Ask HN: What are some recent less known innovations in UI/UX | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: What are some recent less known innovations in UI/UX

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For example the stuff that used be in gmail labs - wait before sending an email to be able to undo it or adding status icon into title bar

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I have always loved the way GMail protected you from dangerous actions, like deleting an email.

Usually software would protect you with a confirmation pop-up: "Are you sure you want to __________ ?" Instead, GMail just let you do it. Then it added a yellow strip at the top, "Message deleted. [Undo]". So, instead of double-confirmation, GMail implemented Undo more thoroughly.

This was better in two ways:

(1) It wasn't a pop up! I hate pop-ups. I don't think anyone likes pop-ups.

(2) A computer asking you "Are you sure?" is as annoying as a human being questioning everything you say. It is nice every now in then, when it really was an accident. But most of the time, it isn't. Another metaphor is a mechanical device that is failing. You press the button, and it doesn't work. You have to press it again.

The whole approach breaks your flow, implies contempt, and by definition is frustrating.

The approach of "just let you do it and provide an undo" isn't recent anymore, and sadly, Google seems to be drifting away from it. I see more and more pop-ups and "Are you sure?" messages.

While I get and share your point, the downside is: when you miss the yellow strip, you're basically screwed. Being tech savvy, I remember many times this pattern caught me off-guard. How do you think non tech-savvy (who account to the majority of users I guess) will react to this?

You can still recover a deleted email from the bin.

Maybe you are thinking of situations that I am not. I suppose like anything it can be badly implemented. But in the situations I'm thinking of, the Undo opportunity was unmissable. Besides, I already knew that I had clicked what I clicked. So if I didn't mean it, I knew to look for the Undo.

I'm not sure what you mean by recent, but I think the most interesting concept in UI/UX that I can think of off the top of my head is the OS-level back-button on Android. I love Apple laptops, but the OS-level back-button on Android is at least 1/4 of the reason I prefer Android to iOS.

It's just such a specific and weird feature that I never would have had the audacity to think "hey, every single application will benefit from this being a constant fixture in the operating system." I know that applications can add a back button when they feel it's necessary, and I know you can swipe to go back in iOS in various applications, but it's just not the same.

Good point. I think it was a concept even earlier - mice had a back button even in the 90s and there is a specific . Unfortunately, instead of saying these will always be back and forward they were just implemented using XBUTTON1 and XBUTTON2 and applications could choose how to handle them

For an ongoing list of good, helpful, usually somewhat hidden and quirky UI improvements, check out https://littlebigdetails.com/

Sadly, it hasn't been updated in a few years.

darn. i did not notice that. thank you for the head's up.

There are always new things that incrementally improves the theming of widgets. Like some people are trying to find better alternatives to material design, but they didnt really catch on

But other interfaces that had bigger improvements recently are audio and haptics

For user experience, to me this is kinda domain driven because of workflow improvements, but there's a lot of things that are changing in almost every domain. And its kinda hard to find out which one is right because an improvement in the UX might not mean better UX for the users. IE: company A does X but company B does it differently

You can even argue self driving is a major improvement in the UI and UX for drivers, including the screen dashboards. IE: tesla adding that ipad screen, and other vehicles are trying to copy it.

I marvel at the "mini toolbar" in Microsoft Office. It shows up when selecting text and neatly manages to get out of the way when not needed:

1) Initial toolbar placement does not obscure selected text.

2) Toolbar fades away if mouse does not move towards the toolbar.

This may not be recent, or lesser known, but one thing I appreciate more and more, and I believe is becoming more prevalent is the ability to exit a modal by clicking anywhere in the dead space surrounding it. Saves a click, and since the target area to click is much bigger, it's faster/easier to me than zeroing in on a small 'X' button.

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