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Comment by xp84 | Hacker News Reader

It wasn’t AI that brought us Apple’s gray on slightly-lighter-gray UI standards, nor the 10,000,000 ••• menus that have infested every webapp in the past 10 years as an alternative to thoughtful UI design. We humans made everything shitty before we made AI.

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> Apple’s gray on slightly-lighter-gray UI standards

It's a tangential point, but I turned on System Settings -> Accessibility -> Display -> Increase Contrast (the on/off option, not Display Contrast) and now at least the windows are outlined sharply.

The "Differentiate wihout color" is one I like. All of the on/off sliders now have a 1 or 0 to indicate on/off

Funny, didn't iOS have that like 15 years ago, before they probably removed it?

OMG this is wonderful! Thank you.

A lot of people who think of themselves as able-bodied never think to poke around in the Accessibility sections of their settings menus. But it turns out that accessibility options are for everyone; people should really think of and evaluate them as first class tools more often

They really should just have a single checkbox, "Prioritise usability over wank", and leave it at that.

That's an interesting idea: if you're thinking of having an accessibility option, consider just making it the default.

Or,are we just getting older and these things suddenly matter?

A button looking like a button isn't an age (of the reader) thing.

Of course it is. What should a button on a screen look like, after all, it has absolutely nothing to do with a large mechanical button from the 80s the old designs tried to emulate. In fact, such buttons are becoming rare even in the physical world, the younger generation is more and more accustomed to touch buttons for operating all kinds of machinery around them. So "like a button" is very much an age thing

Looking like a "touch button" is still looking like a button. Some indication that an element is tappable is still useful.

Game consoles are still pretty popular, I don't think people are going to forget what real buttons are for at least another couple of generations.

Nah, one of the things I found in Discord's accessibility settings is an ability to turn off or reduce animations and other visual effects by default, which is wonderful no matter your ability.

Possibly a factor, but I also think these issues are becoming much more widespread, leaving us less able to tolerate them than when they were less common.

These things are like a sidewalk having a ramp that was originally made for wheelchairs but then suddenly everyone uses it because it’s just a nicer experience with less chance of tripping and falling flat on your face.

Good thing we trained our fortune teller calculators on all that historic shittiness!

Maybe, but at least the 10,000,000 options were there instead deemed that they are not to be used by those pesky users. And now its they are not just hidden. They are simply not there.

Guns and bombs also didn't create war. But they did made it way more lethal.

What is it about AI where the discussion is immediately derailed with whataboutism? Like, are these actually good faith comments? What's the point of bringing up "well some other bad stuff already existed"?

It’s not whataboutism, I’m simply challenging the notion that AI caused this. UI has been in the toilet and worsening for 15 years.

A combination of trend (minimalism cult masquerading as sophistication), pragmatic trimming down of things to work on tiny screens, dumbing down things in an attempt to reduce complexity, and of course dark patterns, to push users toward profitable actions (like clicking ads or continued ‘engagement’) and away from costly ones (finding support, for instance).

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