[HN Gopher] User In Yer Face, a worst-practise UI experiment (2018)
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       User In Yer Face, a worst-practise UI experiment (2018)
        
       Author : onion2k
       Score  : 318 points
       Date   : 2023-05-18 08:13 UTC (14 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (userinyerface.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (userinyerface.com)
        
       | mattkevan wrote:
       | Often thought about designing a print magazine with the same
       | values as a web publication:
       | 
       | * Agree to all sorts of scary things to take off the plastic
       | wrapping
       | 
       | * Peel off multiple big stickers on every page
       | 
       | * Big heavy adverts that overlap the content and weigh pages down
       | 
       | * Built-in Tile/Airtag to track location
       | 
       | * Chumboxes for other magazines at the bottom of each article
       | 
       | ...etc
        
         | Waterluvian wrote:
         | This sounds like a local "newspaper" that's 90% ads.
         | 
         | I've got one that fully identifies as a newspaper but there
         | isn't even a single article on the front page.
        
           | morkalork wrote:
           | Especially the ones with the sleezy ads on the backpage for
           | massage and other services.
        
         | troymc wrote:
         | Also a CD-ROM from AOL!
        
         | atorodius wrote:
         | That'd be a fun art project imo
        
         | AlecSchueler wrote:
         | And then give it away for free of course!
        
           | xp84 wrote:
           | No, only the first couple articles you read are free, the
           | rest are printed in disappearing ink so you get ONLY the ads
           | and pop ups after that until you buy a subscription to the
           | magazine on auto renew.
        
         | danparsonson wrote:
         | Excellent idea - and every time you try to put it down for a
         | moment a hidden spring triggers and it flies up off the table
         | and into your face
        
         | p1mrx wrote:
         | > Big heavy adverts that overlap the content and weigh pages
         | down
         | 
         | A lot of magazines have a rip-out subscription card like that.
        
           | droopyEyelids wrote:
           | the fall-out cards are even worse
        
         | jjbinx007 wrote:
         | Recreate the Amazon experience in a store by asking for their
         | name so you can show them different prices and offers, then
         | write down everything the shopper looks at, adds to their
         | basket, and after they've paid sell their information to
         | advertisers so they will see adverts for the lawnmower they've
         | just bought for the next few days.
        
           | WaitWaitWha wrote:
           | This not my experience.
           | 
           | I walk into the grocery store to get some fuji apples. I keep
           | asking for fuji apple" but I am affixed with horse blinders
           | and walked to the cell phone isle by a helpful clerk, and a
           | bunch of iPhones are presented.
           | 
           | I ask the clerk for "fruit fuji apple", and I am escorted to
           | a different isle with all kinds of accessories for iPhone.
           | 
           | I walk over to the fruits & vegetables department, stand in
           | the isle with all kinds of apples, and ask for the "fuji
           | apples" again. The clerk promptly walks me back to the iPhone
           | accessory isles, and leaves me there.
           | 
           | I go out of the store, ask a passer-by where the fuji apples
           | are in the store, she tells me exactly. I walk into the
           | store, go to the exact location, and see the fuji apples.
           | 
           | I put it in my basket, walk to the check out. At the checkout
           | the clerk asks me if I want to include a 1 year protection
           | plan, or purchase a charger for my apples. I decline.
           | 
           | I purchase it, go home and wait for the apples to show up at
           | my door.
           | 
           | Two days later the fruit show up. They are williams pears.
        
             | mejthemage wrote:
             | Try asking for "Fuji apple reddit" next time and you'll get
             | pointed in the right direction
        
           | ukuina wrote:
           | Are you saying Amazon modifies prices for items based on
           | which user is logged in?
        
             | jimmySixDOF wrote:
             | Not the question being asked exactly, but there are quite a
             | few people testing the market for live dynamic in store
             | shelf pricing where they can drop or raise on demand. Its a
             | little odd to think that a jug of milk might be cheaper at
             | 1pm than at 6pm.
        
             | kitd wrote:
             | Some sellers do this, yes.
        
               | Thorrez wrote:
               | On Amazon? How? Does Amazon provide an API allowing that?
        
               | kitd wrote:
               | Automated pricing, based on user interest.
               | 
               | https://sell.amazon.com/tools/automate-pricing
        
               | lxgr wrote:
               | This still controls the price for _all_ users though, as
               | far as I'm aware.
        
             | naikrovek wrote:
             | yes this is a known thing.
        
               | hammyhavoc wrote:
               | Any recent sources on it?
        
               | petrw wrote:
               | [flagged]
        
               | hammyhavoc wrote:
               | Rather than being smug, pompous, and having nothing
               | useful to say, you could provide a recent source.
               | 
               | What I did find on Google is several years old, and I
               | can't replicate the pricing changes even with a VPN,
               | different OS, different hardware, and different account.
               | Even asked friends and family to tell me what prices they
               | see.
        
