What are common UI misconceptions and annoyances?

Question

I often use applications and electronic devices for which I think: "Why on earth did they engineer that thing as it is? They must have known that it is a pain in the neck to work with".

On the other hand I often observed that I created a (G)UI that I was convinced about, that it'd delight my customers and was a breeze to work with. Although my customers thought that too, it became obvious that it wasn't at all easy to work with in day-to-day work.

Because of that I believe that there are many developers and designers out there who are genuinely convinced that their product has the perfect user interface, but it hasn't!

That's why I wrote this question: To collect some of the common misconceptions developers have about user interfaces and to prevent other developers (including me) from making the same mistakes.

What annoys you most in user interfaces of applications, web sites, electronic devices, etc. but presumably was created for the benefit of the user? What was it that you were convinced would be a great idea—but in the end only annoyed your customers?

Please write only one example per answer.

score 89 · Answer 1 · answered Aug 16 '10 at 22:29

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I'd suggest that the most common UI misconception is this:

That my users are interested in my application.

Most users aren't interested in your application at all.

In most cases if your users could replace your application with a large red button marked "Go", they would. And then they'd train a monkey to press the button over and over, go home, and relax.

Users aren't interested in applications. They're interested in getting things done. Applications are just a means to an end.

answered Aug 16 '10 at 22:29

Bevan

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+1 so. hard. The same is true for pretty much everything. This is why splashscreens/intropages for websites fail. And long introtexts. If only people would get it into their heads – Jonta May 24 '11 at 09:03
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Most irritating thing to me are the twenty long Logo animations I'm forced to sit through before I can play my favorite video game. I already know you made the game Ubisoft...I've seen your logo fifty million times now let me play the effin game! – Michael Brown Jun 17 '11 at 20:17
I think Jeff Atwood wrote on this on Coding Horror. Anyone have a link? – Mechanical snail Aug 23 '11 at 07:18

score 39 · Answer 2 · answered Aug 16 '10 at 21:14

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"My users are other software developers who want to be informed of every technical detail just like I would."

:)

answered Aug 16 '10 at 21:14

Aaron Lerch

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Definitely one of the more common problems! – Dan Barak Aug 17 '10 at 10:47
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One I have to avoid making everytime I am allowed near a forms designer. :) – pipTheGeek Aug 17 '10 at 15:00
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Nearly all FTP software is guilty of this. Command: PASV ??? Response: 227 Entering Passive Mode ??? Uh, what? Just tell me if I'm connected and the files uploaded successfully! – DisgruntledGoat Aug 24 '10 at 09:50

score 37 · Answer 3 · edited Aug 23 '11 at 07:19

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The belief that users don't know how to scroll (everything needs to be above the fold).

edited Aug 23 '11 at 07:19

Mechanical snail

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answered Aug 16 '10 at 22:48

Michael Warkentin

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Actually, studies have shown that users really don't mind scrolling at all. Check out this site: http://www.cxpartners.co.uk/thoughts/the_myth_of_the_page_fold_evidence_from_user_testing.htm for an explanation and some tips for encouraging your users to scroll. – LoganGoesPlaces Aug 17 '10 at 18:16
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yes @Logan, that's why it's a myth :) – GSto Aug 17 '10 at 19:33
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Here's my favorite article about it: http://iampaddy.com/lifebelow600/ – Michael Warkentin Aug 17 '10 at 21:43
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Wow, not sure where my head was on that one. – LoganGoesPlaces Aug 18 '10 at 02:06
This is a very common misconception. And it is one that I have seen people in the UX profession propagate, despite studies to the contrary. I think it comes from the fundamentally flawed assumption that all users are stupid. – AshtonKJ Aug 18 '10 at 12:37
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For the most part almost everyone does scroll. But a few times we have had customers call us asking us about a product when the answer to their question was just down an inch or two but they didn't scroll to see it. – Echo says Reinstate Monica Aug 18 '10 at 15:04
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I know how to scroll, but I positively hate it. I'm not sure treating this as a yes/no issue is the best approach. – reinierpost May 30 '11 at 08:31

score 28 · Answer 4 · edited Aug 28 '10 at 14:46

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There is a GREAT collection of user experience myths at http://uxmyths.com/ with wonderful supporting evidence as well. I just found this last week.

edited Aug 28 '10 at 14:46

Peter Mortensen

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answered Aug 16 '10 at 22:53

Michael Brown

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score 27 · Answer 5 · answered Aug 17 '10 at 09:19

