1) Hidden Settings
I opened my Spotify app today with the intent of showing an undecided co worker its “extreme quality” streaming options, so that he could make an informed decision on which music platform would serve him best—Google Play Music, Spotify, or Tidal. Before Spotify redesigned their Android app to mimic the design language of their iOS app (and in effect, iOS itself), the settings icon was located in the hamburger menu. It was straightforward, and intuitive. Now that the hamburger menu is toast, the four menu options have been moved to a permanent spot at the bottom of the screen.![spotify](https://www.webdesignerdepot.com/cdn-origin/uploads/2016/12/Spotify.jpg)
2) Disruptive Launch
One particularly loathsome design choice, is the disruptive launch. Uber and Wikipedia are both extremely guilty of this, except Wikipedia only does this during their fundraising season, while Uber does this year round. A disruptive launch is one where the user is required to complete a task prior to using the app. In most cases, this is a one-time thing required of users on first launch—aka, the user must sign up before they can use the service. It makes sense, and it’s not that much of a hassle. Uber takes this one step further by forcing users to rate their previous driver before they can order a ride. Regardless of whether you’re in a hurry, or if you don’t want to rate a driver, you cannot order a ride without rating the previous one. This is not only an inconvenience, but it actively changes the way that users interact with the app. By mercilessly prompting users to rate a driver at every launch, they are essentially conditioning users to mindlessly click a rating as quickly as they can (see: classical conditioning). What probably looked like a good idea on the Uber design team’s whiteboard is actually a horrible tactic that has made me, and likely other users, apathetic toward the rating system.![uber](https://www.webdesignerdepot.com/cdn-origin/uploads/2016/12/Uber.jpg)
3) Cumbersome Interactions
Occasionally, all it takes for a design choice to become loathsome is for it to require cumbersome interactions. A prime example of this is the way in which Apple and some third party versions of Android have designed their alarm clock apps. It’s not the apps as a whole that are causing me to feel encumbered, but rather the way in which the designers require users to input the time at which an alarm will sound. This is the face of pure evil. Who decided that scrolling to a specific time, in increments of one, was a good idea? Not only does it take longer to scroll than it would to input a time in one of a handful of other common ways, but it also cannot be done in one movement. On ZTE’s Android skin, in order to get from “01” minutes to “59” minutes, users have to swipe several times. On iOS, one swipe will send the numbers spinning with momentum. Of course it’s cool and realistic, but it is hardly more efficient or usable. This seems to be a current trend with Apple.![alarmclock](https://www.webdesignerdepot.com/cdn-origin/uploads/2016/12/AlarmCLock.jpg)
![androidclock](https://www.webdesignerdepot.com/cdn-origin/uploads/2016/12/AndroidClock.jpg)
Don’t Make Your Users Loathe Your Design
There aren’t that many things that will make users loathe your app. Typically, the number one offense is simply inconveniencing users. Hiding critical functions, disrupting the launch of an app, and designing overly complex interactions will inconvenience your users, and depending on how much it bothers them, they may come to loathe your app. Avoiding the pitfalls of loathsome design isn’t hard. You just have to start (and finish) every feature with one simple question: am I making this as convenient and intuitive as it could be? If the answer to any of these questions is no, then there is still work to be done.Yona Gidalevitz
Yona is Codal’s technical researcher & writer. He is responsible for content strategy, documentation, blogging, and editing. He works closely with Codal’s UX, development, marketing, and administrative teams to produce all manner of written content. You can check out his work on Codal’s blog, Usability Geek, Invisionapp, and Medgadget’s blog, among others. In his free time, Yona is an avid guitarist, cook, and traveler.
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