Nathan Yau

This is a spitball take, but I'm trying it out because I'm more interested in learning how it plays out than actually making a point.

Socialization is moving at a slower pace than the shift in economics. The trade deficit starting in the 1970s has overwhelmingly affected goods [1], resulting in the exporting of goods production overseas and leaving the US with a service-based economy[2]. The US at the time had a greater proportion of gender-dependent occupations[3]. The export of goods-producing jobs tended to disproportionately affect men as a result of this gender-occupation dissymmetry[4].

At the same time, people have been socialized with system of gender values. In the past these gender values were congruent with both gendered occupations[5] and gendered occupational values[5]. However, as the proportional of service occupations grew, a portion of men found themselves socialized with values[4] incongruent with the values associated with occupations now available to them. The lag between value socialization and economic realities represent a point of friction and frustration that is expressed as a feeling of being undervalued economically[7].

1. https://www.stlouisfed.org/-/media/project/frbstl/stlouisfed/Publications/Regional-Economist/2018/Third_Quarter_2018/lead_fig1.jpg?la=en

2. https://ustr.gov/issue-areas/services-investment/services

3. https://flowingdata.com/2017/09/11/most-female-and-male-occupations-since-1950/

4.…

As a millennial, GenX seems like the most reasonable generation to me.

They got the best of a lot of things. (Very anecdotal)

* Excellent Music - Top tier Rock and Rap

* Moderate on Politics - Saw the evils of Communism, but don't have the rosy eyed image of Capitalism as 2008/2000 hit them at critical ages (20-30) in their lives.

* Less involved in identity politics - Went to college before campus activism was based around identity.

* Understanding of the Millenial's struggles, cautiously liberal, and stuck in a terrible housing market because Boomers refuse to die.

Sadly, The Boomer's stranglehold over politics has affected them the most. This is most evident in this [1] graph, where the GenX wave clearly never came and Millenials are already nipping at their heels with Jon Ossof in the senate. This is visible in in presidential runs too. Obama, McCain, Trump, Bernie, Warren, Kamala and Biden are all Boomers or older. Yang and Pete came closest, which is still embarrassingly far for a generation at the top of the Presidential age bell curve [2].

[1] https://flowingdata.com/2021/02/01/age-generations-in-the-u-s-senate-over-time/

[2] https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bf/Age_distribution_United_States_Presidents.png

My hope is that the new generation of designers/UX people question and reject many of the UI/UX patterns made popular in the past 15 years and go back to the 90s for inspiration. Resources like the Apple Design Guidelines from 1992 linked in the OP is excellent!

Perhaps my biggest gripe is that many of these terrible UI/UX patterns are built in at such a low level, it is near impossible for developers to override them in the software they build. For example, I really dislike flat UI and particularly flat scrollbars. But it is near impossible to add scrollbars that look like these in any Windows or Mac app I build: https://flowingdata.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/evolution-of-the-scrollbar-1536x1116.png

Usability has become theatre across Apple products. The sad part is that since Microsoft just seems to copy Apple, over time Windows usability has also degraded severely. I am so frustrated by what Apple, Microsoft and Google have done.

Here's a cite: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/psychological-medicine/article/abs/relationship-between-happiness-and-intelligent-quotient-the-contribution-of-socioeconomic-and-clinical-factors/852640AC984DB7EC623D9D2C1A2D0A5A

Of course it's not the only thing, and can be greatly mediated by other factors. From the book Age of Em, citing that and other sources, "people today tend to be both happier and more productive when they have jobs, autonomy at work, health, beauty, money, marriage, religion, intelligence, extroversion, conscientiousness, agreeableness, and non-neuroticism."

I brought up Lisa Simpson because there's this meme: https://flowingdata.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/lisa-simpson-graph1.jpg It's a popular take, but it's wrong.

For those that are surprised that it's "so expensive", LEGO is usually very expensive (and totally worth it.) This is only 119 euros/dollars (same for both) and I know I'll be buying it both for myself and as a gift for my best friend (unless she gets it for herself first.)

LEGO sets have an average price per piece of around 10 cents, which has been pretty stable since the late 70s [0]. With 1969 pieces (which is a fantastic number) you'd expect the set to cost $216.59 at the current average of 11 cents per piece, so this is a fantastic deal.

It's also a meter high (about 3 foot 4 for the Americans) which is really fantastic.

[0] https://flowingdata.com/2013/02/07/analysis-of-lego-brick-prices-over-the-years/

Someone please use this data to make a clone of Weather Spark. Weather Spark came way before Dark Sky. As an ameature professional weather nerd I feel it was the best weather site ever! You could do so much with the data in one unified dashboard style screen! Especially with the integrated historical datasets.

Examples:
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-B1LupTaXvSo/TcBNECP0A0I/AAAAAAAAEik/OqXYwhghm08/s1600/Weather_Spark_BETA.png

https://flowingdata.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Weatherspark-everything-575x451.png

https://media.licdn.com/dms/image/C5112AQEuHVOGOd-5fQ/article-cover_image-shrink_423_752/0/1520176719518?e=1685577600&v=beta&t=V6oA1xAoQvaLtFgLYcTH-TXUhOSqFNAk9Gz74QHw5Js