this post was submitted on 06 Jun 2025
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What are the modern design trends you hate most? Feel free to rant! Mine are:

  • Physical buttons are out of fashion, now EVERYTHING must have a touch screen instead! Especially if it makes the appliance more inconvenient to use. Like having to press a flimsy touch screen ten times to scroll through a washing machine's programs instead of just turning a physical knob and pressing a physical start button.
  • Every website looks like it's made for a phone and was vomited by the same app in slightly different flavors of vomit. And then having the nerve to tell you to download the mobile app πŸ˜‘
  • Why does everything need to be an app by the way? Especially when the only advantage the app gives you over the website is that you're not constantly spammed with messages telling you to use the app... Are you making your website shittier on purpose so I feel like I have to use the app?... I don't WANT your app, you can shove it where the sun doesn't shine.
  • Actually EVERYTHING looks like it's made for a phone... Like what's the deal with all those hamburger menus on DESKTOP software? Please just put a regular menu and same me some pointless clicking, it's not like you're lacking screen space. I especially hate that those menus can't be opened from the keyboard like regular menus. You know, "keyboards"? Those things that people on DESKTOPS use?
  • All phones look the same. All laptops look the same. It's boring as hell.
  • Laptops must be as thin and flimsy as possible. Bonus points if you can't even fit an ethernet port.
  • I'm so sick of rounded corners everywhere... 😭
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[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 days ago

I used to be able to point to ling's cars as a holdout of fun web page design, but they've changed v.v

https://web.archive.org/web/20110108151026/https://www.lingscars.com/

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 days ago (3 children)
  • lights on everything
  • diagonal house, what are you even doing?
  • Increased phone power matched by increased surveillance and advertising
  • hats not having an extra space to remove sweat and warm sticky air. Bring back lifted asian conical hats!
  • App and website having different functionality, and you have to use the app
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[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 days ago

Flat pack furniture. Everything being reduced to the cheapest to make and cheapest to ship.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 2 days ago

I loath the modern obsession with minimalist, utilitarian design. Everything is just a white, black, or grey slab with no artistic thought put into its form. Buildings, homes, cars, clothes, electronic devices. It's almost like a capitalist version of brutalism. Even the design of user interfaces is usually a pile of flat, washed out rectangles now. It's like the soul has been sucked out of everything we make, reduced to it's most basic form. It can feel anti-human at times. Like the world has collectively decided that beauty is a waste of time.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 2 days ago (2 children)

PC towers that light up like a warehouse rave. I don't need to signal to Rohan that my house calls for aid. It's why I've stuck with a Fractal Design for the past 7 years.

The fancy light bullshit should be add-ons for people who want it, not baked in for everyone who don't. And you just know they're slapping a 200% premium on those shitty lights into the cost of the tower.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 days ago

I was looking at pc parts recently and not only was there RGB towers... but also RGB CPU. And RGB GPU. And RGB RAM. And RGB fan. RGB pretty much everything... I guess now your computer can double as disco ball should the need arise

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 days ago
[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

The home, back, and switch app buttons on Android being replaced with that bar like on the iPhone.

I especially miss the back button, swiping from the edge of the screen is nowhere near as ergonomic. It also replaced the ability to reveal the side panel by swiping from the left edge, so now you have to tap the hamburger menu way up at the top left corner of the screen for it, which requires either your other hand or you have to shimmy the phone down your hand until you can reach it.

Also, when you have a full screen video playing, you have to swipe up once to reveal the bar, and then again to actually close out of the app. That made sense with buttons but why the hell is it still the case with the bar?

Double tapping the switch app button to switch between the two most recent apps was also more convenient than swiping up to reveal the app manager and dragging the window to the right, and when you want to go to the previous app, whether it's on the right or left side of the current one seems to depend on how long you've been on the app for, which means you can never build up muscle memory since it changes all the time.

Another case of Google trying to imitate Apple's UX but seemingly not actually doing any of the usability testing and polishing that Apple does, and generally making it both worse than Apple's implementation and worse than what was there before.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 days ago

You can bring back the old control scheme! You can even flip it which my gf uses cause it's easier for her to reach.

[–] [email protected] 27 points 2 days ago (2 children)
  • Completely flat chiclet keyboards on laptops. It drives me absolutely insane because I can barely tell if my fingers are aligned with the keys. Thanks, Apple!
  • Hidden controls on desktop software or desktop websites (ex: hidden exit, forward, and back controls on picture galleries)
  • Hiding or collapsing scrollbars on desktop software

In general, it seems like there's a major trend in design of form beating the heck out of function. It looks pretty! Who cares if you can actually use it or not?

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[–] [email protected] 19 points 2 days ago

UI elements that expand and cover up other UI elements when you mouse over them.

"Flat" color schemes where you can't even tell where one UI element ends and the other begins.

Infinite scroll instead of pagination.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

Why does everything need to be an app by the way?

So they can track you and collect your data.

