When User Experience Goes Wrong: A Cautionary Tale for Product Builders
Poor user experience can destroy even the most powerful products when ads, noise, and bad organization overwhelm users before value is delivered.
In today’s conversations about software, AI, and innovation, it’s easy to forget one critical truth: humans still use the products we build. No matter how powerful the backend or how advanced the algorithms, a poor user experience can render a product nearly unusable.
To illustrate this, let’s examine a real-world example from a widely used online news platform. This isn’t about singling out one company—it’s about highlighting patterns that product teams should actively avoid.
Podcast
Designing for Humans, Not Ad Impressions — on Apple and Spotify.
The First Impression Problem: Ads Before Value
The very first thing users encounter is not content—but ads.
Banner ads, pop-ups, floating videos, and interstitials dominate the screen before the reader even sees a headline. In many cases, ads occupy more screen real estate than the actual articles. This immediately creates friction.
Even for non-paying users, the experience should invite engagement before monetization. When users are forced to fight through noise before understanding the value of the content, trust erodes quickly.
Key takeaway:
If users don’t experience value within the first few seconds, they won’t stay long enough to convert.
Visual Noise and Cognitive Overload
Beyond ads, the interface itself feels chaotic:
Too many colors
Inconsistent fonts and weights
Moving elements competing for attention
Videos appearing without intent
Reading becomes exhausting. Focus is constantly interrupted. Instead of consuming information, users are managing distractions.
Good UX minimizes cognitive load. Great UX makes the interface almost invisible.
Key takeaway:
Every moving element, font choice, and visual cue should earn its place.
Content Without Context or Order
Another major issue is content sequencing.
On the home page, users see:
Political news mixed with cinema
International stories before local relevance
Entertainment interwoven with serious news
There’s no clear logic. No hierarchy. No obvious editorial intent.
Users shouldn’t have to ask:
Why am I seeing this?
What should I read first?
Is this even relevant to me?
Key takeaway:
Content must be organized with intent, relevance, and user context in mind.
Navigation That Works Against the User
Menus are overloaded with categories—many unclear, inconsistently named, or poorly grouped. Important sections like technology are buried deep, forcing users to scroll endlessly.
In contrast, strong products:
Limit top-level categories
Use clear language
Offer intuitive sub-navigation
When navigation becomes a puzzle, users disengage.
Key takeaway:
If users need to think about how to navigate, the navigation has already failed.
Reading Interrupted: Ads Inside Articles
Even after selecting an article, the experience worsens:
Full-page ads before content
Ads injected after just a few lines
Close buttons that move or blend into backgrounds
Flickering elements that distract while reading
The reader never settles into the article. The flow is constantly broken.
Compare this to better-designed platforms, where users can read multiple paragraphs, understand the story, and then encounter an ad—naturally.
Key takeaway:
Respect the reader’s attention. Interruptions should be deliberate, not relentless.
Vanity Metrics That Add Bias
Displaying view counts on news articles introduces unnecessary bias. News consumption isn’t social media. Popularity doesn’t equal importance.
When users see numbers, they’re nudged toward what’s trending rather than what matters to them.
Key takeaway:
Not every metric needs to be visible. Some distort decision-making more than they help.
The Bigger Picture: This Isn’t Hard to Fix
What’s most puzzling is that these issues are not complex:
Fewer ads, placed thoughtfully
Cleaner layouts
Clear content hierarchy
Consistent typography
Simpler navigation
These are solved problems in product design.
Whether done by humans or evaluated with AI tools, recognizing poor UX should be straightforward. The real challenge is admitting there’s a problem—and prioritizing the fix.
A Message to Builders
If you’re building a product today—especially in an era dominated by AI—don’t forget the basics:
Can users focus?
Does the interface respect their time?
Is the experience calm, intentional, and clear?
Before shipping, compare your product against the best experiences in the market. Not just competitors—but exemplars of clarity and restraint.
Because no amount of intelligence can compensate for an interface that users don’t enjoy using.