How not to: examples of poor UI design

I apologize in advance -- the Interface Hall of Shame is curiously addictive. Do not go to this site if you have somewhere to be in the next hour or so.

Non-examples are a great way to learn concepts, and the authors of this page provide a generous sampling of non-examples for:

• Visual elements
• Terminology
• Tabbed dialog boxes
• Error messages
  And much more...

The Metaphor section even mentions a non-example I encountered many years ago, when a friend who worked at Apple demonstrated his computer for me:

"Unfortunately, the designers decided to extend the trashcan metaphor to include the completely counterintuitive function of ejecting diskettes: drag an image of the diskette to the trashcan to eject it from the computer. The Macintosh simply took the trashcan metaphor too far. They imbued the trashcan with magical powers that are completely incompatible with the established metaphorical association of deleting files."

I was using a Windows computer at the time, but I was willing to be convinced to switch. However, the weird thinking behind a trashcan meaning "eject" was simply too strange for me, so not only have I stuck with Windows ever since, I've also remembered that metaphor over all these years. Very cool to come across it again.

Comments

• Anonymous
  December 12, 2005
  Wow, this site IS addictive. Thanks for posting it, Jeanie! (Now, back to reading the site...) :)