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"Everything should have options"

answered Aug 17 '10 at 09:19

Max Steenbergen

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This is something Joel Spolsky talked about at BoS 2009: http://blip.tv/file/3996778 – Mircea Chirea Aug 20 '10 at 07:19
See also: http://gettingreal.37signals.com/ch06_Avoid_Preferences.php – DisgruntledGoat Aug 24 '10 at 09:48
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But don't go too far in killing potentially useful options. It will annoy power users. (I'm looking at you, GNOME.) – Mechanical snail Aug 23 '11 at 07:20

score 18 · Answer 6 · answered Aug 16 '10 at 21:10

18

If I use rounded corners in my design, everything will look better.

answered Aug 16 '10 at 21:10

Ryan Shripat

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Ha ha - how true! :) – Dan Barak Aug 17 '10 at 10:47
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And it costs damn lot of work to get those rounded corners cross browser – naugtur Aug 18 '10 at 08:36
That, and gradients. Thankfully, that's not as common nowadays. – Casey Chu May 30 '11 at 09:37
Could we please have examples of bad rounded corners? I simply love them. – Randomblue Oct 20 '11 at 13:37
Update: If I use square tiles, everything will look better. – Yogu Feb 10 '14 at 17:26

score 18 · Answer 7 · answered Aug 21 '10 at 22:31

One thing that annoys me - and is the cause of many of the annoyances you'll see on this page - are organisations that think they can figure out out how their customers will use their product without actually getting their customers to use their product!

I'm amazed at the number of companies who still don't invest in quick, cheap guerilla usability testing. Spending half a day and getting a little feedback would save them a barrel full of pain later on.

Ignacio · Answer 8 · 2011-05-24T13:22:01.400

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UI is always GUI. In the sense that UI doesn't have to be Graphical.

edited May 24 '11 at 13:22

answered Aug 17 '10 at 15:17

Ignacio

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Which summarises the point of our entire product. Awesome. – Rahul Aug 22 '10 at 21:43
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Well, what I meant is that UI is always GUI is a myth. Anyhow, nice app! – Ignacio Aug 22 '10 at 23:39
You can edit your answer to reflect your comment, ign. – Nick Bedford May 24 '11 at 00:54
since WWDC11 everybody has been calling it "HI" instead of "UI" – slf Jul 14 '11 at 19:35

score 14 · Answer 9 · answered Aug 16 '10 at 20:55

14

If I make a flashy/cool/colorful UI the users won't notice how terrible the application really is

answered Aug 16 '10 at 20:55

Sruly

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That is the cool cam effect: http://thedailywtf.com/Articles/The-Cool-Cam.aspx – Pierre-Alain Vigeant Aug 19 '10 at 20:30
How Great. Flashy & Cool are only that way for a while. Users can become acclimated to that effect. – IanL Aug 23 '10 at 19:28

score 10 · Answer 10 · answered Aug 17 '10 at 10:32

10

"Adding descriptive text will help the user"

answered Aug 17 '10 at 10:32

Ben Lings

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Of course it can be overused, but how is this a misconception? – Mechanical snail Aug 23 '11 at 07:22
It might be argued that on some occasions, if a lot of the features need to be explained in greater detail, the GUI and interaction design is far from optimal. – agib Aug 23 '11 at 07:33
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Related - "The user will check the Help/FAQ if they can't figure it out." – eBeth Aug 24 '11 at 15:41

score 7 · Answer 11 · answered Aug 24 '11 at 15:46

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Making something accessible to people with disabilities is hard. Besides, none of our visitors (users) has a disability.

answered Aug 24 '11 at 15:46

eBeth

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score 7 · Answer 12 · answered Aug 16 '10 at 21:36

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"The users are morons. They will never use that."

answered Aug 16 '10 at 21:36

Rusty

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This is a misconception!? :) – Sruly Aug 17 '10 at 06:40
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and the reverse: "The users aren't morons. They will never misunderstand that." – NickAldwin Aug 17 '10 at 14:37
This generally is the case, Rusty. – Nick Bedford May 24 '11 at 00:55
@Nick True but always good to check first :) – Rusty May 24 '11 at 01:14

score 6 · Answer 13 · answered Sep 12 '11 at 13:05

Something typically in projects where we develop software to replace older software, and when asking for specification I often hear:

"It should work exactly the same as in our old software."

I hate it when people take this as an anwer. I prefer to repond:

Then why are we developing new software?
Wasn't the purpose of this project not because we were unhappy the old software?
Why are we not allowed to do it better than in our previous software?

score 6 · Answer 14 · answered Aug 16 '10 at 22:41

6

Unabortable wizards or in general UIs that force you into set steps, but disallow you to abort said steps at certain points.

I know why there might be technical reasons for such a solution, but there are few things that bug me as much as a wizard or dialog that I by mistake have entered into that forces me to complete it, or wait for n units of time while it completes one or more of its steps.

