Buried treasure in my app's settings menu

My music streaming app has a playlist maker that's pure torture, with adding songs needing like five clicks each. Everyone preaches simple design, but I think apps lose power when they hide too much. After a month of gritting my teeth, I stumbled on a drag and drop tool buried deep in settings. Now I can just grab songs from my library and drop them in, which is a game changer. This little win means I actually enjoy using the app now. My hot take is that stuffing useful features out of sight is worse than having a cluttered screen. They should let common actions live up front where people can see them. A simple switch between basic and full modes would fix this for good.

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3 Comments

iris4787mo ago

Wait, five clicks just to add one song? That's insane design. Burying the drag and drop tool in settings is like hiding the remote in the couch cushions. It turns a simple task into a scavenger hunt. I've wasted so much time on apps that make basic things hard. Finding that tool must have felt like winning the lottery. They really need to stop treating users like they can't handle options.

10

chen.emery7mo ago

The drag and drop tool is in the toolbar now, not settings. It cuts the clicks down to two.

2

tessa9227mo ago

My old photo editing app did the same thing with its crop tool. I spent weeks using the clunky menu before finding a simple drag-to-crop option tucked in an "advanced" panel. That basic and full mode idea is spot on. It's frustrating when developers assume everyone wants the same stripped-down experience. Putting a "show advanced tools" checkbox right on the main screen would save so much hassle.

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