
UX Myths (2014) - riqbal
http://uxmyths.com/
======
bbx
I wish more websites, especially those actively writing about UX, would style
visited links differently.

When you're reading one of these myths, there is no link to go to the next one
; you need to go back to the index. But since visited links are not
differentiated, it's difficult to know which item you've just read, and where
to go next.

Just using "a:link" instead would yield a more satisfying design:
[http://i.imgur.com/oz6Hznw.png](http://i.imgur.com/oz6Hznw.png)

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barrkel
I didn't know they were links until I read this comment!

No hover on mobile.

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ldjb
I'm not too sure what the solution is. You could make the links blue and/or
underline them, but that could harm readability and aesthetics.

I suppose some sort of icon (like an arrowhead) next to each link could help
them to afford clicking.

~~~
userbinator
_You could make the links blue and /or underline them, but that could harm
readability and aesthetics._

I doubt it, blue and underlined is pretty much a standard. I think it looks
perfectly fine and clear. There's a reason most browsers' default stylesheet
will make links look like that.

~~~
ldjb
It might be an improvement in this case, though it's common advice to limit
the colour palette to a handful of colours. Blue text also doesn't always
stand out against certain background colours.

Underlining links (particularly where there are many of them) can harm
readability, which is why many popular websites do not do it, including the
major search engines, Wikipedia and even Hacker News.

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kristopolous
I'll take serious issue with #12. There's undirected scatterbrained interfaces
and that's bad sure.

But there's the other extreme. Like in Google mobile search, you can't do
custom date ranges... they've removed one menu item just on mobile.

On SoundCloud mobile you can't delete your own uploads. On reddit mobile you
can only do text posts. Or that new version of gas buddy or Google maps or in
Google photos on mobile they removed the download option (but then put it back
in).

What this process has morphed into is supporting a narrowing and increasingly
specific user narrative.

Instead of seeking genericity, it's specificity. This is manifested as
removing ports, keyboard keys, headphone jacks, save as menu options,
disabling highlighting of text, or an ability to edit the spelling of a word
without having to retype it, or an assumption that you want to tag a person
and want a drop down menu of your friends instead of type something...

This is done supposedly in simplifying the product but it would be like making
a paintbrush that only strokes vertically and only in primary colors...or a
microwave with the number pad removed and only 6 auto cook buttons...

I mean what on earth

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svenfaw
> in Google mobile search, you can't do custom date ranges...

In fact you can. Just swipe the menu bar to the left to access Search tools.
(I admit it took me a while to discover this)

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kristopolous
Nope. Still not possible. Here are screen shots showing what I'm talking about
in this Twitter account I save for just the proper occasion:
[https://mobile.twitter.com/FuckYourUI/status/753547054236872...](https://mobile.twitter.com/FuckYourUI/status/753547054236872704)

~~~
svenfaw
Ah yes, same here. (Note to self: do not read HN with a hangover)

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twoshedsmcginty
Agree with so much of this, but definitely not with #28. White space has
become a design curse. I know how to manage information; I'm not bewildered if
I see a lot of it in one place, and I don't need to be guided through it.

And I'm truly tired of clicking ellipses to 'see more' Just load the damn
page, load the damn comments and paginate. Abandoned Gawker for this reason
long ago.

~~~
scrollaway
White space is super important. It can serve as a delimiter between pieces of
your UI for example. It can serve as an emphasis on content or an important UI
element. It has a ton of different uses you are completely disregarding...
because

> _I know how to manage information_

But you really don't, though. If I replied with a 20 lines efficiently-packed
wall of text with no paragraphs or linebreaks, you'd complain. If you were
looking at a UI that was simply packing UI elements like the lego set for a
giant cube, you'd be the first one commenting on its poor usability.

 _This_ is what it's like to have no whitespace:
[http://www.milliondollarhomepage.com/](http://www.milliondollarhomepage.com/)

\--

You know, this exact attitude pisses me off. The #1 complaint in open source
software is how poor the UX is in most of it. Famously, the software is
"designed for its programmer", with the interface built to be as simple to
code as possible.

It doesn't change because the community is full of devs arrogant enough to
think that their users "know how to manage information" and will make sense of
it all. They "don't need to be treated like children" because, obviously,
intuitive interfaces are for kids.

OK, I get it, you've had bad experiences with whitespace. The G+ homepage is
an abomination. Author isn't arguing a tiny column of text surrounded by two
giant white columns is good design. Doesn't mean it's always bad.

~~~
TeMPOraL
>> _I know how to manage information_

> _But you really don 't, though._

No, I really do, you know. Sure, if there's a logical structure in
information, you'd do well to highlight it - as well as any relative relevance
of pieces of info ( _IFF_ you know what task I'm solving). But I'm not 3 y.o.
anymore, I can handle more than 5 lines of text on a page. Please don't _hide_
information from me just because you think it's not relevant to the most basic
use case.

I'm strongly with Tufte on this one. Presenting information is about dumping
it all on the person with minimum artsy bullshit, and helping the viewer make
sense of it efficiently. Modern UX paradigms however go in the completely
opposite direction - hide everything, remove features, decrease information
density.

There's a reason NASA mission control look like this:

[http://www.collectspace.com/images/news-090313a-lg.jpg](http://www.collectspace.com/images/news-090313a-lg.jpg)

and not this:

[https://i.imgur.com/4CqzSb4.png](https://i.imgur.com/4CqzSb4.png)

even though the latter is exactly what modern UX guidelines would call for.

If you want to build tools to help people solve problems efficiently, make
tools. If you want to make a safe-for-work mental masturbation art piece,
which is what most mainstream UX guidelines boil down to, then by all means. I
just don't want to have it anywhere near me when I have problems to solve.

\--

> _intuitive interfaces are for kids_

There's only one intuitive interface in the world, and that's the nipple.
Everything else is learned.

