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by wharvle 926 days ago
Desktop program UI design mostly peaked in the 90s (search-to-launch becoming ubiquitous is about the only really good thing to happen since then). Desktop web design peaked somewhat later, in the two- and three-column era. ‘00s. It was nice when most sites looked and worked about the same way, and that way also happened to have great info density for a desktop screen.

Mobile web design, I’m not sure it’s had a peak yet. Phone os UI peak was iOS6.
1 comments
dangus 925 days ago
> Phone os UI peak was iOS6.

I couldn't disagree more strongly with this.

The UI can't just be considered on its own without a discussion of the underlying functionality that it presents. iOS6 is like a caveman's OS compared to what today's OS versions can accomplish.

So it may be true that iOS felt simple and intuitive, but it was also presenting so much less functionality that it really makes broad comparisons seem disingenuous.

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wharvle 925 days ago
Most of the important functionality that’s been added didn’t require the changes to UI that I consider a downgrade.
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dangus 924 days ago
The UI absolutely has to change to accommodate new functionality. New functionality means more “buttons and switches” to contend with.

For example, iMessage didn’t used to have any app integration to insert things. It used to be pictures/videos and text. Now it has the ability to insert a whole bunch of things and from a variety of first and third party apps. It can handle things like payments and location sharing. There has to be some kind of UI to handle that, and arguably there’s no way it can be “as clean” as an older version of the OS that simply didn’t have that functionality.

Another example: AirPlay 2 allows you to cast to multiple speakers at the same time and adjust volumes individually. You can also send audio from one app to one speaker and a different app to a different speaker and still play audio on the phone itself. So, now the AirPlay interface has radio buttons and more volume sliders, and it has a way to change which device’s audio you are controlling, and it has to fit and make sense somehow.

When the iPhone started there was just one volume bar for everything, so of course that UI was more intuitive - but it was also far less capable.

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