I swear, designers and developers are un-learning how to build sites. Things that used to Just Work on the web (sign in, scrolling, load speed, etc.) now merit an article.
Every new generation has to either learn from the past or reinvent from scratch. The web has always had lots of cargo-cult copying of processes, because the most influential sites always get copied in order to try to be more familiar.
And with the overwhelming complexity of current front end web tech, it seems there's not much time left to put into thoughtful user experience.
It’s less about un-learning and more about the entire market changing, compromised by seemingly-endless VC money that rewards growth and “engagement” more than actual profits derived from value delivered to users.
Nowadays a large chunk of online services’ objective is more to “engage” you and sign you up to some bullshit newsletter or sales call rather than actually provide you a service that you’d be happy to pay for. Marketing has become the primary objective, with “deliver value to the user” a neglected side-effect.
See, I believe this is not a good enough argument.
This would be the same as excusing falling bridges and crashing planes on whoever's money speaking louder.
If the people who actually _build_ anything – the actual developers, engineers, etc. – don't build things up to standard or can't manage executive expectations, there's no hope; we'll live in a capitalocracy ruled by MBAs.
People building things need to care about the crap they ship because they'll have to use it too. There's way too many people in the industry not caring, just happy to collect a paycheck.
And with the overwhelming complexity of current front end web tech, it seems there's not much time left to put into thoughtful user experience.