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You, me, and UI

How designers run the world.

Image: Mengxin Li / The Verge

There’s a funny conflict to the idea of user interfaces: a good one tends to go unnoticed, the thoughtful design decisions too subtle to notice; a bad UX or UI is one that makes you want to scream. It’s a tension that designers have to think about every time they conceive a new website, app, or device.

In this special series from The Verge, we explore the small design decisions that have had an outsize impact on our lives. From simple card game browser UIs to deliberately complicated video game setups, all-too-forgotten accessibility options for colorblindness to the curious incentive-driven histories of the shuffle and log out buttons, these stories delve into the ways that user interfaces have driven us forward, or failed, or found an entirely new way of living.

The Color Quiz

You use these apps all the time, but can you identify the shades of their logos?

This is what it looks like to be colorblind

Apparently, the very idea of colorblindness is hard to visualize. Take a shot at looking through my eyes.

Andy BaioCommentsComment Icon Bubble
The sudden death and rebirth of Tweetbot

The app’s open-casket funeral, and reincarnation as a Mastodon app.

Rob DubbinCommentsComment Icon Bubble
My bad VR trip

Immersive, embodied interfaces need careful transitions and aftercare protocols.

Sara M. WatsonCommentsComment Icon Bubble
The poop emoji: a legal history

As emoji use grows, judges have to get special trainings. ✨

Sarah JeongCommentsComment Icon Bubble
The Apple Lisa was a design revolution — and it still feels like one today
Play

The Lisa helped create the design language for computers as we know them. Here’s what it’s like to use one.

Adi RobertsonCommentsComment Icon Bubble
The impossibility of logging off

The logout button has become practically defunct.

Terry NguyenCommentsComment Icon Bubble
My beautiful life with too many remotes

The touchscreen may reign supreme, but the single-purpose remotes in my house authentically inspire joy.

Eve PeyserCommentsComment Icon Bubble
The hellish design of the Crusader Kings video games

When a game is mostly hard because the UI is terrible, what happens when you start streamlining its interface?

Gita JacksonCommentsComment Icon Bubble
The revenge of the pop-up

Nobody wants them. Nobody likes them. Why is the worst UI element of all time ubiquitous again?

s.e. smithCommentsComment Icon Bubble
A poker website that is actually good

Sites designed to exploit users’ gambling addictions are going to be a little predatory. Poker Now somehow turned out to be different.

Scott MeslowCommentsComment Icon Bubble
Opulent, joyous, decadent: the Japanese decoden trend comes to America

Make Steve Jobs roll over in his grave with a custom rabbit strawberry glitter frosting iPhone case.

Mia SatoCommentsComment Icon Bubble
The Color Quiz

You use these apps all the time, but can you identify the shades of their logos?

This is what it looks like to be colorblind

Apparently, the very idea of colorblindness is hard to visualize. Take a shot at looking through my eyes.

Andy BaioCommentsComment Icon Bubble
The sudden death and rebirth of Tweetbot

The app’s open-casket funeral, and reincarnation as a Mastodon app.

Rob DubbinCommentsComment Icon Bubble
My bad VR trip

Immersive, embodied interfaces need careful transitions and aftercare protocols.

Sara M. WatsonCommentsComment Icon Bubble
The poop emoji: a legal history

As emoji use grows, judges have to get special trainings. ✨

Sarah JeongCommentsComment Icon Bubble
The Apple Lisa was a design revolution — and it still feels like one today
Play

The Lisa helped create the design language for computers as we know them. Here’s what it’s like to use one.

Adi RobertsonCommentsComment Icon Bubble
The impossibility of logging off

The logout button has become practically defunct.

Terry NguyenCommentsComment Icon Bubble
My beautiful life with too many remotes

The touchscreen may reign supreme, but the single-purpose remotes in my house authentically inspire joy.

Eve PeyserCommentsComment Icon Bubble
The hellish design of the Crusader Kings video games

When a game is mostly hard because the UI is terrible, what happens when you start streamlining its interface?

Gita JacksonCommentsComment Icon Bubble
The revenge of the pop-up

Nobody wants them. Nobody likes them. Why is the worst UI element of all time ubiquitous again?

s.e. smithCommentsComment Icon Bubble
A poker website that is actually good

Sites designed to exploit users’ gambling addictions are going to be a little predatory. Poker Now somehow turned out to be different.

Scott MeslowCommentsComment Icon Bubble
Opulent, joyous, decadent: the Japanese decoden trend comes to America

Make Steve Jobs roll over in his grave with a custom rabbit strawberry glitter frosting iPhone case.

Mia SatoCommentsComment Icon Bubble