Ask Lemmy

Unpopular opinion: people like UIs.

OK, that one is only unpopular on specific, Linux-heavy parts of the internet. (Like... right here.) And even then, there aren't that many people who disagree with me. But there are definitely a few people who have this idea that we'd all be using super fast, powerful command line applications for all of our tasks, were it not for big tech pushing the graphical interface on us.

I get it; I'm a command-line person myself. And big tech has pushed a lot of anti-user changes. But the truth is that most users want to use a mouse, they want to have a GUI, and the shift from keyboard to mouse wasn't simply because Microsoft wanted to limit the users' capability.

Really big mouse cursor.

I don't have sight issues at all, but you spend more time tracking the mouse than you think. And after less than a day the real estate it takes up doesn't bother me.

Your app / website is most likely not big enough to rely on icons instead of text for buttons. Same applies to most other unique UI choices.

Android's modern gesture navigation is awful. I like gesture navigation on ubuntu touch, sailfish, webos, just about everywhere I've used it except android, but I cannot stand android's. Why does swiping from both sides do the same thing? Why does swiping from the bottom do multiple different things depending on how you swipe? Why does swiping along the bottom to switch apps rearrange them so going back and forth is unpredictable? The old two button semi-gesture navigation was so much better.

• There's way too much "pop-up ui" infecting PC from mobile. I want a solid-state UI. Don't make me hover over anything to show a pop up, or swipe, or stupid shit like that.

• Stop making these shitty disappearing scrollbars that are way too thin! Scrollbars are the single most important UI element on the screen. They need to be LARGE and they need to STAY VISIBLE AT ALL TIMES

• WORDS. Stop using symbols. Use words.

• Remove all the little icons and give me a menu bar.

• Stop using CSS for desktop software. CSS belongs on the web.

• Windows 95 has the best UI. Just go back to that. It's better than everything that came after.

Rounded corners everywhere. I mean, subtle rounded corners can look nice here and there, but they are not subtle and there are too much of them. Also, those capsule shaped buttons and text boxes. I hate them, they look so stupid.

TUI is better than GUI

I don't have unpopular UI opinions, but I do have opinions that I don't see people echo much, yet.

One of the worst things about UI in 2025 is that almost everything most people use on a computer relies on it, more than ever, and yet it's also at its worst point since the days before mouse driven interfaces. Companies used to be much stricter about their interfaces, how they worked and looked. Now there are tons of bespoke interfaces where everyone decides for themselves how they work, and assumptions made by one program work the opposite way in a different one.

Switches have become way to obvious to what "on" and "off" is. Even when they state something like an option is enabled or not in text, it often isn't clear whether it's saying this is what the state is now, or this is what it will be when clicked.

Icons have become way too vague and arbitrary as to what they mean. The Hamburger menu was bad enough, but some of the icons have gotten way too abstract. At least the floppy disk for saving was a convention.

Web pages likewise could use a lot more consistency and visibility. The new Digg, for instance, hides its user block function behind a light-gray three-dots button on a white background. The only options on that menu are to Report or Block that user! Why is it three dots, and why is it so hard to see?

Microsoft's "Ribbon" interface remains a terrible idea. At least with menu bars you know all the functions are there, somewhere, all represented by text. With the Ribbon, everything's a toolbar button, and with many of them being different sizes it's harder to scan through them to find the option you're looking for.

UI that isn't customizable is shit. I don't mean it needs to be Myspace level, but enough to make it comfortable to use.

Someone else said they hate infinite scroll. I love infinite scroll. Implement both.

I was interested in an open source fitness tracking app that didn't use a measurement system I'm familiar with. The dev basically said "fuck off" when someone asked about implementing it. Well, the dev has less exposure and their app has less users as a result.

UIs should strive to always be as customizable as possible.

Colors should be able to all be manually set by the user if they want to, rounded corners should be configurable, and the user should be able to overwrite icons and some UI elements if possible, but it shouldn't have to be on a per-app basis.

Instead, apps should ready system settings configured by the user and apply their theming unless the app is configured to do otherwise, again, by the user. Consistency by default unless you don't want it.

I can see why this opinion would be unpopular (maybe designers want to make their UI a very specific way idk)... but I like theming!!

Also, there should be a mode between dark and light mode that has black text but doesn't have a blindingly white background.

Stuff can be functional and not look like shit.

A lot of so called "dark mode" should be called "medium mode" or "gray mode". In my opinion "dark mode" is where the main colour of backgrounds looks more black than gray. Also all borders should be high-contrast, preferably brightly coloured lines, or medium-contrast for low-importance borders, but never low-contrast borders or borders without a line where it's just a change in background colours.

• nordic theme is not a real dark theme
• fuck every curved edge
• the icons should never look the same, i dont care about your brandbuilding
• i hate minimalistic phones and launchers so much. how do you have the audicity to limit customisation? get out of my way, son.

The Gnome UI is great, without any extensions. An absolute game changer for laptops.
You can navigate it quickly with just the meta key, arrow keys and a touchpad or scroll wheel.
No memorizing key combos or aiming for small icons with the mouse.
Everything is hidden when you don't need it and prominently visible when you do.

Since this thread is really about complaining about UI, I'll add that when the developer arbitrarily limits input ranges because "Why would anyone what that?"

I've come across this several times, but the one instance that pops to mind is a desktop background changer being limited to no less than one minute between changes. I wanted to use it to show a stop-motion animation slide show and set it to one second, not the intended use, but still viable IF I could set the rate to one second. I wrote the developer, and they admitted it could be allowed, but "Why would anyone want it to be that fast?" I get that there are technical reasons why this might not be ideal, and maybe it would somehow tax the system for "just a background changer", etc. But, assuming a value wouldn't crash the application, or somehow physically destroy the computer, I think the input should be allowed. If prudent, put some warning about the less-than-catastrophic consequences, and let the user confirm before continuing.

I need keyboard shortcuts that actually work, and I hate large padding/whitespaces/circled borders that do nothing.. I like having grey-ish background instead of white. Seems like many people consider this "old fashioned" and hate it.

For desktop things should just fit well enough on 1280x1024. For mobile 720x1280 or some similar resolution.

Brimg back double-clicking on the top left corner of a program to close it. Actually, bring back the top bar and the file menu while you're at it. And for software that opens tabs, allow the user to position the tabs bar on the bottom or side of the screen.

Having to hold every interactable/menu item for a second as opposed to just tapping in videogames absolutely drives me up a wall. It's fine to me in situations where looting is delayed to create risk or something like that, but why in the hell do I need to hold a button just to start the game

I have a right to a page with all configurable options. A simplified interface is great but I shouldn't need to hunt for ages in a terminal or read source to find a config option.