Every time someone on HN praises Flutter for being the best way to do UI’s, I shudder to think of all the conveniences I’m used to (on both windows and macOS, I’ve used a lot of both) that are likely completely ignored or forgotten by these UI’s as they struggle to reinvent the user interface from scratch.
The UI’s of the 1990s were often designed using actual user studies, with years of hard-fought learning on how to do things in a way that is discoverable, Accessible, and with effective shortcuts for power users. I worry we’re losing all of this as we reinvent the UI without understanding what we’re rewriting.
It's crazy to me that so many software companies dumped millions and perhaps even billions of dollars in R&D collectively to learn how to do UI&UX effectively in the 80s, 90s, 00s, etc., and every new generation just ignores the previous one completely because it looks dated.
Gen Z, or Gen Alpha, or whatever you call teenagers these days, aren't born knowing how to use a desktop computer. They're born knowing how to use smartphone apps. From what I hear, many of them are terribly ill-equipped to be actually productive with desktop.
They're no different from just an office guy who never used a computer in the 90s or from a kid or got a PC from his parents in the 00s.
Why would the GUI have to adapt to modern users when a new user now is no wiser in practice than a new user back then?
>every new generation just ignores the previous one
One of the easiest first steps when creating your own identity as the new generation is to refuse your predecessors wholesale. This goes triple for something that is about fashion, which GUIs to some extent are a fashion statement.
For some reason, this hasn't happened yet, and the time frame that has passed since the "loss" (e.g. from ~2010 on) is comparable to the time frame the UI patterns were originally introduced (e.g. Windows 1.0 to Windows 95).
I'm afraid the prevalence of touch-screen use and the lack of focus on power users by UX designers is making the degradation permanent.
No. Every creation and discovery is influenced by culture and individuals.
Even if you assume the same level of skill and effort will be used (it won’t) there are still many paths and forks to take.
Consider that most “ui designers” come from graphic design or psychology backgrounds, while 90s UI was designed by engineers. Those groups have different values and make different decisions.
The UI’s of the 1990s were often designed using actual user studies, with years of hard-fought learning on how to do things in a way that is discoverable, Accessible, and with effective shortcuts for power users. I worry we’re losing all of this as we reinvent the UI without understanding what we’re rewriting.