There’s a funny conflict to the idea of user interfaces: a good one tends to go unnoticed, the thoughtful design decisions too subtle to notice; a bad UX or UI is one that makes you want to scream. It’s a tension that designers have to think about every time they conceive a new website, app, or device.
You, me, and UI
How designers run the world.
Image: Mengxin Li / The Verge
In this special series from The Verge, we explore the small design decisions that have had an outsize impact on our lives. From simple card game browser UIs to deliberately complicated video game setups, all-too-forgotten accessibility options for colorblindness to the curious incentive-driven histories of the shuffle and log out buttons, these stories delve into the ways that user interfaces have driven us forward, or failed, or found an entirely new way of living.
Apparently, the very idea of colorblindness is hard to visualize. Take a shot at looking through my eyes.
Andy Baio
The app’s open-casket funeral, and reincarnation as a Mastodon app.
Rob Dubbin
Immersive, embodied interfaces need careful transitions and aftercare protocols.
Sara M. Watson
As emoji use grows, judges have to get special trainings. ✨
Sarah Jeong
The Lisa helped create the design language for computers as we know them. Here’s what it’s like to use one.
Adi Robertson
The touchscreen may reign supreme, but the single-purpose remotes in my house authentically inspire joy.
Eve Peyser
When a game is mostly hard because the UI is terrible, what happens when you start streamlining its interface?
Gita Jackson
Nobody wants them. Nobody likes them. Why is the worst UI element of all time ubiquitous again?
s.e. smith
Sites designed to exploit users’ gambling addictions are going to be a little predatory. Poker Now somehow turned out to be different.
Scott Meslow
Make Steve Jobs roll over in his grave with a custom rabbit strawberry glitter frosting iPhone case.
Mia Sato
Apparently, the very idea of colorblindness is hard to visualize. Take a shot at looking through my eyes.
Andy Baio
The app’s open-casket funeral, and reincarnation as a Mastodon app.
Rob Dubbin
Immersive, embodied interfaces need careful transitions and aftercare protocols.
Sara M. Watson
As emoji use grows, judges have to get special trainings. ✨
Sarah Jeong
The Lisa helped create the design language for computers as we know them. Here’s what it’s like to use one.
Adi Robertson
The touchscreen may reign supreme, but the single-purpose remotes in my house authentically inspire joy.
Eve Peyser
When a game is mostly hard because the UI is terrible, what happens when you start streamlining its interface?
Gita Jackson
Nobody wants them. Nobody likes them. Why is the worst UI element of all time ubiquitous again?
s.e. smith
Sites designed to exploit users’ gambling addictions are going to be a little predatory. Poker Now somehow turned out to be different.
Scott Meslow
Make Steve Jobs roll over in his grave with a custom rabbit strawberry glitter frosting iPhone case.
Mia Sato
