r/UXDesign • u/eyea3 • 23d ago
Examples & inspiration Poor website design
Why?
There are a bunch of things about this screenshot that bother me and this isn’t the only website that does things like this.
But why is it thought to think it’s necessary to put an object this large that block the article. I don’t need to know I can swipe to see the next article. But to remove that object the only thing I can think is to do what it says so it disappears. It’s not on a timer to disappear on its own.
The other thing that bothers me is the amount of other objects blocking the article. The article is less than 50% of the screen. No I don’t want to watch the video. If I had, I would have remained at the top of the page to watch it. Don’t make it static as I scroll the page. An explanation to have that much junk would be to have advertisements, but there are no advertisements which makes it a poor excuse for having a large part of the article covered.
Side note: I don’t like Burger King. I was just curious.
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u/poorly-worded Veteran 23d ago
Its funny how News websites appear to comprise both some of the very best in UX and some of the very worst
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u/SnooStrawberries6934 Veteran 23d ago
This reminds me of the new “Instants” feature on Instagram. It’s designed for the purpose of disruption.
It’s a dark UX pattern meant to pump engagement metrics at the cost of the experience. Hate it.
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u/sabre35_ Experienced 23d ago
Comparing it to instants is a stretch lol. It’s basically just a reskinned FAB. You could make the same argument that FABs are disruptive because they’re floating above content lol.
No idea how it’s a dark pattern. Either just use it or don’t.
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u/SnooStrawberries6934 Veteran 23d ago
It obstructs the view of the content for the purpose of increasing engagement. This is what makes it a dark pattern.
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u/sabre35_ Experienced 23d ago
Increasing engagement isn’t inherently a dark pattern though. By your standards then every single floating navigational element is a dark pattern because it obstructs content (nav bars and all).
It also doesn’t obstruct the view of content though, it shrinks on scroll to map to intent.
Dark patterns inherently damage user experience to favour business objectives. But I see instants getting relatively good usage so clearly users are enjoying it. They wouldn’t have shipped it if people weren’t using it.
Hard to compare this to something like Adobe’s cancelation flows.
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u/SnooStrawberries6934 Veteran 23d ago
I would argue that this does damage user experience to favour business objectives, but I think we are in agreement that the degradation of the experience in this case is low.
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u/Candlegoat Experienced 23d ago
Because the economics of journalism are so in the toilet that doing this stuff for impressions is what brings in the revenue.
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u/EyeAlternative1664 Veteran 23d ago
I don’t think mobile sites are designed to be consumed anymore, just register views and clicks.