I think new UI designers might mistakenly think that they are in the fashion industry, when actually they are in the ergonomics engineering industry, or should be.
I want to search, in a search bar, for the next video. This should not take three interactions.
YouTube is fine designing a UX where I am one click away from pulling up an AI-generated list of questions I may have about the video, though.
Why did the label on my Fig Newtons get redesigned? It's not because it lacked in usability. It's because the company knows that customers respond to visual updates. If something looks the same year after year, lots of people will see it as old and tired. A redesign makes it feel modern and fresh. At least to enough people that it matters.
I had the same experience on a recent trip to The UPS Store. The color scheme was all different from the previous time I shipped a package. I commented to the clerk that they'd redecorated. He said they do it pretty often.
Software has a visual aspect to it, and the same forces are in effect. Part of a UI designer's job is to be on that treadmill. That's probably not what the job should be, but the people who pay their salary want it to be.
Tantacrul is my favourite (and, actually, only) example of this. His work with MuseScore, with Audacity, his videos about them, and his takedowns of Sybellius etc. all opened my eyes to the world of designers who do things with hard-nosed analytical thinking, user studies, good principles, and make something useful. Even his little digressions about Paint3D and Ubuntu's Mobile OS are illustrative.
No idea why UPS keeps redesigning other than signal "we still up to date with trends", its not like its rebranding going to make me want to ship anything that I don't already need to (and will ship with USPS unless its overnight in which case I will go with FedEx).
Interfaces get redesigned, in opinion, either because: a) just because (bad) b) certain things worked the way it worked only because it had to fit existing design and eventually old design just couldn't fit new feature(s) (can be good or bad, depending on execution)
It's no help at all that people expect Apple to be fashionable, like if you read a review of an "operating system" in Arstechnica you'd think it's all about little details on the scrollbar, not about filesystems and microkernels and namespaces and stuff.
you mean "actually methodically studying users is boring and requires competence"
these people only care about making pretty pictures, they dont care about the actual effort to deliver a good product.
i remember the studies used to design windows 95
nothing modern ux amateurs do can compare to the oldschool HCI professionals
With a maximized or suitably positioned window, pushing the mouse all the way to the right of the screen activates the scroll bar. To the top right activates the close button.
Small things, but they become annoyances when they are missing.
Bad Dye Job: