While I did eventually complete the User Inyerface game, the posted time of 10:05 is misleading. In truth, it took me two attempts to complete the task. During my first attempt, I was limited in time, trying to wedge it between other tasks, and between my frustration at the game and my time constraint, I abandoned it. A few days later, with a little more time to tackle the game, I was able to complete it in the posted time.
Where to start? Probably my biggest waste of time was around the pop up window that reminded me that time was ticking away. At the same time I couldn’t figure out how to close the pop up. I probably spent half of my posted time trying to figure out how to close the pop up. I tried expanding the pop up with the button in the top right corner, hitting the ‘escape’ key on my keyboard, and a few other items. I was more or less clicking around the screen in a haphazard way when I finally figured out that it was an intentionally misspelled word with the copyright symbol, (©lose 2025). Copyright and dates are common on websites and apps, so it clearly didn’t occur to me that it was significant.
The amount of misleading cues and instructions were another way I continued to get diverted. The ticking clock made it feel like I was doing something wrong, and I fell into habits from previous online experiences – ticking the boxes when I should have been unticking them, and not closely reading instructions that were negative assertions instead of the usual positive ones, (“I don’t accept…”). My decisions were more influenced by the ticking clock than I would like to admit.
There were other habits ingrained within me that caused the intended frustrations woven within the game by it’s designers: fillable boxes with text that I assumed would disappear once I clicked in the box, only to find that I had to erase what the designers had left in there; buttons that mislead the user by having the positive option in background white instead of blue; forced steps that are typically optional, (such as uploading an avatar); a scroll bar to select age, but didn’t show what age it was until the user stopped forcing me to adjust, (and who lives to 200?); choice of month that was in alphabetical order, (April, August…), not in chronological order; answers requiring numbers that could be in the thousands, (such as street addresses), but didn’t allow the user to directly type the number and instead forcing the user to use a cumbersome up/down arrow; irrational orders of lists, (first name → title → last name). I even figured that I would try to use the ‘help’ chat window in the bottom right corner, thinking that it would provide some sort of shortcut, only to find out that it aggressively autocorrected the user in unhelpful ways.
It was truly revealing to see just how much I had been ‘trained’ to use the internet. Even when given instructions, I made assumptions as to the order in which they go, or the input methods I could use based on my previous experiences. Of course, this is just an extension of the model of business social networking companies use, where I am a product. Tristan Harris was a central figure in the film ‘The Social Dilemma’, and pointed out that, because I am not paying for their services, social media companies are actually selling me, (my data, preferences, and inclinations), to their real customers – advertisers. This makes a lot of sense from a production perspective.
If I were running a manufacturing company or a farm, I would want my workers or equipment to run optimally and efficiently. The User Inyerface game helped illustrate to me just how cooperative I’ve been with these companies. I am used to checking boxes, giving consent, allowing cookies, and so on. In truth, I don’t usually think twice. User interface is not a one-way street where a software application or website designs a product to be as simple and seamless for the user’s benefit; rather, it is a two-way relationship, where the user minimizes the number of steps to enter their most confidential and important information for the efficiency and economy of their business model.