There's nothing about word processors that make them difficult to use with a keyboard and mouse.
New UX has improved that usecase as well.
So you accept that you were mistaken, yeah? Clearly they're usable.
Yes, actually—I have a VM reserved mostly for 16-bit software
Do you think that's normal? I made very clear in my comment I was referring to the vast majority of people, not a tiny majority of 80s/early 90s software enthusiasts.
Yes, actually
As above, do you think that's normal? I never said literally nobody, anywhere, on planet Earth does this.
Some of us do put our money where our mouths are, although I admit that isn't universal.
Exactly. And that's fine.
But the vast majority of people prefer UI now over what we had in the 90s.
but the amount present in contemporary design is way too large
In your opinion, sure. But that's not the prevailing opinion.
If people liked it, that's what we'd have. Surely this is a simple concept?
I'm shocked the UK is as high as it is. Land costs a huge amount here, as does energy (highest in Europe).
Then again, the UK has an unusually large services sector after Thatcher basically decided to kill the manufacturing sector, and the UK is probably the IT leader in Europe, so I guess it has that going for it.
China being so ridiculously low has me questioning the data though...
*12 headlines, on a window that doesn't even take up my whole screen, at 125% scaling, with a bookmark bar taking up space, and on a site rich with thumbnails.
And fine. I'll set it to standard 100% scaling, at a size where I can still comfortably work:
19 headlines, and some nice related thumbnails, a site header with plenty of links, 2 small file manager windows open, and a terminal window open.
None of this is even taking into consideration things in modern UX design like virtual desktops you can instantly switch between - something non-existent long ago.
Please do continue to tell me about how "unusable" laptops are.
The bulk of these aren't issues with modern design, IMO, it's about enshittification of the services we use.
Having huge spaces for ads, for example, isn't a "this is how UX should be" thing, it's a "lets shove ads everywhere to make money" thing. If you put the same amount of ads in older software/on sites that look like they're from 2002, it would also look terrible.
The Windows start menu isn't bad because it has some padding and easier click targets, it's bad because the search doesn't work, it's full of ads, and pushes Bing searches on you.
Etc.
Damn I wish, I've been eyeing those up for ages.
It's some Huawei laptop I found refurbished for a price I couldn't turn down
How are laptop screens useless? I'm using a laptop right now. Doesn't seem useless to me.
I have more than enough room.
Laptops wouldn't be the main form factor for doing PC work if they were useless.
I need my 27” monitor to fit the useable workspace that a laptop screen once had
Unless you've got scaling set super high for some reason, that's very doubtful.
The entire technology sector raises privacy concerns.
We really need a thorough and enforceable bill of rights when it comes to privacy.
Larger click targets for touch screen users
Larger screens with higher resolutions, meaning less need for cramped UIs
Larger click targets for trackpad users, as the PC market moved from desktops with relatively precise mouse inputs to small, imprecise trackpads that laptops had
Usability studies showing people generally like padding and spacing in their UX (despite Reddit and Lemmy insisting it's evil and everybody hates it)
You are among the first people I've seen online who hasn't circlejerked about literally any level of padding/spacing being too much padding.
People on Reddit/Lemmy always talk about how unusably shit any modern design is, and how UX/UI from 20+ years ago was so much better.
Yet do people use ancient copies of the software that broadly still performs the tasks people need of them? No.
Do they theme their system to look like the oh-so-superior Win98? No.
Don't get me wrong, sometimes I see a design change I dislike. But as a general rule, UI has definitely got better over the years.
And don't get me wrong, part of me feels great nostalgia at seeing old UX's, because it reminds me of the "good old days" when I bought my first computer in 1999. It's fun to Go back and use systems from back then. And at first you think AAAAA this is so cool, I remember all this, this looks neat, but after that nostalgia wears off you think *"thank god modern UIs aren't inconsistent, cramped and cluttered like this"
Nostalgia goggles are a powerful thing.
I swear some people want computers to be more adversarial and difficult to use because it makes them feel smarter for being a tech enthusiast or something