               | yazzku wrote:
               | Browse without login from another device+ip. Back in the
               | day it was subtle and you'd have to browse some category
               | of shit for a while before the prices were inflated for
               | your account.
        
               | hammyhavoc wrote:
               | Looks the same for me in the UK. Even tried it from a few
               | VPNs, and tried it from my Linux disk.
        
           | dredmorbius wrote:
           | With in-store (B&M) tracking based on WiFi/Bluetooth
           | signatures and facial recognition ... this is actually in
           | many cases a near future if not already present reality.
           | 
           | The principle difference being that shoppers aren't actually
           | asked for their names.
           | 
           | (Names are determinable through interpolation of those
           | signatures, or through payment information by credit or debit
           | card.)
        
         | gs17 wrote:
         | It should come with free cookies wrapped in consent notices.
         | 
         | > * Agree to all sorts of scary things to take off the plastic
         | wrapping
         | 
         | Wouldn't it just be that one page (not visible without opening
         | it, of course) has the terms and conditions you inherently
         | agreed to by reading the cover?
        
         | paulmooreparks wrote:
         | > Big heavy adverts that overlap the content and weigh pages
         | down
         | 
         | PC Magazine, and other similar mags in the 90's/00's, was
         | literally like this. I used to spend several minutes ripping
         | the thick cardboard ads from every issue before trying to read
         | it. At least web sites don't give me paper cuts.
        
       | TAKEMYMONEY wrote:
       | Needs a "sign up for our newsletter!" popover as well
        
       | vrglvrglvrgl wrote:
       | [dead]
        
       | noman-land wrote:
       | Brilliant work. This is the equivalent of internet hell. Horrible
       | experience. Thank you.
        
       | cosarara wrote:
       | I gave up scrolling the terms and conditions.
        
         | jaclaz wrote:
         | Because you missed this line:
         | 
         | > Holding ALT to scroll faster is cheating and not allowed.
         | 
         | or wilfully decided to not cheat.
        
         | lkbm wrote:
         | Oh, I hadn't even seen that. You don't need to open them up.
         | just uncheck the checkbox.
         | 
         | The CAPTCHA at the end was my favorite part.
        
       | isp wrote:
       | Related - "Engineers are competing who creates the worst UI on
       | Reddit" -
       | https://twitter.com/volodarik/status/1657755496852475906
       | 
       | I particularly like:
       | 
       | - https://twitter.com/volodarik/status/1657755496852475906 -
       | "Enter your phone number"
       | 
       | - https://twitter.com/volodarik/status/1657755532394889219 -
       | "Volume control"
       | 
       | - https://twitter.com/volodarik/status/1657755789313069057 -
       | "Checkbox with a 50% success rate"
        
         | SimonPStevens wrote:
         | Oh the irony of examples of bad UI being posted on twitter
         | where I just get half a UI loading with spinners and can't see
         | anything.
        
           | andrepd wrote:
           | I've got automatic redirects to nitter set up on all my
           | devices.
        
         | thimabi wrote:
         | Real dark mode is great! I can actually see myself profiting
         | from such a design in order to focus in dimly-lit environments.
         | 
         | https://twitter.com/volodarik/status/1657755808300519426?s=2...
        
         | RobotToaster wrote:
         | The QR code one could be made 1000% more annoying by making it
         | one of those slider puzzles.
        
           | all2 wrote:
           | I now want a QR code slider puzzle.
        
         | throwaway173738 wrote:
         | Don't give Facebook any ideas.
        
         | jonplackett wrote:
         | I'm also going to plug a tangentially similar game I made
         | 
         | https://termsandconditions.game
         | 
         | I hope you hate it
        
       | TheCapn wrote:
       | 3:13! I had some good chuckles at finding "Unselect All" or
       | "Select all Bows". Birthdates not matching on the one form got me
       | too
        
         | mgkimsal wrote:
         | 5:34!
        
         | jollyllama wrote:
         | 09:21
        
       | thih9 wrote:
       | (mild spoiler alert) It took me 00:06:20 to complete and I
       | enjoyed it a lot. I especially liked the ambiguous form state; I
       | was never sure which part of the form is active or has been
       | selected. I appreciate that it didn't feel needlessly unfair;
       | e.g. when I accidentally clicked a "select all" button that undid
       | all my work, there was also an "unselect all" button within
       | reach.
       | 
       | Loosely related: "The worst volume control UI in the world",
       | https://uxdesign.cc/the-worst-volume-control-ui-in-the-world... .
        
