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You, me, and UI

How designers run the world.

There’s a funny conflict to the idea of user interfaces: a good one tends to go unnoticed, the thoughtful design decisions too subtle to notice; a bad UX or UI is one that makes you want to scream. It’s a tension that designers have to think about every time they conceive a new website, app, or device.

In this special series from The Verge, we explore the small design decisions that have had an outsize impact on our lives. From simple card game browser UIs to deliberately complicated video game setups, all-too-forgotten accessibility options for colorblindness to the curious incentive-driven histories of the shuffle and log out buttons, these stories delve into the ways that user interfaces have driven us forward, or failed, or found an entirely new way of living.

Image: Mengxin Li / The Verge

The Color Quiz

This is what it looks like to be colorblind

The sudden death and rebirth of Tweetbot

My bad VR trip

The poop emoji: a legal history

The impossibility of logging off

The mixed-up history of the shuffle button

The Apple Lisa was a design revolution — and it still feels like one today

My beautiful life with too many remotes

Microsoft Flight Simulator tricked me into getting a pilot’s license

Opulent, joyous, decadent: the Japanese decoden trend comes to America

The revenge of the pop-up

The hellish design of the Crusader Kings video games

A poker website that is actually good