Dear #OpenSource folks, I'd like to offer #UX help to your teams. I've tried "making a small PR" on projects and it turns out that's TERRIBLE advice for a UX designer. The PR is usually misunderstood or ignored. I don't fault the teams for this! It's just the wrong tool for the job.

So I'm trying something different. I'm offering free consulting time to any project that wants it. Sign up here: https://cal.com/scottjenson/exchange

#ux issues for newcomers to #peertube:

- if you make a Peertube account on one website, you can’t use that login to like/comment on another Peertube website (ideal would be persistent login across all PT websites)
- you can’t sign into a Peertube website using your Mastodon account so you can like/comment. But you CAN do that from your Mastodon app.

Quite an alien UX, if you’re used to YouTube.

Updates:
https://bettercli.org/

https://github.com/cli-guidelines/cli-guidelines

#AskFedi I am looking for books, articles, posts and research papers on the user experience and user interface / HCI design of *command line applications*

Please boost.

Posts with content warnings and/or blurred media should be able to trend.

There are things that should reach people, but might be triggering to some, and the current setup incentivizes subjecting those individuals to harm in exchange for reach.

Do you agree?

Was laid off a month ago from my #accessibility lead position. I've only gotten one callback in that month so far. Trying #getfedihired (#fedihire ?) - been working fulltime in accessibility since 2016, experienced with cross-team collaborations, & had input on design systems and component libraries in addition. #UX is also something I'm familiar with, as that's the closest field aside from accessibility. I'm US based, speak EN but learning JP & beginning FR. Remote/ teletravail please!

If you need to use dark UX patterns to try and prevent users from turning off or avoiding your AI that should tell you something... #ai #enshitifcation #tech #ux #pdm

User interface menu control options. #ui #ux

KDE is the best desktop solution usability-wise, by far. This is true with the basic functionality, this is true with the advanced features.

Does it have bugs and shortcomings? Sure, but it's so much better than, let's say, Windows or Mac, it's just crazy.

A simple example I used just now - block select in Konsole. It was added many years ago, and I've been using it every now and then since that day.

One super-frustrating UX choice in @Mastodon's "advanced web interface" is that if I click on a post in my Home column to expand it and read replies, the post loads in another column (it has no label and I don't even know what to call it) and the Home column for some insane reason resets its position to the top.

So effectively, I pretty much never manage to read everything that came into my home column while I slept because any time I want to read something in more depth the column resets to the newest posts and eventually I get tired of having to scroll through stuff I've already scrolled through multiple times to find my way back to the older unread stuff.

This has got to be someone's intentional choice to have it do this and it's a terrible experience. The column should stay scrolled to the position of the post that's been clicked on and not take away the user's control over when to go to the top of the timeline.

Apple cofounder Steve Wozniak says Tesla ‘is the worst in the world’ at improving its technology for drivers
—@fortune

“Where to find the time of day changes depending on what [driving] mode you’re in,” he said. “The buttons that go through your six favorite channels don’t work if it’s satellite radio channels. It takes so many tries to hit one button in your jiggly car, and it just doesn’t work.”

#tesla #musk #ux https://fortune.com/2025/03/07/steve-wozniak-says-tesla-is-worst-at-improving-driver-tech/

Quick #poll (boost for fun)
The person who invented the “Yes” or “Maybe Later” choice (instead of no), should be banned from ever designing another piece of #technology. #UI #UX

It dawned on me, many conflicts in UI/UX design philosophy boil down to Black Box vs White Box worldviews and an increasing focus/bias towards opaqueness...

On the one hand, there's the long illusive dream/goal of UI designers for their technological artifacts/products/services (esp. AI™ powered ones) to blend perfectly into their physical and human environment, be as autonomous & intuitive-to-use as possible, have as few controls/interfaces as possible (often minimalist brand aesthetics explicitly demand so), all whilst offering perfectly suited outcomes/actions from only minimal direct inputs, yet always with perfect prediction/predictability — DWIM (Do What I Mean) magic!

This approach mostly this comes with a large set of brushed-under-the-rug costs: Patronizing/dehumanizing the people intended to interact with the artifact, doubting/denying their intelligence, outright removal/limitation of user controls (usually misrepresented/celebrated as "simplicity"), relying on intense telemetry/surveillance/tracking, enforced 24/7 connectivity, increased energy usage and all the resulting skewed incentives for monetization which actually have nothing to do with the original purpose of the artifact...

In contrast, the White/Clear Box approach offers the artifact with full transparency (and control) of the inner workings of the system. Because of this it only works (great) for smaller, human scale domains/contexts, but due to the out-of-bounds complexity of our surrounding contemporary tech stack, these days this very quickly just means Welcome to Configuration Hell (Dante says "ciao!")...

(So in the end: Choose your own hellscape... :)

I've been thinking about tags and categories on my site. I have too many (I think) and I don't know if anyone finds them useful. I certainly don't.

#ux #design #accessibility #frontEnd #website #webDesign

"Many bugfixes" (with no list following) is my favourite part in changelogs.
Because it's a two words long detective story.
The sheer number of questions it raises can keep users entertained for weeks.

Like:
- which bugs were fixed?
- which bugs were promoted to features?
- did anyone even read MY bug reports?
- were bugs, which I've reported, fixed?
- and do developers actually know what they're doing?

Don't write changelogs like that.
#ux #it #development #gamedev #detective #sus #af #idiocy

Would you #bitwig users appreciate an alternative light theme for the #daw? Ideally one that follows the system setting? I would really like to be able to use Bitwig Studio in bright sunlight and the dark theme is not ideal for such conditions.
#lightmode #darkmode #linux #gnome #linuxaudio #ux

Today I discover that there are multiple extensions available for Firefox to block YouTube #shorts from appearing. Much improved #UX .

I recently drove a car whose whole control and entertainment system was a gigantic iPad-like thing mounted to the dash. It caused me to have a realisation about the #Ui and #UX of touch screens.

There is no way to touch a touchscreen without it treating that touch as intentional. What I mean is: without taking my eyes off the road, I can grope across the dashboard, find a knob or button—by touching it—without activating any function. Touching the volume button or temperature knob doesn’t DO anything until I do it with more force and intentionality. Not so for a #touchscreen.

My mobile #phone (an #iPhone 13) has no dead space in its face. There’s no part of the phone face I can touch without it assuming I meant to do that and I wanted to activate whatever was under my finger. Old iPhones that had physical home buttons also had dead space to either side: a safe space to hold the phone without DOING anything.

Computer keyboard have little raised pips on the F and J keys so you can find them by touch without looking. I do this all the time. But I don’t type the letters F or J. Touch screens have no such affordances.

I look at the #blackberry keyboard in this photo and I see a raised space bar. It’s an #affordance that lets you orient your fingers, and orient how you hold the phone, without looking.

I miss buttons.

https://mobilesyrup.com/2025/02/15/blackberrys-expired-keyboard-patent/

One of the most frequently requested features, coming soon to an email newsletter tool near you: Sending campaign previews
#buildinpublic #opensource #ux #uxdesign