~~~
scrollaway
Are you seriously comparing NASA interfaces, which require months/years of
training, to interfaces which are meant to be as intuitive and immediately-
useful as possible?

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TeMPOraL
It was a hyperbole, yes, but the general point stands - a proper tool will
present all the things you need (or may need) to know in an organized fashion,
to let you work efficiently. What we currently have in UX is a trend of making
your work as _inefficient_ as possible, by hiding everything behind
interactions or removing it altogether, because... well, because what exactly?
Does someone really believe that e.g. people are too dumb to understand
"2015-01-01 - 2016-10-30" and need to be limited to the choice of _only_
"Today", "Yesterday", "Last month" and "Last year"?

As for months/years or training - sure, there maybe (or maybe not even
training in the tool per se, but more like general education; you need to know
what the data shown actually means). But in a typical tool, 10 seconds or even
5 minutes of training won't kill anyone and would vastly improve efficiency.
Want a proof? _Video games_. Each one has a custom, specific UI. RTS games
have so many stuff on screen that they often have tutorials and in-game help.
And 8-year-olds have zero problems with understanding all that in under 5
minutes. Outside of gamedev, people seem to have forgotten the concept of
introduction, tips and tutorials.

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scrollaway
You're literally just saying "a proper tool should have good UX".

Please backtrack a minute: What we're trying to debunk is that "Whitespace is
always bad". The rant you're going into, here, is that some tools are
oversimplified or don't give you immediate access to functions you need.
That's the tool not doing its job - it's bad UX. Nobody will argue against
that.

It also has nothing to do with whitespace.

> _Outside of gamedev, people seem to have forgotten the concept of
> introduction, tips and tutorials._

SMB 1-1 is often praised as having outstanding video game level design. One of
the reasons is exactly _because_ it doesn't use "tips and tutorials". It
intuitively teaches you to run towards the right, to jump, how to kill enemies
and discover secrets without ever popping a tooltip on the screen. Not that
those are always bad, mind you, but intuitiveness is game design by
excellence.

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godmodus
pretty straight forward and sensible, bar myth 18.

Praising flash is dangerous, ignoring all of its security flaws and the fact
it's a cpu hogging, battery draining security risk. the fact it's easy to get
up and running means little when it can actually hurt your users.

unless it's not as evil anymore? can anyone help me out here, did flash become
secure while i wasn't paying attention?

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mch82
> Note, this post was written more than 4 years ago.

The post seems out of date. Even in the post, the paragraph right before the
section on "fun facts" emphasizes lack of mobile platform support.

Edit: Humorously, they address this with the Myth #0 reminder :-)

> ...and myth #0: If you read lists like this one, you don't need to do
> research

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godmodus
yeah that made me think the guy who made the list is taking the list :p just
that some of the points he made are in the UX book. it's very similar
definition of what UX design is since it's about improving user experience,
rather than streamlining user productivity.

but that #0... cheeky.

~~~
godmodus
taking the piss _

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memonkey
I really want to go back and mention "The Design of Everyday Things" by Don
Norman because the book lives and breathes what any designer and developer
should strive for when designing (and developing) a web, mobile, or desktop
app. Seriously, go read it.

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msimpson
"Myth #18: Flash used to be evil...A Flash site can meet virtually all web
accessibility criteria" \--UX Myths

"The majority of Flash content cannot be made natively accessible to screen
readers. At this time, only modern versions of the JAWS and Window-Eyes screen
readers that are using the Flash 6+ player within Internet Explorer on Windows
can provide even marginal access to Flash content." \--WebAIM

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DanBC
I thought presenting a list like this was sub-optimal, because people see it
and remember the written statement, not the myth.

Thus, people remember "stock photos enhance user experience", and not "stock
photos harm user experience".

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coldcode
Flash is evil is a UX myth? I guess I am mything out on this one, as I don't
even have it installed on my mac.

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erikb
Open it up and the first sentence says this article is 4 years old. Then you
probably realise you are not the first to mention that point. Yes, in nearly
2017 Flash is (almost) dead.

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harryf
Hmmm take issue with this one -
[http://uxmyths.com/post/99302792550/myth-33-mobile-users-
are...](http://uxmyths.com/post/99302792550/myth-33-mobile-users-are-
distracted)

A key point in mobile app UX is being transactional. If you require any input
from a user such as a signup form, design it in such a way that it can be done
as quickly as possible e.g. in under 60 seconds. That's because that's how
long you have until they are distracted by something more interesting. That
would mean not asking users to provide 50 data points all at once but do it in
stages over multiple sessions.

~~~
extra88
If you read the page about the myth, I think the main takeaway is not "mobile
users aren't distracted" it's "mobile users are no more distracted than non-
mobile users." Therefore, don't require any user in any context to provide 50
data points all at once; design a signup form that can be completed in under
60 seconds regardless of device.

The secondary takeaway is mobile users are more likely to be at home or work
than roaming around. I'm not sure what affect that has on UX, maybe as counter
to the above, giving users the option to put more time in to a task and/or do
one that's more complex.

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known
This page was last archived 3 years ago
[http://archive.is/u2d8Y](http://archive.is/u2d8Y)

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drewjaja
Everyone is saying not to use hamburger menus. What is a good alternative?

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superplussed
Love the site, love the fact that it was created by two guys named Zoltan.
Pocketed the first 10 articles and will be reading them later.

