In defence of boring UX

An interesting and fresh perspective on digital design. No matter what aesthetics you put into your app, that’s never what people talk about. They don’t talk about what it looks like, that’s what designers talk about. They talk about what they can do with it.

I’ve been feeling this more and more. Quite often I’d honestly prefer system-native controls instead of custom styled or custom designed up controls. They’re boring, but they’re familiar and usable and dependable. And boring.

But big or small, I beg you, stay boring. Because true delight will always live outside your product. As Chris Kiess notes, “I’ve spent a lot of time in the field on various projects and it is rare I find a user who comments on some aspect of a feature I had discussed ad nauseam with my team.”

Endless debates about indentations, rounded corners, and colour choices are UX’s version of the sunk cost fallacy. Nothing digital design can offer compares to the experiential joy of an Airbnb host in Dublin recommending the perfect nearby bar. Or a Chicago Lyft driver giving you a dozen amazing food and drink suggestions. Or cycling confidently through Portland at 11pm thanks to turn-by-turn instructions on a Pebble watch.