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Comment by jonahx | Hacker News Reader

A good article with data from facebook and others on the value of discovery over cleanliness:

It contradicts current trends and the preferences of many designers.

The issue is really a catch-22 usability testing rather than saying 1 way works better than another. On mobile app's you have more screen real-estate to play with, while in the browser you have less. A website with a header anf floating footer cause many site's to become un-readable and un-navagatable. You then have the issue of responsive design that allows for the bun to come into play nicely rather than having to change a site's design to fit within multiple viewport sizes. I get the argument in a mobile application, but in a browser-based site you are left with either mystery meat, leaving out part of the navigation, or changing a responsive design completely to allow for easier mobile navigation. Options are limited and purely based upon time and budget - and even then it's a geusing game without proper split testing.

In general UX at the expense of usability is an annoying trend that last was a major issue when Flash became popular. I don't think Apple is giving design a bad name, this is what design is usually about. Apple's (usual) focus on usability actually gave design a good name which designers strive to damage with their over-emphasis on aesthetics.

I think that guy is seriously wrong, not every hidden part of a user interface is evil. The hamburger menu tells the user that he will find the first-level navigation if he taps it.

It is about as bad as a right-click context menu on the desktop.

Indeed, and that's why Apple discourages the use of a contextual menu as the sole means to offer functionality as well [1]:

  Always ensure that contextual menu items are also available as menu commands.
  A contextual menu is hidden by default and a user might not know it exists, so it should never be the only way to access a command.
  In particular, you want to avoid using a contextual menu as the only way to access an advanced or power-user feature.

[1]: https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/documentation/UserEx...

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