Good and Bad UI Design
by Gabriela Ortega, February 2, 2023
1. Behance
Website: Behance.net
The Purpose of the Overall Interface
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Behance was created to host visual portfolios by various creatives such as digital artists, visual designers, photographers, and freelancers. It’s a community space for creators to show their original work and creative process.
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What I Like About Behance's Website Design
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The design layout of the landing page is good because since this is a website to view design portfolios and projects, the images are a medium size with the project title in a bold font underneath each image. When hovering over an image, the user has the option of saving the project to their own folder or moodboard. There is a certain structure to how these images were placed on the home page, by the number of likes and views meaning the more popular projects are showcased at the top of the landing page.
The Log In and Sign Up button are visible at the top right of the screen and highlighted by two different shades of blue. The Log In button is highlighted by a lighter shade of blue for users who already have an account. The Sign Up button is filled in with a bold blue to persuade users to sign up. This blue Sign Up button has the most dominance on the home page and was designed intentionally to increase users to sign up with Behance. The search bar is easy to see, and when you click on it, a menu drops down to sort and filter recommended searches.
To the right of the search bar, you have another menu option that lets the user easily navigate from Projects to Images, Prototypes, Streams, People, or Moodboards while remaining on the landing page. To the right of the screen, below the menu, the user can sort by recommended, curated, most appreciated, most viewed, most discussed, or most recent.
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Why Behance's Website Design is Good
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I believe the overall design of Behance’s landing page is good because it has a great balance of its design layout, understands how to use color to increase user engagement, and understands their target audience by including features that help the user to easily search through projects or upload their own.
2. Spotify
Website: Spotify.com
The Purpose of the Overall Interface
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Spotify is a music, playlist, and podcasting listening application that is accessible on mobile phones, tablets, smartwatches, and smart tv’s.
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What I Like About Spotify's App Design
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Some of my favorite features on Spotify include:
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Personalized Playlists of your favorite songs and podcasts that you can create and share with your friends,
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Lyrics and videos provided with each song,
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Spotify Wrapped at the end of the year to show how many hours you spent listening to your top 5 songs of the year, your top 5 artists, what your music listening personality says about you.
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In terms of the design of the app, I appreciate how Spotify took into consideration how they want their users to feel while using their service. Spotify intentionally created their app as a dark theme to enhance the visual designs of artists’ album covers while listening to their music. Stepping into the user’s perspective and creating an app based on how you want a user to feel is a key point in UX/UI design.
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Why Spotify's Design is Good
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I mostly use Spotify on my iPhone, iPad, and sometimes on my laptop while studying. I believe that all three forms of UI design for Spotify are great because each is very similar in terms of the design layout. Consistency in design helps me as a user to feel more comfortable and less confused to find certain buttons or features. It is clear that Spotify understands their target audiences.
Spotify has become more of a personal space for musical artists and their fans to be a part of the experience of their art by allowing users to sing along with the lyrics available under each song, or being able to follow an artist and view their personalized playlist. Spotify has done an excellent job in simulating a concert-like experience for its users just from their mobile devices, and will continue to have a competitive advantage.
3. Craigslist
Website: Craigslist.org
The Purpose of the Overall Interface​
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Craigslist is an online listing of advertisements for job postings, apartments, garage sales, used cars, personal ads, and more. Craigslist is known for not updating their user interface design for various reasons. Craigslist believes that their design doesn’t need to change because simplicity allows for their users to easily navigate their website without it being pretty.
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What I Dislike About Craigslist Design​​
There are a few design choices that I view as bad design on Craigslist’s website. Their homepage has a large amount of white space, and the Craigslist logo is the center of attention in a large purple font along with a large hero image of the world map. Below the hero​ image is a long list of regions organized in alphabetical order by continents, countries, and states in a bright blue font.
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Why Craigslist Website Design is Bad​
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I believe these design choices are considered bad because it’s not clear right away what this website is designed to do and who it is for. What are the services that Craigslist is trying to sell to its users? It’s difficult to answer this question just by viewing the landing page. Once a user finds their specific region, you're taken to a sub web page that lists Craigslists menu page.
Although there is some sort of structure of its content by columns and bold titles, this webpage’s design could be improved by making it easier for users to sort and filter search the products or services they are looking for. All of the text on the page is in a blue font that makes it difficult to focus on what the user should be persuaded to choose on the page. There isn’t a clear distinction between what a button is and what isn’t on the site.
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Why Craigslist Might Have Been Designed This Way, and Suggestions
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I believe that Craigslist doesn’t want to update its design because it simply works for its users. It’s a free website for their users that offers a wealth of resources based on their area such as finding jobs, buying and selling furniture, and buying used cars. ​Craigslist's target audience would most likely be low-income users and an older demographic who do not care about the website being pretty, but for them it is functional and meets their needs.
4. Dangerous Design for People with Disabilities
The Purpose of the Overall Design​
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Strategic urban planning takes time to research and plan in order to make informed decisions. With this level of planning, how much time is spent in ensuring that their designs for sidewalks, pavements, and roads are accessible and inclusive for people with disabilities?
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What I Dislike About Urban Planning Design​​
I recall driving in downtown Atlanta, GA last year, and while sitting in traffic I saw a person in a wheelchair moving down the sidewalk to the left of me. The road wasn't even and the building next to the sidewalk was under construction, so they blocked off a part of the sidewalk. When the person in the wheelchair got to the point where the sidewalk was blocked, they had to turn around and go all the way back up the hill to the traffic light just to cross the opposite side of the road, while other pedestrians could walk past the roadblock without any issues. This moment was disheartening to see because I immediately thought of how poorly designed and inconsiderate we can be when it comes to design. Design impacts every aspect of our lives and all designers should ensure that their innovations are inclusive.
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Why This Urban Planning Design is Bad​
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In the instance of the individual in the wheelchair not being able to cross the street because the sidewalk was blocked, the development of urban planning should be more inclusive for people with physical disabilities. A person in a wheelchair shouldn't have to find their own solution because the sidewalk wasn't accessible to begin with.
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Why Urban Planning Design Might Have Been Designed This Way, and Suggestions
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I believe that city planning was designed to not be as inclusive because there are may not be enough people in those spaces to advocate for accessible design. We could improve this by being more empathetic in our designs and allowing people with disabilities to also be in those rooms to advocate for inclusive design.
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We should improve urban planning design by thinking of the safety of all individuals independent of their economic circumstances, gender, ethnicity, disability, age, sexual identity, nationality or religion. All people can engage fully in the social, economic, cultural, and political opportunities that cities provide through implementing inclusive city design.