       | garysahota93 wrote:
       | This made my heart boil with rage..... I LOVE IT
        
       | docheinestages wrote:
       | https://imgur.com/S0dPEZn
        
         | nicetryguy wrote:
         | I got 7:39; nice one!
         | 
         | As funny as this is; it truly sarcastically encapsulates
         | everything that is wrong with modern web design.
        
         | EmileSonneveld wrote:
         | I got 8:13. Checking all the checks took the most time
        
       | aaab6767 wrote:
       | [flagged]
        
       | ranting-moth wrote:
       | expect order of certain things.
       | 
       | User interface is like reading, people
        
       | finnh wrote:
       | the slow-roll "send to bottom" on the chat box is so damn funny
        
         | Tokkemon wrote:
         | Web version of Homer disappearing into the bushes.
        
       | wizofaus wrote:
       | The ultimate Turing test? I'm willing to bet not even ChatGPT-11
       | will have the sheer boneheaded level of determination only a
       | human could ever achieve...
        
       | avereveard wrote:
       | Loved the placeholder that you have to delete, that's a classic
       | 
       | The form field didn't reset to default values when submitting
       | something that doesn't pass validation, that's probably a little
       | too convenient.
        
         | Clamchop wrote:
         | Jeeze do I ever hate that.
         | 
         | Also password or bank account fields that disable pasting. Just
         | awful.
        
       | Mistletoe wrote:
       | This really doesn't seem that different from most 2023 websites.
        
         | adhesive_wombat wrote:
         | I literally was unable to purchase something from Currys on my
         | phone, it was so bogged down in JS madness that it just didn't
         | work. It would only work on my computer, and then only in
         | Chromium (the payment flow just stopped loading after entering
         | the card details on Firefox). When I did manage to place the
         | order, the payment was processed twice, so that white loading
         | screen in Firefox did so something. When I picked it up, I was
         | told that they can't process online returns, I would have to
         | take the extra one away, arrange a return online and then bring
         | it back.
        
         | jollyllama wrote:
         | You are, of course, exaggerating a bit for rhetorical effect,
         | but it is indeed too close to home. The bulk of my time was
         | spent grappling with things that frequently give me a hassle on
         | real websites.
         | 
         | The dialog box
         | 
         | The strenuous password requirements
         | 
         | Especially the "select all pictures of" bit. Anyone who has
         | tried browsing with a proxy can confirm.
        
       | titzer wrote:
       | Getting there! It needs to completely randomize itself about
       | halfway through your workflow. And more ratings! Don't forget to
       | like us and give us five stars. About the exact moment you are
       | ready to finish.
        
       | _joel wrote:
       | Wow, those timers are fear inducing
        
         | cwillu wrote:
         | How can we help?
        
       | trizoza wrote:
       | Love this! There used to be a similar site on HN some time ago,
       | something in a sense "How I see internet these days" and endless
       | pop-ups kept on annoying you. Anyone remembers that?
        
         | TeMPOraL wrote:
         | Oh, I know that one. It comes built-in as an easter egg in
         | uBlock Origin - you can open it by clicking the big "Power"
         | button that shows after you click the uBO logo in the browser
         | toolbar.
        
           | yccs27 wrote:
           | Doesn't work on Hacker News though
        
         | user3939382 wrote:
         | Yep exactly
        
       | sgtnasty wrote:
       | Bravo, alas I could not finish, my anxiety got in the way. There
       | are actual gov forms similar this.
        
       | quickthrower2 wrote:
       | No back button hijack?
        
         | btschaegg wrote:
         | Came here to say this too. That definitely leaves some UX
         | pessimisation potential on the table.
        
       | m3kw9 wrote:
       | Is like a tough game
        
       | splittydev wrote:
       | 5m50s, how did I do?
        
         | lkbm wrote:
         | 4:49 for me, but I cheated. My address number is 1744, and I
         | quit incrementing at 5. I suspect it would've been well past 7
         | minutes if I'd been determined to enter accurate information.
        
       | numeromancer wrote:
       | The only winning move is not to play.
        
       | alphabetter wrote:
       | 4'17 mostly because I was laughing so hard.
       | 
       | The captcha with the hononyms and the selection boxes where you
       | don't expect them is genius.
        
       | tsu_tsu wrote:
       | Can't even beat level 1... are there more pages than just the
       | frontpage!?
        
