In a similar vein, try explaining to a senior with fading skills that under material design literally nothing is a clue that a region on your screen is a button you can press.
Only prior use can inform what is active, and what is not.
Only prior use can inform what is active, and what is not.
Except if the site is still on Material Design 2, then it is the reverse in which some buttons are inside rounded rectangles and that chips are inside pill shaped shading.
Are we confused yet?
There's a list of emails with a checkbox for each email on the left.
If you want to quickly select a bunch of emails---for instance, to label or sort them---you quickly press all the checkboxes.
If you just barely miss a checkbox, you will open the email because you press the larger selectable region (which is, btw, invisible until selected---a nod toward your "prior use" statement) for one email where a checkbox happens to be fully enclosed.
Now, if you are trying to label or sort some messages that have been opened and also some that are unread, you now have one extra task of going back after labeling/sorting and marking the one that you accidentally opened as unread---if you actually noticed in the first place whether it was already opened before you opened it!
On my phone, Gmail checkboxes are about 3 by 3 millimeters. If I dip my finger in coffee and lightly tap the paper on my desk, it creates a circle about 5 to 6 mm in diameter. I've opened countless emails just trying to do routine sorting and labeling via checkbox. I know there are larger fingertips, smaller screens, and people with less stable coordination than mine.
Google's nested, tiny checkboxes are a waste of time and a needless security flaw, as emails often contain info you'd like protected, and cameras are commonplace and usually legal, so it doesn't matter if you are quick to close the message you suddenly opened outside of your home.
The alternative? Hold each message until the checkbox populates, which is noticeably slower but lowers the likelihood you accidentally open a message.
I don't understand why the Gmail "open this message" region isn't a full 5+ mm right of the checkboxes (except maybe at smartwatch resolutions). They shouldn't be enclosed or nested AT ALL! Nobody reasonable is opening messages by clicking the little blank space to the left or top of the checkboxes. (...at least they weren't until they saw my statement and decided to do it from now on out of spite or curiosity.)
I also don't know why Android Studio shouldn't/doesn't harass developers with "Attention! You are committing BAD DESIGN!" alert messages when they try to put small selectable elements on top of other selectable elements that perform an unrelated task.
Well, maybe I am a senior. I know I spend far more time screaming at clouds nowadays and grow increasingly distant from what kids today are into.
I have no way to defend this argument but my eyes, but I can say that Google's Material design is the most bland, insipid of them all, and I would rather see Bootstrap again than another Material-inspired with its white cards on white background and tap animations. Just kidding, Bootstrap was as bland.
I miss Windows 2000 every day.
I can't think of any example off my head, but I remember mention of a striking online clothing store with bold colours, thick black borders and large fonts that's very popular in that age range.
From a quick search on google: https://thedigitalmaze.com/blog/three-awesome-ui-design-tren...
See also the design for Gumroad: https://gumroad.com/
Recently had to help an aging parent use their phone to obtain medical care: an app was required to access their MyChart to get a message from their case manager. Having to explain what is "clickable" is infuriating. The race for UX/UI novelty is leaving seniors behind, which is tragic since hospitals are pushing them online.
I think apps will die but not by 2035, probably 2055. Apps are fucking stupid and antithetical to the web IMHO.
Oh and I hope phone trees die a horrible death especially ones that don’t immediately put you through to a human. The biggest pain due to cost savings is not being able to get help via a goddamn phone call that doesn’t go to a call center, or worse: a disconnect at the end of a long tree of number presses.