On that same note, every appliance being designed with internet connectivity when there's no conceivable reason for it to be there. No, I don't want my fridge or my thermostat or my coffee maker to connect to the internet. And I am never going to put one of those ~~surveillance devices~~ smart speakers in my home, ever.

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 days ago (2 children)

Corporate Memphis, and I’ll get ahead of the curve, whatever its successor is. Probably some kind of AI-chic.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 days ago

I suspect Corporate Memphis is partly successful because it works with ambiguous skin colours, so it automatically ticks diversity boxes without the artist having to think too hard about representation.

My prediction is that the successor will double down on that. I hope it's cartoony style anthropomorphic animals.

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[–] [email protected] 39 points 2 days ago (1 children)
  • All new cars look the same and are way bigger than necessary
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[–] [email protected] 18 points 2 days ago (2 children)

QR coding everything. It has it uses and is practical in certain use-cases, but don't use it everywhere.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Maybe I'm paranoid but it also seems very insecure. I've been to some restaurants where they have the menu as a qr code and you even pay for your food from the website. What's to stop a bad actor from creating a fake version of your website and stealing card data? They just need to create a qr sticker and put it on top of the one on the table.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 days ago

That’s actually a huge problem and I don’t get why it is not talked about more. We all learn about validating links in emails and are very careful about clicking anything there. But QR codes we just scan and open without thinking.

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[–] [email protected] 50 points 2 days ago (3 children)

Webpages bouncing stuff around as various elements load in.

Back in the day, the space would be reserved, so if something hadn't loaded yet, that space would be blank.

Nowadays, you'll be reading something (or worse -- trying to click on something), and it'll get bounced around because some other element of the webpage got loaded in.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 days ago

This trend is, incidentally, solely because we a higher percentage of programmers knew what they were doing.

It's easier to build a webpage, but more people can make them worse quality, now.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 2 days ago

There’s a special place in hell for CSS flexboxes

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[–] [email protected] 48 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (7 children)

The trend toward subdued color palettes. Every new home is decorated in "millennial gray." Most cars are black, white, gray, or silver. You have to go out of your way to find bright, colorful clothing or furniture. It's incredibly boring and I can't wait for the pendulum to swing back the other way.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (2 children)

Most cars are black, white, gray, or silver.

I fucking hate these new vehicles with the paint that has no sparkle to it, especially the horrible grey one. So called Putty ass-whips

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 2 days ago (2 children)

It's the shape of things, too. They have no character.

I was shopping for door knobs recently, because all the knobs in this house are spherical and smooth. They're impossible to grip. We have a disabled person in the house who struggles to turn them. Gloves slip right off.

At the hardware store is an entire aisle full of doorknobs, but nearly all of them are the exact same smooth spherical shape. The rest were ugly rectangular lever styles that work but look very industrial in a home that's mostly natural textures.

Somehow all these brands, finishes, locking features, price ranges, dozens of product variations, and literally only two doorknob shapes. Both so minimalist as to be almost impractical.

I had to settle for the lever style for one door, and just put grip tape on the others.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 days ago

In many places doorknobs are being phased out of codes precisely because they aren't accessible like a lever style is.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 days ago

Everything being extruded, quickest to make crap is getting ridiculous. Even the expensive stuff looks like IKEA.

I miss craftsmanship and artistry.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

I hate that. I had my home built to spec a few years ago. The exterior siding is cedar shake stained a chocolatey brown with forest green trim, and the interior is white walls but with natural wood trim, pale golden laminate wood flooring, and two tone hickory wood cabinets, and the interior doors are all just natural wood unpainted.

I’ve leaned into the wood aesthetic with my DIY standing desk and custom pine desktop stained a dark red oak color, among various other earth tone color hints, and splashes of brighter decoration here and there.

Was going for β€œcozy cabin/cottage” and I think we nailed it. It’s very rustic.

I really hate the modern trends of white, black, steel, and glass.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 2 days ago

Don't worry, it will. I'm a designer and the one thing you can count is all of us designers get bored every few years and flip things around. That's how buttons keep shifting from rounded corners to square corners every few years.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 days ago

Yeah it's so depressing when everything looks dull and muted everywhere 😬

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)
  • houses designed as if they were some private plastic surgeon's office;
  • neopentec churches with black walls.
[–] [email protected] 29 points 2 days ago (3 children)

Everything you said.

Programs > apps (in the sense of the word)

Everything looks nearly identical online

Stupid delayed popups right where you're about to click

Websites making ANY chime/beep/noise in an attempt to direct you to their garbage robot support

Robot support

No companies having phones anymore..zero accountability.

Everything being forced to some social media garbage to tell a company how their service/product is broken and you need help

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 days ago

Robot support

I had a good, brief conversation with one the other day. I told it I was going to their competitor because they didn't have annoying chat pop-ups.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 2 days ago

Right the robot support... Especially when the only way to reach support on a website is to go through the annoying support chatbot first... and it's designed intentionally this way to increase the chances of you just giving up 😑

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