@Em0nM4stodon Reading this inspired me to write a blog post in which I quoted your thread. https://jamesg.blog/2025/09/20/updating-user-interfaces

I greatly empathise with how jarring it is when an update changes lots of things and I no longer feel like the app is as good as it was; this is something I consciously think about when it comes to experience design.

@Em0nM4stodon

Do:

Do just one thing, and do it really well.

@Em0nM4stodon

Research and advanced dev directions for the OSS world to address *some* of this (these are *not* short term or quick responses):

* Fine-grained and dynamic capability-based access control at both the OS and application framework layer, sufficient to capture and enforce user consent meaningfully.

* Related type-level modeling for information flows, able to certify applications as compliant with policy and user consent.

1/..

@Em0nM4stodon
what a dream isn't it (alongside transparency)

on top of that with smartphones at least:
Smaller and bigger ones to coexist
seriously
I'm planning to get the pixel 8 due to it being the smallest pixel that will get years of updates to come (excluding pixel fold and only has around 2 years) and I have a seperate 16 pro max because as an entertainment device the bigger screen does the job
smaller should also be like what the iPhone 13 mini used to be.

@Em0nM4stodon

I would add to the "DON'T want" list, gesture navigation. Three button navigation was and still is the peak.

@Em0nM4stodon, phone screens almost the size of the phone? I'd avoid that if I could.

Too often I'll have my phone in my hand and I'll press the power button and accidentally touch the left edge of the display. Oops, just tapped on something.

@Em0nM4stodon
Pretty much what you suggest.

However I don't want my phones interfaces to be 'pretty'. I was them to be intuitive and consistent.

@Em0nM4stodon Things I DON'T want in my tech :neocat_scream_angry:

• An app that is 15 apps
• An update that makes it all worse
• An app that does things I don't know about
• A popup asking "Boost?" or "Quote?" without a "Never!" show this popup option

Things I DO want in my tech :awesome:

• Buttons: a "Boost" button and another button far away from Boost named "Quote" if I really needed to quote something

@Em0nM4stodon Today's example.

My wife got told "your Microsoft subscription has expired, you can't use Excel any more".

I had, of course, paid for the subscription to continue for another year.

BUT ... I'd jumped through all the multifarious hoops necessary to refuse the vast hike in price in exchange for having my PC polluted with AI bollocks. Which seems to have counted as cancelling my subscription and creating a brand new one. Thereby losing the family members who were attached to the "old" subscription.

It might be time to find out whether any of the free Office substitutes are yet good enough to use. (They weren't a while back, when all of our children in turn (a) said "I'm not using nasty Microsoft", and (b) downloaded some open source Office replacement, and (c) in due course came to us and said "Mummy Daddy can I have the real Office please?" Something to do with needed to be able to interchange files with the school so as to be able to do their homework.)

@Em0nM4stodon

I'd like to see:
Usage of standards

Just don't do your own crypto, fileformat, communication protocol etc. take something existing (preferable standardized ) and extend it if your need to.

@Em0nM4stodon only thing i disagree with here is not wanting a larger screen. i absolutely love being able to see everything at once, knowing exactly what im doing and what i have to do all at a glance, but i get it, at a certain point its just excessive. wont fit in your bag, not comfortable to use, etc etc.

but can i add another thing to the wants list.
RUGGEDNESS. I wpuld much rather take a built to last, completely shatter proof, rubber/grippy phone than a sleek, fragile, hard to grip phone. Im gonna slap a case on that bad boy anyway. No one is EVER going to see your fancy, fragile design. Just build the damn thing like a toughbook, dammit, and stop making unnecessary failure points to force us to go pay for repairs. Like obviously the design is nice. But i want my device to not slip out of my hand like wet soap and shatter into a million tiny pieces and now i have to pay for a 1000 dollar repair.

@Em0nM4stodon No, none of those things go away!

Also looking forward to the end of support for Windows 10 so my computer will stop doing stupid updates and rebooting and messing up my shit.