Installing applications on Mac OS X is at times a perfect examples of this.

answered Aug 16 '10 at 22:41

Mikael Ohlson

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Mozilla Firefox is a perfect example of this when installing addons. "Wait X seconds" why?? – Mark Aug 17 '10 at 15:26
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@Mark There are good reasons for this: http://www.squarefree.com/2004/07/01/race-conditions-in-security-dialogs/ – Ignacio Aug 17 '10 at 17:45
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@Mark: What I'm really getting at is the inability to cancel dialogs. Waiting to continue is valid in many cases, whereas not allowing aborting the dialog IMO often is a case of programmer laziness. That said, there are times when it is difficult or "impossible" to allow a cancellation. – Mikael Ohlson Aug 18 '10 at 20:06

score 6 · Answer 15 · answered Aug 18 '10 at 13:18

6

Since other are doing this, it should mean it is simply better.

answered Aug 18 '10 at 13:18

score 5 · Answer 16 · answered Aug 23 '11 at 12:37

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"We must avoid jargon at any cost, even when research shows that our users understand it, and regularly use it in place of clunkier, ambiguous, harder-to-read alternatives"

answered Aug 23 '11 at 12:37

Jimmy Breck-McKye

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score 5 · Answer 17 · answered Oct 23 '11 at 02:18

In a GUI, if the user taps a button a tenth of a second after it appeared, the user meant to tap that button.

If the button appeared as a direct result of the user's action, that's probably a decent assumption. But it if appeared due to some asynchronous event that the user didn't initiate, chances are the user intended to tap whatever was on the screen previously.

If you change what's on the screen, don't activate the controls until the user has had a chance to see the new screen.

score 5 · Answer 18 · answered Aug 16 '10 at 22:47

5

That users know or even care very much about user interfaces or computers or technology or any of the stuff UI designers care about. They just want to get something done without feeling miserable doing it.

answered Aug 16 '10 at 22:47

Kramii

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score 5 · Answer 19 · answered Aug 17 '10 at 18:13

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More colors == better

answered Aug 17 '10 at 18:13

Steve S

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score 5 · Answer 20 · answered May 29 '11 at 23:57

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"My users are just like me (so what is obvious to me will be obvious to them)."

answered May 29 '11 at 23:57

Monica Cellio

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score 4 · Answer 21 · answered Aug 23 '11 at 10:02

Along the lines of "Users are interested" is the misconception that the more people see of the hard work I have put in, the better. I realise, as a software developer, that I have to justify my time, and being able to show something to my boss is helpful, but I also know, as a software developer interested in HCI, that the very best work I do is the work that no-one sees, that has very little impact on the user, that they hardly notice.

For me, the most satisfying result is when I do days of work, and the users are unaware of any change, except that "things seem to work better now." When the focus is on the user achieving their real task, this makes for good UI design. When the focus is on showing how much work we have done, it makes for nightmares.

score 4 · Answer 22 · answered Aug 23 '11 at 13:46

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"Our end users are engineers, they're smart guys, they will have no problems figuring out how it works".

The number of times I have heard this...

answered Aug 23 '11 at 13:46

Bart Gijssens

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score 4 · Answer 23 · answered Oct 20 '11 at 12:08

What I see often is that developers think that the fewer times you need to click the mouse button in order to access a function, the more user friendly the application is. A direct consequence is that as many UI elements and information as possible is put on the main screen of the application.

score 3 · Answer 24 · answered Aug 23 '11 at 13:48

3

The UI is not important. The application needs to be stable and reliable, that's more important.

answered Aug 23 '11 at 13:48

Bart Gijssens

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I disagree. An application's stability and reliability can be overwhelmingly better than the UI that users will forgive the bad UI. Take for example ImageVenue. Its UI is horrible but it's still the #1 image hosting service used in forums because it has much less dead images compared to other services. – JoJo Feb 10 '12 at 17:25
There is not a single reason in the world why stability and reliability cannot be combined with a good UI. As a user I refuse to use bad UIs like ImageVenue despite the stability and reliability. If you use your philosophy when designing software you are giving you competitors the possibility to make you suffer. – Bart Gijssens Feb 11 '12 at 13:27
At the end of day, an applications success is determined by traffic and profit. As long as the application is popular and making money, the owner couldn't care less if the UI sucks. I've seen other image hosters with good UI, but none have matched the core functionality of ImageVenue - fast loading, no crazy low bandwidth limit, and no broken images. Yes, I would like ImageVenue to have better UI, but the current UI does not detract me and the millions of patrons from using it. – JoJo Feb 12 '12 at 22:49
@JoJo: You continue to put good usability as an opposition to good stability, performance etc. It's like going to a car dealer and the dealer tells you: What would you like? An economical car, a beautiful car or a reliable car? I would walk out of the dealership and go to another one where they can sell me a beautiful, economical and reliable car. – Bart Gijssens Feb 13 '12 at 07:30

score 3 · Answer 25 · edited Aug 28 '10 at 14:47

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For web sites/applications, etc., etc.

