The bad UI generates a sort of viral effect. I know a lot of young kids who use snapchat and often the conversation starts with 'How did you do that effect on that video?' or 'How do you send a text message without a picture?'. Snapchat is one of few apps that has a lot of hidden features for power users that are not explained anywhere. I am not saying that it is a good thing, but it makes people talk about it.

That's a really good point. Theres no other app I use consistently which requires me to ask people for help in person.

This is definitely one of the reasons I enjoy it and continue to use it daily. Their are a lot of cool things that I am still learning how to do even after using the app for more than a year.

Isn't this the exact opposite of everything everyone preaches in product design? Doesn't that totally go against every best practice and case study of simple UX? For example how facebook mobile changed their notifications bar from the hamburger menu to the tab bar is held up as a great change cause it makes things easier.

Same for almost the entirety of apple products.

What gives?

> Snapchat is one of few apps that has a lot of hidden features for power users that are not explained anywhere.

AFAIK, every feature is explained on Snapchat's website. Also when new features are introduced, they've usually explained in the release notes on how to use them—like when lenses were first added.

That incentivizes people to explore the website/release notes to find these things, and be the first to get a new filter/lens/hologram on their story

Same is probably true of Minecraft where people (especially early on) learn of things to craft, tactics to use, the best ways to farm or mine or whatever.

So you're saying to use Snapchat well you need to have a bookmarked link to the Wiki available at all times?

I often see people over 20 complain about Snapchat's UI/UX, and yet the app has millions of daily users. I don't think it's successful in spite of its UI/UX, so there is something to be learned there if you are developing a new social app.

I wonder about this actually...

Thinking of how our parents or grandparents might be able to use a computer just fine but they can't find their way around a flat mobile UI -- Is the Snapchat UI just a new paradigm that we old people don't get? 10 years from now, will this kind of UI design be pervasive?

What if UIs are evolving and we're being left behind?

Yup. 38 here, and I can barely use it. My teenage daughters do it just fine (they were the ones who talked me into signing up). Although I am very technical the UI kills me. As a teen I think there are less mental barriers, assumptions and the like who picked it up just like I picked up DOS and Windows 3.1 when I was a teenager.

I doubt this. I saw Snapchat and thought "okay, this is it, this is what getting old is. There's a program I can't figure out".

Then I asked a 16-year-old niece if she finds it intuitive, and, no, she was as baffled by it as I am. So it's just bad UX. I've spent the three minutes acquainting myself with it since, so now I can use it fine, but yeah, it's definitely bad UX.

I think you're right. I'm 28 and have noticed a lot of people my age complain about the UI/UX. Obviously this is anecdotal but people 25yo and under seem to 'get it'.

I personally like the UI/UX, and think it's advanced. I'm incorporating some of its elements in my own work. I for one am pretty tired of lists, lists, and more lists. I've read somewhere that the UI/UX was built in a 'Japanese style'. I dont know if that's true but it's interesting.

I think where there's room for improvement is just introducing the features and explaining how the unconventional navigation works.

Also, I think you actually validated minimaxir's point. The app succeeded with crappy UI/UX and that sets an example to others: "hey you don't have to build good UX". It's dangerous.

"counterintuitive UI/UX decisions which make the app hard to use"

Consider that it may be intentional, a way for Snapchat to avoid the Eternal September issue where parents and older people signup as part of a second or third wave of users.

I watched my younger group of brothers and relatives move from Facebook and then Instagram as parents, uncles, aunts, teachers, grandparents etc. signed up to each service.

They're hoping they won't have to move on from Snapchat and can remain more candid there.

What decisions specifically are you talking about?

What I hate most are the ton of features which are supposed to be "discoverable." Or in other words, you have no idea they exist until someone else tells you about it (and how did they find out)?

For example, aside from the traditional way of adding a friend, you can point your camera, in Snapchat, at someone else's phone displaying the profile screen, and it will automatically add them as a friend. Only one other person I've met has known about it before I told them (and they're the ones that told me).

The UI also is just generally clumsy or buggy. Another example, just some of my gripes about the part of the app where you can text chat with people:

You get a push notification that "X is typing" whenever someone begins writing a message to you, even if they don't send a message. Every few days I get one of these notifications when a friend accidentally began typing to me instead of someone else.

They've replaced the "send" button on the keyboard with a button that livestreams your camera to that person. Quite a surprise the first time you're chatting and you're only in your underwear.

You have to hold one of your fingers on the screen the entire time you're video chatting. And you change between the front and back-facing camera based on where on the screen you are holding your finger.

I actually really like Snapchat, it's the only social network/app I use regularly, but damn does the app suck.

Here's one you can go tell other people about: You don't have to hold your finger on the screen while video chatting. If you drag your finger up or down towards a corner, a lock icon will show up that allows you to remove your finger.

https://support.snapchat.com/a/video-chat

Thanks for helping prove my point and teaching me something I wish I had known earlier!

Not sure about OP but I find the swiping to be somewhat nonsensical as far as allowing me to have a mental map of where I am in the app. Sometimes I almost think they were having a laugh with the UI and saying "swipe up here to exit" when you swiped left or clicked to get there.

It seemed like it was done originally by somebody with bad UX skills - or else it was intentional to piss off older people and let the kids have their own thing..?!

Probably how it relies on a lot of swiping or icons to expose functionality. This isn't the easiest way for new users to discover how to use an app.

Once you know how to use it though, it's pretty cool.

I remember reading a blog post in the MySpace era about how their bad UI was the key to their success. Look where they are now.

I think the UI is great, it took me a couple of times playing around with it to map everything out but once I got that down it became incredibly easy to use.

Swiping to move between screens (there's only 4 main views) is very fluid and easy to navigate.

or maybe UX doesn't matter

Then what does?

i don't know. some possibilities i can think of: value proposition, features, market positioning, network effects