UI design didn't get more consistent since the start of the century, if you ask me. Once upon a time every major platform had its UI guidelines, you knew what to expect and where The 'Settings' dialog was expected to be in a program, and how it would look like (Now 'Settings' it is sometimes called 'Preferences')
Now it's a major endeavor to find 'that setting' and how to interpret the meaning of 'that setting'. i often need to google for it, and then it may turn out that the info found on 'the internet' is already outdated (especially true with this shiny Mac thing)
i suspect that UI design turned to postmodernism, now there is 'no one right way' to do things, in other words: things are messy.
This mess was likely inevitable with the advent of the Web and later the mobile UI. Now you have both these native apps, and the web apps - and you can't have everything subject to the same guidelines. So the answer is: get rid of the guidelines.
Also you got devices with a big screen and devices with a small screen, who wins? Now that's an easy one: the most common denominator. So I guess that user interfaces are being dumbed down due to a combination of both business and technical factors.
Another factor is imitation: nowadays TikTok is king, so everyone is trying to be like them - regardless if a model like this is appropriate or not.
Now it's a major endeavor to find 'that setting' and how to interpret the meaning of 'that setting'. i often need to google for it, and then it may turn out that the info found on 'the internet' is already outdated (especially true with this shiny Mac thing)
i suspect that UI design turned to postmodernism, now there is 'no one right way' to do things, in other words: things are messy.
This mess was likely inevitable with the advent of the Web and later the mobile UI. Now you have both these native apps, and the web apps - and you can't have everything subject to the same guidelines. So the answer is: get rid of the guidelines.
Also you got devices with a big screen and devices with a small screen, who wins? Now that's an easy one: the most common denominator. So I guess that user interfaces are being dumbed down due to a combination of both business and technical factors.
Another factor is imitation: nowadays TikTok is king, so everyone is trying to be like them - regardless if a model like this is appropriate or not.