As UX designers we all know how important design patterns are. We try to avoid reinventing the wheel and constantly look for best practices and guidelines. However, relying too much on known patterns sometimes makes us fail to question them. This talk was presented at UX Scotland 2016.

1. MISUSED
UX Design patterns
Zoltan Kollin

2. Hello, I’M Zoltan Kollin
UX director at UstreamAN IBM COMPANY

3. https://medium.com/@kollinz/misused-mobile-ux-patterns-84d2b6930570

4. Design patterns are reusable
solutions to recurring
problems.

5. Design patterns Are commonly
used interface elements that
your users already know.

7. Design patterns Are commonly
used interface elements and
techniques that your users
already know.

10. You don’t have to reinvent the
wheel and users don’t have to
learn how to use them. win-win.

12. Design patterns sometimes expire

13. Design patterns sometimes expire

14. …and new ones are born

15. Design patterns Are commonly
used interface elements that
your users already know.

16. Misused Design patterns Are
commonly used techniques that
ignore users.

17. Misused patterns #1
User interface puzzles

18. The rise and fall of skeuomorphism

19. The rise and fall of skeuomorphism
2012 2013
https://dribbble.com/lobanovskiy/tags/waffle

20. The rise of simplification

21. “Perfection is achieved, not when there is
nothing more to add, but when there is nothing
left to take away.”
- Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

22. GUI is about metaphors

23. icons are metaphors

24. icons are metaphors

25. Icons are metaphors
I SHOWED MY 12 YEAR OLD SON
AN OLD FLOPPY DISK
“WOW…COOL! YOU 3D PRINTED
THE SAVE ICON!”

26. mysterious icons are not metaphors

27. “Where exactly are messages in instagram?”
“OPen the app and in the top right corner there’s a
bathtub. that’s where.”

28. “researchers at the University of
Minnesota […] found that people often
disagreed as to whether the same emoji
represented a positive, neutral, or
negative sentiment.”
http://qz.com/659785/a-new-study-confirms-it-we-really-dont-know-what-were-saying-when-we-use-emoji/

29. User interface puzzles
Usability first,
design trends second

30. Misused patterns #2
Designing “Out of sight”

31. The evolution of white space
2009 2016

35. http://guardz1y11.blogspot.hu/2015/03/writing-css-interesting-parts.html
The evolution of Scroll indicators

36. SCROLL DOWN

37. A user
interface
is like a joke.
If you have to
explain it, it’s
not that
good.

40. How most carousels look How carousels should look
Arrows don’t give users an
incentive to click
Descriptive labels incentivize
to click
http://uxmovement.com/navigation/why-users-arent-clicking-your-home-page-carousel/

43. Out of sight,
out of mind.

44. Designing “out of sight”
Consider the context and keep
essential options accessible

45. Misused patterns #3
patterns of distraction

46. 90 trillion emails were sent in 2009
81% were spam

47. Today, less than 0.1% of email in the
average Gmail inbox is spam.

49. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGl796352RI

50. Reminder 1 mins ago
Call Steve about weekend
Uber now
Your car is arriving
Mom 3 mins ago
Missed call
Slack now
Tim archived 7 channels
Instagram 1 hour ago
You have 5 new followers
Podcasts 30 mins ago
New Alley-oop episode
Twitter 5 mins ago
#UXScotland is trending in your network

51. The smart way

52. The manual way

53. Nine of 10 people suffer from
phantom vibration syndrome
where they mistakenly think
their mobile phone is vibrating
in their pocket

54. Phone addiction?

55. Hey there!
Have a question?
Chat with us.
Send a message…

56. You should really download our brilliant
e-book to boost profits.
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57. http://www.moneylab.co/email/

58. Patterns of distraction
Focus on the long term user
experience, not quick wins

59. Misused patterns #4
technology overdrive

60. Technology should solve people’s
problems, not create new ones

62. “There’s an app for that”

64. 1. Tap on continue

65. 1. Tap on continue
2. Arrive to app store

66. 1. Tap on continue
2. Arrive to app store
3. Tap on get

67. 1. Tap on continue
2. Arrive to app store
3. Tap on get
4. Tap on install

68. 1. Tap on continue
2. Arrive to app store
3. Tap on get
4. Tap on install
5. wait for it

69. 1. Tap on continue
2. Arrive to app store
3. Tap on get
4. Tap on install
5. wait for it
6. Enter password

70. 1. Tap on continue
2. Arrive to app store
3. Tap on get
4. Tap on install
5. wait for it
6. Enter password
7. wait for installing

71. 1. Tap on continue
2. Arrive to app store
3. Tap on get
4. Tap on install
5. wait for it
6. Enter password
7. wait for installing
8. Tap on open

72. 1. Tap on continue
2. Arrive to app store
3. Tap on get
4. Tap on install
5. wait for it
6. Enter password
7. wait for installing
8. Tap on open
9. turn off notifications

73. 1. Tap on continue
2. Arrive to app store
3. Tap on get
4. Tap on install
5. wait for it
6. Enter password
7. wait for installing
8. Tap on open
9. turn off notifications
10. Access the content

74. Apps need to be maintained.
Even by the users.

77. Technology should solve people’s
problems, not create new ones

78. “Slap an interface on it!”

79. Technology overdrive
People should leverage
technology, not serve it

80. The ultimate question:
to follow or not to follow?

88. “Every website, 2015”

89. “The two possible websites…”

90. “All apps look the same…”

92. How not to misuse
design patterns?

93. Get to know the patterns
but unfollow them any time
if that’s the best for your
users.

94. Question everything
and do your own research

95. Thank you
Let me know your thoughts
on twitter or linkedin