> you're essentially telling users: "We know better than you." That arrogance doesn't go unnoticed. Respect your users' autonomy
IMHO, that assessment and corresponding answer applies perfectly not only to Momentum scrolling but also to most of the current trends in UX design. I wonder how we got into this worship of aesthetics to the detriment of everything else.
It applies to the entire IT industry. It's deeper than UI/UX design, it's all this extremely condescending bullshit about never ever letting the user take their own responsibility for anything at all.
Just today I googled how do I disable Apple's annoying "your password is required to enable touch ID" on macOS, not the one after reboot (that's understandable), but the one that seems to be based purely on time. The answer seems to be "you can't". The closest thing I found is the "bioutil" command that allows you to reduce that timeout but not increase it. I may try reverse engineering it to see where that check for maximum value is implemented, and if I can call the underlying API directly to bypass it.
Theoretically, I agree. UX shouldn't be about making systems look good. In practice, though, this appears to be the main concern (maybe because it's the easiest one to grasp?), leaving all the other ones subordinated to it. Hence I would blame the "excess" of UX design.
Yeah, that part reminds me of the flatteringly named "Call to Action" buttons. There was a nice blog article named something like "Button presses You" which i can't seem to find. Essentially, it goes on the trajectory of the purpose of any application telling you what and how to do instead of you, the user, deciding what the programm should do.
Indeed. CTA buttons and everything. Instead of simple, readable text-based menus, icons everywhere because they are "more intuitive". Navigation aids because, otherwise, "users get lost". Useless animated pictures together with apologetic error messages whenever the system (frequently) crashes. Everything facilitated by tools like Figma, enabling designers to be creative by pointing and clicking and leaving the multiple implementation and maintenance details as an exercise to developers who have now to "specialize" on front-end. What a hell. Yesterday I had to use a government web app and got lost. They even bothered to create some video tutorials but unfortunately the software went recently through a redesign to "improve UX" and now the icons don't match the ones in the tutorial anymore. The amount of damage they create with their cutesy interfaces and their condescending attitude is astonishing.
> Instead of simple, readable text-based menus, icons everywhere because they are "more intuitive". Navigation aids because, otherwise, "users get lost".
I'm not especially dumb but after they dropped "hamburger button" I think it took me about 10 years to ever look for the "hamburger button" for basic functionality, especially on non-touch devices.
What horrors lie beneath the hamburger? What void of regular function could there be?
IMHO, that assessment and corresponding answer applies perfectly not only to Momentum scrolling but also to most of the current trends in UX design. I wonder how we got into this worship of aesthetics to the detriment of everything else.