[Aardwolf]

My psychology is unfortunately different than most users, which means UI's suck for me nowadays.

I want more information on screen, more settings, more logic.

The UI trend however seems to be less information on screen, less settings, and more "The UI knows better what you want than you do" :(

[silverbax88]

I think this actually represents a massive gap between what UI or UX designers believe and what users actually prefer.

Consider this: Microsoft Windows (prior to Windows 8) was by all accounts a clunky, poorly conceived UI...that allowed users to modify it to look just about any way they wanted.

Now we have applications like Twitter and Facebook constantly re-arranging their users layout, and the most recent changes have been to increase font size, reduce the information on the screen, all of the things that many users (such as myself) do not want.

I find this perplexing...how did we as a UI culture going from having bad design that I could control to having bad design that I can't control?

[userbinator]

Can't agree more, but it could be a cultural thing too - see all the discussion around Western vs East Asian web/UI design, for example. So your psychology might actually be the norm for an Asian user, if by "most users" you mean the West.

[Aardwolf]

Well, I'm not Asian so I don't know. I'm a programmer tho. So for me things should be logical and controllable in orthogonal ways, and if there is lots of information display it in ways designed for maximum efficiency of absorbing information (good controllable aggregations, good use of the visual system and screen real estate, fast scrolling, ...).

[tommi]

Can you give an example of an case where you want more settings instead of more suitable UI for your needs?

[Aardwolf]

Sure. Allowing to set ranges yourself rather than infinite scrolling that makes it impossible to go back to number X. A setting to always show little icons instead of only when the mouse hovers over it. Settings to organize lots of data the way you want. Settings to let a single mouse click on a bookmark star put it in the place you want rather than some place where you don't want it. Settings to always expand all content in a thread rather than showing things collapsed first so that you need to open each individually. Settings to put the refresh button next to the forward and back button. A setting to have multiple rows of taskbars in your favorite Linux desktop env. Settings to fix anything that's annoying and designed for less knowledgeable users or users with small screens basically.

[silverbax88]

One example that sums up most: Twitter. I just want to see/display the feed, not have the UI decide which ones to deem 'important'. I'd like for the app to allow the power of CSS to let me choose a layout as opposed to just picking one that doesn't really work for me.

The overall problem is that what UI designers think 'a more suitable UI' is, probably won't be for many users. Think of it like the open-office plan. It's horrible for employees, most people absolutely hate it, it lowers productivity, and yet corporations have people on staff who are implementing it as fast as they possibly can because it's more "suitable".