Inconveniences to be pumped for money, we who "need something" from any provider are problems to flatten. Grace and civility have fallen off the menu of American lives. It's all speedy dismissal.
The simplest option for me has been to engage well in the services and interactions I can, and boycott every non-essential product or place.
Not playing in traffic, not being used without thought, has saved my self-respect and money, kept me kind, and though I am hermetic I can be fully human with those who also are.
And all this time I thought I was the only one experiencing - what will we call it?- UX to the max and believed it was just me and my individual failure to meet the challenges. This Substack community is sometimes my only life raft. This piece is priceless in today's environment. My process now is to: stop, drop out, cancel and "unsubscribe" as a matter of coarse. How very sad.
It would certainly seem so, but another thought is how the few people who have power and influence can see how to exploit an opportunity to achieve some kind of advantage for themselves. In this case, it is the 'opportunity' that creates the response that becomes the intention to deceive or corrupt.
>>The cure for poor UX is clear: embrace the Taoist path of least resistance and Confucian respect for human dignity.
I don't design UX. I simply use it. What would you suggest I do? How do I embrace my human dignity when I am faced with an unsubscribe button that is hidden like the arc of the covenant? (nice image, BTW)
If possible, I try to steer clear of systems that are UX nightmares. Federal and state government systems are at the top of my list so I refuse to engage with them.
That lead picture! Wow. I hope that more organizations take your advice. They should be married to easy user experience. Uxorious, even, one might say.
It's amazing how bad most ux is, but in general it's because as you write it's not about the human/customer, but so the company can make more money either by pushing you in a desired direction or trying to save themselves costs.
There are also other nightmare ux apps, such as everything that Microsoft puts out (which are actually supposed to help productivity!). But the problem with these is similar - there are buttons and icons and menus hiding in plain sight all over the screen!
Taoism applied to UX. Bravo! If only corporations would listen. Thank you
Dishonoring is the flavor of these times.
Inconveniences to be pumped for money, we who "need something" from any provider are problems to flatten. Grace and civility have fallen off the menu of American lives. It's all speedy dismissal.
The simplest option for me has been to engage well in the services and interactions I can, and boycott every non-essential product or place.
Not playing in traffic, not being used without thought, has saved my self-respect and money, kept me kind, and though I am hermetic I can be fully human with those who also are.
Well said. Thank you for sharing your thoughts.
And all this time I thought I was the only one experiencing - what will we call it?- UX to the max and believed it was just me and my individual failure to meet the challenges. This Substack community is sometimes my only life raft. This piece is priceless in today's environment. My process now is to: stop, drop out, cancel and "unsubscribe" as a matter of coarse. How very sad.
Yes. Sadly, UX issues have become normalized to the point to where they are silently killing us. I even believe that some of this is intentional.
It would certainly seem so, but another thought is how the few people who have power and influence can see how to exploit an opportunity to achieve some kind of advantage for themselves. In this case, it is the 'opportunity' that creates the response that becomes the intention to deceive or corrupt.
Excellent point.
>>The cure for poor UX is clear: embrace the Taoist path of least resistance and Confucian respect for human dignity.
I don't design UX. I simply use it. What would you suggest I do? How do I embrace my human dignity when I am faced with an unsubscribe button that is hidden like the arc of the covenant? (nice image, BTW)
If possible, I try to steer clear of systems that are UX nightmares. Federal and state government systems are at the top of my list so I refuse to engage with them.
Good points! Lately I've experienced unsubscribe not working or being unavailable. Not exactly wu wei...
That lead picture! Wow. I hope that more organizations take your advice. They should be married to easy user experience. Uxorious, even, one might say.
It's amazing how bad most ux is, but in general it's because as you write it's not about the human/customer, but so the company can make more money either by pushing you in a desired direction or trying to save themselves costs.
There are also other nightmare ux apps, such as everything that Microsoft puts out (which are actually supposed to help productivity!). But the problem with these is similar - there are buttons and icons and menus hiding in plain sight all over the screen!