Links (anchors) should go somewhere (go to user screen) and buttons should do something (update information, etc.).

edited Aug 28 '10 at 14:47

Peter Mortensen

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answered Aug 16 '10 at 20:36

kemiller2002

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Do you mean people don't follow the guideline, or that the guideline is wrong? – Dan Barak Aug 17 '10 at 10:46
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That people don't follow it. Whether or not I agree with is ultimately inconsequential, it is the accepted practice of the web. – kemiller2002 Aug 17 '10 at 13:35
This needs to be reworded, but yes. Following Existing Conventions 101. – Nick Bedford May 24 '11 at 00:56

score 3 · Answer 26 · answered Aug 17 '10 at 09:34

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To force users to perform actions in only one way (software designers way, usually).

answered Aug 17 '10 at 09:34

Jože Guna

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score 2 · Answer 27 · answered Aug 23 '11 at 14:41

Giving no indication of what rules are enforced for your password.

If you remind me it had to be at least eight characters with two numbers I'll know which one I used. If not, I'll have to use all the possible ones it could be until I finally get it right.

score 2 · Answer 28 · answered Oct 20 '11 at 12:12

It is normal that when adding functionality to the application, the UI becomes more complex.

Version 1.0 could be ran on 800 * 600 Version 2.0 requires 1024 * 768 Version 3.0 requires 1920 * 1200

Perfectly OK. Plus screens are getting bigger anyways.

I actually heard a product manager say: "With the application getting more and more complex, it is normal that the UI also becomes more complex."

score 2 · Answer 29 · edited Aug 28 '10 at 14:50

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Misconception:

Whether the submenu will fly out on hover of the main menu, or I have to click it.

edited Aug 28 '10 at 14:50

Peter Mortensen

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answered Aug 18 '10 at 09:45

Rajkamal Subramanian

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score 0 · Answer 30 · answered Oct 20 '11 at 12:14

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"Lotus Notes also does it like that, so it's good".

answered Oct 20 '11 at 12:14

Bart Gijssens

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Lots of organisations use Lotus Notes, so it must be good. – Erics Oct 23 '11 at 05:30
@Erics how is Lotus Notes (now IBM notes) still around? – Celeritas Jun 05 '16 at 09:39
Because enterprises have themselves locked in on the system. – Bart Gijssens Jun 07 '16 at 07:40

score 0 · Answer 31 · answered Aug 16 '10 at 21:58

UI should be tested as well as the functionalities.
But the test should be performed by end users that were not implied in the technical definition of the project. In my projects I often noticed that the applications are tested by people that helped designing them so they already have a "used to" user knowledge.

And when it's possible, you should be a user of your own application ! (you might then notice some issues with the everyday use)

score 0 · Answer 32 · answered May 24 '11 at 04:40

Scenario: a developer creates a form that, depending on what checkboxes are checked, certain actions will take place. While a person will have to pause to consider the impact of their selections, the developer believes the form is simple, as it only has a few options to select, and the text labels in the form sound rational to him.

Developer misconceptions:

(1) the shortest route for the developer to get the form on the page and make it work just happens to be the best way to present the form to the user

(2) the form would make sense to other developers even before I explained it to them

(3) when I did a demo of the form, it was reasonably clear to everyone, even though it was me who was doing all the clicking and explaining

(4) the form would make sense to anyone; in fact, you'd be an idiot if you didn't understand it

(5) users have a chip inside their brain playing an .mp3 of the thought process the developer used to make the form; they play this whenever they wonder what precisely the implications of their selections mean, because it's not explained anywhere else

score -2 · Answer 33 · answered Aug 16 '10 at 21:49

-2

"I'll design the UI now, then the functionality will fall into place."

answered Aug 16 '10 at 21:49

Dan Udey

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I disagree. I think that the UI should be designed first, and the functionality figured out later. or simultaneously, if you have people working on a form of MVC architecture. – GSto Aug 17 '10 at 19:34
Functionality is designed first, otherwise you don't know what you're doing. Functionality is "what the app's for" not "what came from implementation" – naugtur Aug 18 '10 at 09:54
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For all intents and purposes, the UI is the functionality, from the perspective of the user. Of course you need to know what the application is going to do, in broad strokes, but the UI design is going to bring up what is really important. – Tim Sullivan Aug 22 '10 at 14:49
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I believe requirements should be designed first. Requirements define functions (not functionality) without mention or implication of graphical appearance. Then a user interface is designed around the requirements.
I actually hate the reverse: "We will build the back-end first and then you can skin it" as then you just end up with an interface that exposes the "back-end" rather than a user-centred design.
– jeef3 Aug 30 '10 at 02:02
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The user interface is one of the most important parts of a piece of software. – Nick Bedford May 24 '11 at 00:57

What are common UI misconceptions and annoyances?

33 Answers33