/r/badUIbattles / Bad UI Battles

About

/r/badUIbattles or Bad UI Battles is a subreddit dedicated to programmers creating intentionally frustrating and unintuitive user interfaces for comedic effect. Top posts on the subreddit find users sharing creatively overcomplicated methods for performing simple internet tasks, such as accessing one's email or entering one's date of birth. The exploits of the subreddit have occasionally gone viral on other social media sites.

History

In June 2017, the subreddit /r/ProgrammerHumor developed a meme in which posters attempted to make the most unintuitive volume sliders (example shown below).

On June 13th, 2018, the subreddit /r/badUIbattles^[1] was then launched. The rules of the subreddit state that the sub is not for sharing legitimate, existing bad user interfaces but is rather a space for sharing self-created, intentionally frustrating UI. The top post on the subreddit as of May 22nd, 2023, was posted by Redditor 975miles^[2] on January 22nd, 2022, gaining over 19,000 points in nearly 18 months (shown below).

Common themes include bizarre ways to enter one's personal information, such as name, phone number or date of birth. For example, on September 16th, 2021, Redditor Andre_NG^[3] posted a "slider" for entering one's phone number, gaining over 14,000 points in two years (shown below, top). On September 30th, user NiftyOctopus_ posted a frustrating "guessing game" for entering one's date of birth, gaining over 12,000 points in two years (shown below, bottom).

The subreddit has gained over 205,000 subscribers in five years.^[1]

Online Presence

The subreddit has occasionally inspired media coverage and social media discussion in its five years of existence. Days after the subreddit launched in mid-June 2018, its posts were covered by Bored Panda.^[4] On April 22nd, 2022, TikToker @georgeefesop posted a TikTok featuring the "phone number slider" UI, gaining over 2,900 likes in one year (shown below).

On May 14th, 2023, Twitter user @volodarik^[5] posted a thread of some funnier designs in the subreddit. Their first tweet gained over 14,000 retweets and 70,000 likes in one week (examples shown below). The tweets then inspired coverage of the subreddit by Kotaku.^[6]

Sunday read.

This is hilarious. Engineers are competing who creates the worst UI on Reddit.

I think the winners are:

1/ Enter your phone number pic.twitter.com/944duji1Im

— Aleksandr Volodarsky (@volodarik) May 14, 2023

9/ Donkey Kong Country-based input method pic.twitter.com/xlNaMc6c3e

— Aleksandr Volodarsky (@volodarik) May 14, 2023

Search Interest

External References