       | a13o wrote:
       | This is what my nightmares are like. I have to do something
       | simple like fill out a form or unlock a door, and everything that
       | can possibly go wrong goes wrong
        
       | mellosouls wrote:
       | Brilliant website!
       | 
       | Previous extensive discussions fwiw:
       | 
       | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27635310 (2021)
       | 
       | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20344565 (2019)
        
         | dang wrote:
         | Thanks! Macroexpanded:
         | 
         |  _User Inyerface - A worst-practice UI experiment_ -
         | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27635310 - June 2021 (215
         | comments)
         | 
         |  _User Inyerface_ -
         | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20345826 - July 2019 (1
         | comment)
         | 
         |  _User Inyerface - A worst-practice UI experiment_ -
         | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20344565 - July 2019 (255
         | comments)
        
       | mlajtos wrote:
       | There is whole subreddit dedicated to these kind of UIs:
       | https://www.reddit.com/r/badUIbattles/top/?t=all
       | 
       | Enjoy.
        
         | lesuorac wrote:
         | I'm pretty partial to that draw your countries flag [1]
         | 
         | [1]:
         | https://old.reddit.com/r/badUIbattles/comments/g4aytv/tired_...
        
       | pelagicAustral wrote:
       | I love that meme of the Phone number input being a trackbar.
        
         | julian_t wrote:
         | My pet insurer's web site has a box for you to enter your
         | policy number, which only accepts numbers and has a spinner.
         | The policy number is seven digits long. It's sort of fun typing
         | the first few and then playing with the up and down arrows.
        
       | pedro_hab wrote:
       | The pw really stressed me, I checked the source code to find what
       | a valid pw looked like.
       | 
       | Pretty cool code btw, it has a rule array that with the error
       | msgs, very easy to follow even tho it was webpacky.
       | 
       | Then I realized the errors were displayed at the bottom of the
       | page.
        
       | xp84 wrote:
       | Reminds me of the cursed form fields that don't allow pasting for
       | bank account numbers, which I've seen recently at multiple
       | financial sites. What on earth makes them think that typing
       | something manually twice is less error-prone than literally
       | pasting it from a known-good source??
        
       | dredmorbius wrote:
       | Discussed previously on HN:
       | 
       | <https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27635310> 2 years ago | 215
       | comments
       | 
       | <https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20353724> 4 years ago | 44
       | comments
       | 
       | <https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20345826> 4 years ago | 1
       | comments
       | 
       | <https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20344565> 4 years ago | 214
       | comments
       | 
       | (Re-posts after a year of no significant discussion are
       | permitted.)
        
       | ironmagma wrote:
       | Still HN: frontend development takes no skill
        
         | rabuse wrote:
         | I do have to say. In all my years (10+) of programming both
         | frontend, and backend, UI is by far the most difficult thing to
         | do properly.
        
       | solarkraft wrote:
       | My favorite was the "select all" check box.
        
       | [deleted]
        
       | dheera wrote:
       | The site actually _crashed_ Chrome as soon as I uploaded an file,
       | to the point where even mouse clicks on the address bar or other
       | tabs wouldn 't work. I didn't think that was supposed to be
       | possible. I guess we can dig into the code and figure out how to
       | crash peoples' browsers with a website?
       | 
       | @ChromeDevTeam Your bug reporting process is too complicated so
       | I'm just leaving this here on the internet for you to find
        
       | sergiomattei wrote:
       | Seven minutes. The most aggravating seven minutes of my life.
        
       | mm007emko wrote:
       | 3:10. Honestly, I would expect meatspin at the final page.
        
         | Tokkemon wrote:
         | Me too. The design brings back memories of those old jumpscare
         | flash games.
        
       | ra1n wrote:
       | The send to bottom button making the dialog go down slowly was so
       | hilarious !
        
         | [deleted]
        
         | codeulike wrote:
         | that got me too. The very slow speed of it
        
       | devmor wrote:
       | Incredible! I got 3 steps in before I wanted to die.
        
       | madisonmay wrote:
       | Thanks, I hate it.
        
       | alex-moon wrote:
       | I couldn't get past the captchas. I wonder if it's possible to do
       | so...?
        
         | 4pkjai wrote:
         | I failed it a few times, but passed when I got the glasses
         | option and selected every box.
        
           | alex-moon wrote:
           | What did you put for light and circle ones?
        
             | codetiger wrote:
             | Most of the images in light, bow and circle has to be
             | selected. I passed the test in bow with all images
             | selected.
        
               | gamerDude wrote:
               | They all have bows.
               | 
               | Bow ties. Hunting bows. And people bowing.
        
               | GauntletWizard wrote:
               | I was disappointed there were no "bow"s of a ship. I
               | guess they all fell off.
        
       | 4pkjai wrote:
       | Very clever, I enjoyed getting past all that. I have seen the
       | "needs-to-be-deleted" placeholder text in the wild before. It's
       | very silly.
        
       | yellowapple wrote:
       | 4:22: https://imgur.com/Wv9zZci
       | 
       | Naturally, the process of uploading that screenshot to Imgur made
       | me wonder if I was still in the "experiment".
        
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       (page generated 2023-05-18 23:01 UTC)