifically exclude those items.
Specific example:
I quite regularly buy tools off Amazon. I don't have a compressor, so I don't buy air tools. Depending on the type of tool I need, I will buy either 240v corded or Cordless Li-Ion versions.
If I search for "240v corded Widget-Maker" I can guarantee Amazon will return equal numbers of "Widget-Maker air tools", "Cordless Widget-Makers", "110v Widget-Makers" etc. Likewise if I search for "Cordless Widget-Maker" I'll get returned all the other types too, including wired ones.
Craiglist is another example, horrible UI, successful site.
Amazon, terrible UI, makes billions.
Maybe making things harder to find makes people spend more money?
Even here on HN, abysmal layout and lack of features but successful forum.