[vijucat]

I got a minor amount of hate for it, but to repeat what I wrote here [1]:

"Slowly, I'm coming to the conclusion that designers should never be employed, only consulted on a per-project basis. If they sit around 8 hours a day, they end up changing something or the other to justify their existence. But human beings are not used to change at such a rapid cadence. Humans take time to settle into a design and establish patterns of usage."

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44103131#44105292

[fastasucan]

I don't understand how you can both appreciate the importance of good design, but at the same time claim that making good design is not a full time job.

[sirwhinesalot]

Because good design turns into bad design when the designers have nothing better to do.

[agos]

that's also true of engineering, but suggesting never hiring engineers would not go as well on this website

[sirwhinesalot]

It is not true, software needs constant maintenance as the environment keeps changing (which is a sad state of affairs as digital objects don't decay, but pretending this isn't the case is ridiculous).

While you need new designs for new features, you don't need to redesign old features every few years. It's change for the sake of change.

[vijucat]

Is changing the design even though users are perfectly happy "good design"? No, that is the "full time job" part kicking in.

[wseqyrku]

I think this is rather intentional. A sparkly design to distract from Siri failure. Oh look at that glass. It's almost real.

[pzo]

Could be also another side-benedits for apple:

- on older iphones this design probably wont render so well or fast (I guess require modern iphone with raytracing functionality) -> people need to buy new iphones

- put wrench into those cross-platform apps like flutter, capacitor to make their apps feel off.

[EZ-E]

> If they sit around 8 hours a day, they end up changing something or the other to justify their existence

I've seen this - it's not limited to designers, I've also business stakeholders with limited scope pushing for meaningless changes and revamps. The incentives to absolutely find something to do are too great. No one in higher management ever wants to hear that everything is fine and that we should do nothing. You'll be instantly booted saying that for lacking ambition and vision even if you're right. There should always be the next thing. As part of the tech industry earning a salary you always need to sell "something" internally.

[tootie]

Bad designers are like bad engineers. Seeking interesting things to do rather than serving the audience. Honestly, can't blame them either. They want to enjoy life not make profits.

Really good designers exist and are about as rare as good engineers.

[dragochat]

this++

We need more UX that people can "settle into" instead of the constant assault of superficial change that drains energy from everyone's ongoing effort to adapt to exponentially increasing fundamental change!

[lobsterthief]

This is why UX teams should be data-driven. Do user research and A/B testing to hone your UI.

[dragochat]

uhm, maybe no... data-drive in UX means sliding towards the lowest common denominator, optimizing at first for the dumbest user, then later giving in to dark patterns and quasi-scamming

there's room for creativity in UX, lots, just not at the "how does the texture of a button feel and flow" - need to move HIGHER level, towards eg thinking of experience minimizing cognitive load, increasing synergy and augmentation ppotential etc etc ...the ceiling is waaaay higher than most UX ppl think

[kreco]

I don't fully disagree but this is not the root of the cause.

If I'm being employed to create bad product (bad UI) then I'm bad at my job.

Everything single decision should have a rational about it. You should fix what is broken, improve what can be improved and certainly not doing feng shui changes.

TL;DR: It's a management issue.