I think the title says it all. "Cockpit-like" is what I've come up with, but I'm looking for better ideas.
Asked
Active
Viewed 3,508 times
16
-
4I like the term 'craptastic'. That or 'designed by offshore outsourcing' – DA01 Oct 21 '10 at 20:26
-
5Being a pilot, most cockpits are laid out exactly like you want them to be... Problem is, you have to know how to use it before you even stand a chance at learning how to use it. Same with poorly desgned interfaces. Documentation on these is usually inversely proportional to how easy to understand: More difficult = less documentation. I have bar a verrrry long margin, seen these type of intefaces come out of Offshore outsourcing projects, so i'll go with that... – JohnnyJP Oct 22 '10 at 08:26
26 Answers
15
"This looks like it was designed by engineers."
Vidbot
- 71
- 5
-
5I take offense to that. Engineers are more than capable of designing good interfaces. In fact, I would say that graphic designers are MUCH worse at designing a USABLE interface. – Charles Boyung Oct 22 '10 at 16:41
-
8The problem is that most engineers design with implementation details in mind and focus on possibilities. That makes great interfaces when your users are engineers, too. Of course there are exceptions. – peterchen Oct 22 '10 at 21:15
-
2
-
2I'm with Charles. Poor design is poor design... and I've seen an awful lot of bad design by people who call themselves "designers" - and some rather good design by folk who call themselves "engineers". I find broad characterisations of one group by another harmful. – adrianh Oct 23 '10 at 17:43
-
3That's not a broad characterization of one group. That's just a statement of reality--good design takes practice, experience, and specific training. That doesn't mean you can't be both an engineer and a designer, but someone who is just an engineer is unlikely to produce good UI designs, just as a designer isn't likely to produce good engineering. I mean, would you hire a plumber to perform heart surgery? – Lèse majesté Oct 24 '10 at 05:44
-
@Lèse majesté - Do you know what a true engineer does? We DESIGN things. Human factors is required study for most engineering disciplines. Is that true of designers (especially since most of them come from some sort of graphic arts background)? Highly unlikely. – Charles Boyung Oct 25 '10 at 14:35
-
@Lèse majesté - Just looked at your website - let me guess, you're an engineer, right? At least according to your "statement of reality" that would appear be the case. – Charles Boyung Oct 26 '10 at 16:43
-
1@Charles Boyung: No need to get butt-hurt over an internet discussion. And you can argue over semantics all you want, but designing a software system is not the same as designing the interface for that software system. If that were so then there would be no need for IAs, IxDs and UX designers. Also, how many courses on human factors are required for an engineering major compared to the amount required for someone studying human factors? It's precisely this type of thinking that "anyone can be a designer" that leads to a lot of poorly designed and unusable applications. – Lèse majesté Oct 27 '10 at 02:32
-
@Lèse majesté - Seriously, what do you consider yourself? If you say anything related to interface design, I'm going to call BS because your website clearly shows that you know absolutely nothing about designing a usable interface and shouldn't be here having this discussion. – Charles Boyung Oct 27 '10 at 13:23
-
2@Charles Boyung Why you gotta make this personal, man? The guy's just saying that he thinks engineers don't make great designers. The very least you can do is agree to disagree and move on. You don't know him, you don't know his abilities, so leave the ad hominems out of this. – Rahul Oct 28 '10 at 09:00
-
@Rahul - his entire comment was an ad hominem to begin with. He's the one associating poor design with being an engineer. I can at least provide the proof of his own website that he doesn't know how to design a usable system. – Charles Boyung Oct 28 '10 at 13:45
-
"This looks like it was designed by engineers." - Doesn't mean it's a bad design, it means that (to me) that it is cluttered and allows you to perform almost every action available in that interface from the current view. This is often the case with engineers, they tend to favor the actual mechanics over the simplicity. – Matt Rockwell Jun 01 '11 at 19:49
10
Being a "Rube Goldberg" device is commonly used to identify complex, but mostly useless things.
And cockpits are getting better...
Tucker
- 471
- 2
- 6
-
What I'm talking about isn't uselessness, just complexity. (Usually of the undesigned or poorly designed variety, though I'm sure in the case of actual cockpits, there's a ton of design in them. And I'm sure they are getting better, but they still have that reputation....) – sprugman Oct 21 '10 at 17:28
-
Rube Goldberg machines mostly did do something useful, just in a very complicated way - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rube_Goldberg_machine . See also "Heath Robinson" for our non-US friends. – DJClayworth Oct 25 '10 at 19:43
-
I guess that Rube Goldberg machines require careful designs. Therefore, I do not think that it is a good name for something which lacks designing. – Tsuyoshi Ito Nov 03 '10 at 21:12
8
Paraphrasing Alan Cooper: The remarkable thing about a dancing bear is not how well it dances -- it's actually terrible -- but that it dances at all.
Patrick McElhaney
- 14,143
- 9
- 49
- 67
8
Cluttered?
Or point them to this lovely cartoon :-)
http://stuffthathappens.com/blog/2008/03/05/simplicity/
I'd say "Cockpit-like" is a poor analogy since while the interface is complex they are highly designed. The complexity is needed - there's just a lot of information that needs to be easily accessible.
adrianh
- 10,338
- 2
- 24
- 39
5
I've heard the phrase "What a 1040" used before.
(FYI non-US folks: Form 1040 = US tax return.)
gef05
- 3,591
- 19
- 23
5
Our particular favourite term to use in our office is "Facerolled."
As in, "When they designed that, they must have just rolled their face across their keyboard and hoped for the best."
LiamGu
- 248
- 2
- 5
4
How about:
A Bureaucracy
A Boston (with streets running in ad hoc directions, it’s one of the hardest cities in the US to navigate).
A CASTLE
A Mortgage Derivative
Michael Zuschlag
- 37,870
- 4
- 57
- 105
2
A long time ago, a Micky Mouse watch was one that quickly fell apart, hence Micky Mouse this and that, so how about Micky Mouse interface?
Remou
- 101
- 1
2
JIRA
pretty catchy, I think
2
I like the term angry fruit salad even though it's usually about the overuse of colors.
mbillard
- 786
- 5
- 7
0
The classic comparison used to be the Space Shuttle's UI.
Just be careful which buttons you press on re-entry...
http://www.nasa.gov/centers/langley/images/content/70412main_KSC-99PP-0412.JPG
PhillipW
- 11,290
- 2
- 33
- 55
0
Part of the problem you'll run into is finding a term that has a wide enough distribution - many terms like this are specific to a particular culture or geography.
That said, here are my suggestions.
- A hodge-podge user iterface
- A dogs breakfast user interface
- A user interface only a mother could love
Interested to see other peoples ideas.
Bevan
- 8,311
- 3
- 32
- 41
0
How about?
- Clutter-ware
- SNAFUI - Situation Normal All F'ed Up Interface
- Anti-Designed Interface
- Anti UI (pronounced ant-eye-you-eye) :)
milesmeow
- 1,855
- 2
- 16
- 25
