Blog post 1.0 - Some Bad UX

Hi, and welcome to my first post.

My name's Spike, I've recently completed a UX Design bootcamp with CareerFoundry, and now I'm trying to find my way in the world of User Experience. This blog (along with my Instagram) is a way of keeping myself active until I'm able to get a full-time position (and beyond!) - I hope you enjoy what you find here.

For this inaugural post, I thought I'd address one thing that really motivates me in all of this - Bad UX (or specifically, the avoidance of it). And since I'm trying to make a name for myself, I'm gonna take a shot straight at the top. That's right - I'm coming for you, Google.

I'm sure it's a situation we've all been in. You're about to use a word, or say something, you're not entirely confident on, so you take to the world's favourite search engine - just to make sure. If you're anything like me (perhaps you're not and I'm just very particular about my search history) you don't want a reminder of every single time you had to look up a word for a blog post that no one's going to read anyway. Or maybe you just don't have a Google account (is that a thing? Can people do that?)

Whatever the reason, a Google search on incognito/without being logged in presents you with this modal window (or pop-up)

They may be important, but obviously I'm not going to read about cookies, and I certainly don't want to see more. Click 'I agree' and move on, right? Everyone knows this is how people interact with these things.

For an example of a more user-friendly way to do this, check out the example below from Medium.

This is unobstrusive, and gives you access to all the relevant information if you are so inclined.

So why would Google choose to make things more difficult?

I can only assume, but I'd expect it's something to do with users getting so tired of having to make this one extra click every time that they'll just use go off from incognito mode or sign up (so the search engine can continue to build up data for targeted ad purposes, for example).

Is this annoying? Yes.

Could it be avoided? Yes.

Does them doing it make sense? …Also yes. I'm sure their designers weren't particularly happy putting it in, but I get it. It's certainly not a design choice I'd make myself.

If you're not too familiar with what UX involves, hopefully this has helped give a small practical example of the kind of things that a UX designer might consider.

Either way, I hope you found it interesting. I promise the next post won't just be about a single pop-up.

Do you have any design bugbears you find when using your favourite websites? Will I be deleted from the internet for daring to call out Google? Am I being unnecessary when I go incognito to look up how many minutes Sergio Aguero has played for Man City this season? (142 at time of writing)

I'd love to hear from you.

Until next time!