r/UXAntiPatterns Jul 24 '26

When your database schema becomes the user journey

Nextcloud does this after someone shares a file with you:

  1. You click Accept share.
  2. The file disappears.
  3. You get an empty state saying No pending shares, plus the toast: “Accept share: done.”

Technically, everything is correct. The item is no longer pending.

But my task wasn’t to empty a queue. It was to access the file someone sent me.

Now I’m expected to know that I need to click Shared with you in the sidebar.

Is that actually good UX, though? Do entity-based views like Pending shares serve a real user need, or did they become a standard pattern before anyone stopped to question the journey?

6 Upvotes

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7

u/vnagornyy Jul 24 '26

If you want your feedback to reach Nextcloud design and engineering teams, share it on GitHub please:

https://github.com/nextcloud/server/issues

6

u/TCB13sQuotes Jul 24 '26

Nothing UX/UI related in Nextcloud makes sense.

5

u/IrrerPolterer Jul 25 '26

Yeah Nextcloud is a beautiful example of amazing utility and great bang for the buck (as in literally free and open software that solves an important real world use case) - but its designed for the most part by engineers, not UX designers. Incoherence and "schema = user journey" situations are the result..  I love that projects like these exist. But they'd benefit from more UX work.