Rant alert
I HATE A/B TESTING SO MUCH WHY DOES EVERY APP I USE HAVE A DIFFERENT UI OR EVEN UX EVERY TIME I LAUNCH IT. OH HEY BESTIE HOW DO I REPOST THIS? OH ITS THAT BUTTON RIGHT THETE THATS GREAT LET ME DO THAT ON MY- OH NEVERMIND I DONT HAVE THAT BUTTON YET BUT I DO HAVE THE NEW SLOP BUTTON SO I CAN INSTANTLY DEPLETE TWO DYSON SPHERES SO I CAN GENERATE A PIG SHITTING ON ITS BALLS!!! ALSO HEY INSTAGRAM WHAT HAPPENS WHEN I GO TO A DM AND SCROLL AFTER SELECTING A VIDEO? DEPENDS ON THE DAY I GUESS AND ILL NEVER KNOW WHAT ANYTHING I DO WILL ACTUALLY RESULT IN WITHIN YOUR SHITTY GODFORSAKEN APP. OH AND YOUTUBE WHO ADDS GENUINELY HELPFUL FEATURES THAT I GET COMFORTABLE WITH AND THEN JUST RIPS THEM AWAY I GUESS BECAUSE THEY DIDNT SELL ME ON ENOUGH BAD DRAGONS OR ISRAELI SOLIDARITY PINS OR WHATEVER AAAAA FUCKKK A/B TESTING FUCK THE WAY NOBODY CARES ABOUT THE USER EXPERIENCE AND FFFUCKKK AMERIKKKA (of course)
less of a rant
Why is it so hard for an app to not change fundamental UX every day. Genuinely this is a huge benefit to OSS because even “polished” proprietary software is doing this BS. Even having apps set to only update when I tell them aren’t safe because the publishers don’t need to update the whole app to change what swiping does on a video or how to change tabs.
I think the companies making the apps have an attitude towards UI/UX development that’s like retail with shelving. Even if sales are fine, retail stores will semi-regularly “shift up” the placement of merchandise. Typically not a huge shift, and it’s not universal (grocery stores tend not to do this so much), but there is a conventional wisdom that you gotta move things around now and then to keep things looking new, even if it’s the exact same merchandise.
So apps move shit around and mix up the UX to create the impression of a significant update/upgrade, even though it’s just rearranging the deck furniture.