NaNoWriMo Begins, and Godawful User Interfaces

And so it has begun. NaNoWriMo, that is. I'm not sure how long I will continue my participation in it, but this year we are still a-go for sure. I've safely clocked my 2k words for the day, but I may end up writing a little bit more later, if my left middle finger tip holds up---the cracked skin hurts like a mofo.

Anyway...

...I was logging in to my CPF account today to check out my transaction record (a good thing to do in general), and holy shit they sure managed to fuck up the interface in ways that I didn't think was possible.

Let me preface everything with this statement:

I generally like to use my PC/laptop to access information portals because of the twin reasons of a larger screen and having more control to apply my discernment on the information sent.

So I really don't like the school of thought where they start taking large screens and then wasting a stupid amount of white space just to make it more ``mobile friendly''.

For financial information, there is only one good way of looking at the records: in tabular format, where the columns are the specific attributes, and each row represents a record. It allows quick cross-referencing, and gives me the option of either doing mental arithmetic or selecting information in a column to dump into a handy spreadsheet to do whatever calculations I have.

Well somehow CPF's latest web UI/UX update managed to screw that up, treating my 1080p monitor as an oversized phone. While previously I could see an entire year's worth of transactions at a glance, I can only see like 5 transactions at a time now, thanks to the stupid amount of white space that they dump in between. That at a glance bit? Forget it... I can't see shit. To be fair, there is a type of pattern in the form layout for each record, but it is godawful. Each record takes up one ``box'' which has three lines, the amount is large and to the right, but to which of the three different CPF sub-accounts that value goes into is puny and located on the third line.

Ergo, I cannot, at a glance, see the actual state of transactions in my bloody account. My eyes have to go all over the place like I was high on crack just to hopefully figure things out.

It sure looks pretty, but it ain't deliverin'. I've sent in a futile feedback just to say that I have done so, but I'm not holding my breath on that one either. Information system owners these days seem more interested in achieving an up-to-date look without necessarily improving information transmission rate---everyone is rushing head over heels to follow what the latest Google/Android or Apple/iBlag style is without considering if the style is actually appropriate for their use case. So much copy cat work without thinking... it makes me sad and angry.

But what am I to do against the principalities whose purpose of existence relies on having a subservient and unthinking cluster of people?

I register my protest, and do what I can to keep myself from becoming the unthinking. Jesus is the Saviour, I'm no one, so I'm not expecting myself to go save people. I will, however, use the gifts that were given to me to make a stand and walk myself on the path of righteousness.

And now, time to not waste so many words. Gotta use them for NaNoWriMo...