I have to write up a little bit on a UI that I like and why and a UI that I dislike and why. The like was easy - I went with my iPhone (loves). I know there are UIs I hate, but none are coming to mind this fine Monday morning. Want to throw some out there to get my brain moving? Can be apps but also can be Web sites.

Lotus Notes?

Office 2007. Word 2007, in particular. It's as if a 4 year old was asked to redesign it.

Offline apps I hate - SAP springs to mind. Online, phpBB.

SoftImage also has a horrible UI, but it's such a fun app to use that I forgive it (most of the time).

[eta:

Office 2007.

Oh HELL yes. My workstation PC hasn't been upgraded yet, but whenever I log onto a computer that has been, my eyes start to bleed a little.]

SAP springs to mind.

Eww, yes.

Online, phpBB.

Eww, yes.

Oh, SAP! That thing is the most shitty thing I've ever used. (It's also my works main business system). It makes NO NORMAL SENSE. (And some of the error messages are randomly in German).

Vista. Anybody ever tried setting an IP address for a network card in Vista? Try it. Mind boggling.

And some of the error messages are randomly in German

Now that's one I haven't encountered yet, but it doesn't surprise me even a little bit.

My main beef with SAP, apart from it's overall non-worky-ness, is that the icons were designed by blind wombats from Mars. There is no reason in the world that a training session should have to include the phrase "Okay, now see the icon that looks like a little brick with lightning coming out of it? That's your Inbox."

Yeah, they are based in Germany. If you ever use the admin interfaces for it, you do something wrong and it flashes YELLOW at you, then gives you an error message in German. As they haven't translated all of it still.

One of the other common messages I see is "CRITICAL ERROR. SYSTEM TERMINATING". But it's just a generic error, so if you've typoed something admin wise it comes up with that. I discovered that after having a heart attack, thinking I'd crashed the system.

UI HATERATION:

Windows ME
Windows Vista (which I have only looked at/heard reports second hand)
ANY entirely Flash-based website (like most "upcoming" movie web sites).

The CSI: 3 Dimensions of Murder video game. I picked up this video game on a whim, being a CSI fan, and wanting to see what the game would be like. The game consists of going to crime scenes, clicking around until you find all the evidence, going back to CSI and clicking on all the various rooms and equipment until you have processed all the evidence, and talking to all the various characters suspects until the crime is solved (and yep, "talking to people" consists of pressing the space bar until all the dialog has been displayed -- you frequently get options of questions to ask, but you have to go through them all to "solve" the crime anyway, so that doesn't really matter).

It is a video game that plays itself. It only requires input from a human(?*) to make mouse clicks in the right places and space bar through the dialog. Add to the fact that the "3 Dimensions" of the title refers to both the number of cases you have to solve in the game (three, yep, only three) and the fact that all the characters (voiced by the actual CSI actors) are given half-assed 3-D computer animation, so you've got a major Uncanny Valley thing going on all game, and this is one of my top contenders for Worst Video Game Evar.

(*Not only do I think a chimp could play and "win" this game as fast as any human, I think a chimp could write a script to randomly send mouse movements, clicks, and space bar hits to the game, thereby removing the need for any living thing to be involved in "playing" the game.)

Thanks for the ideas! I went with Word 2007. I've only used it a few times (in the lab at school) and it made me feel like an idiot. Notes is also a good (bad) one!