The World is Broken (and that’s a UX Problem)

Before taking the UX & Interaction Design course, I moved through digital and physical spaces assuming confusion and frustration were just a part of my daily life. Struggling with online forms? Normal. Getting lost in an app menu? Been there, done that. Misreading a door handle? Also a part of my day’s chaos.

Then I started learning what UX design really is — and now, I can’t unsee how broken things actually are…

Understanding the Real Problem

UX (User Experience) is not just about making things “look good.” It’s about shaping how people feel, act, and react when interacting with a product or system. The course opened my eyes to the fact that every click, tap, scroll, or interaction is a design decision, and that bad ones are everywhere.

From confusing interfaces to decision fatigue, we explored how small details can massively affect user satisfaction, and how good UX removes friction, while bad UX just piles it on.

Documenting Design Disasters

For our first assignment, we had to keep a UX Diary. My UX Diary quickly filled with everyday moments where the design missed the mark, not in very dramatic ways, but in ways that subtly disrupted the whole experience.

There was the unfamiliar job search platform that couldn’t compete with the familiarity and ease of the platform that I was used to, a reminder of Jacob’s Law in action.

Then the ÖBB app, which was almost perfect until it rejected a common payment method, causing a user to abandon it entirely.

And even the digital menu at a restaurant, which solved one problem (germy menus!) but introduced another: no order confirmation, turning lunch into a surprise reveal.

Each one of those situations made me pause and think: What was the designer expecting me to do here?

And why it did not match with how real people actually behave?

A Peek Into UX Thinking

One of the things that I learned that stuck with me was how quickly users form opinions, often within milliseconds. That’s why UX isn’t just visual. It spans five planes that shapes the whole experience:

Strategy: What are the user needs? What’s the company’s goal?
Scope: What are the features and content?
Structure: How is the information organized?
Skeleton: How are users guided through the product?
Surface: What does it look like?

It’s not enough to design for what looks good, you have to design for how it feels.

The Laws of UX (and How We Break Them)

We learned about foundational UX laws, rules that, once you know them, you start to see violations of them everywhere:

Hick’s Law: More options = more confusion.
Tesler’s Law: If you simplify things for the user, the complexity still exists. Someone (usually the designer) has to absorb it.
Jacob’s Law: People expect your site to behave like the other sites they already know. Deviate at your own risk.

These laws aren’t just theory. They’re 🚩practical red flags🚩and ignoring them leads to frustration, drop-off, and lost trust.

Final Thought

So yes — the world feels broken sometimes. But now I know why.

Because every frustrating experience is a chance to do better. Every confused user is just another reminder that UX isn’t optional, it’s essential.

This course didn’t just change how I look at design, it changed how I experience the world. I’ve learned to question things I used to accept, and to notice moments of friction that most people just click past and go on with their day.

And most importantly, I now know that better design isn’t just possible, it’s expected. It’s on us, as future strategists, creators, and designers, to make that happen.

Studio of Stories