On Tuesday, October 27 2020, I hosted a virtual event through UX Wizards, “Funeral for Bad UX Figma Party.” Participants shared terrible examples of user experiences by placing images into a coffin using the collaborative design tool Figma. Here was the event description:

Welcome to our funeral… for bad UX! This is an event to share bad websites, user experiences, and user interfaces and banish them to the shadow realm. Join us for an ethereal evening celebrating the death of terrible user experiences. Bury examples of bad UX in a coffin through Figma. This is a collaborative remote event. Bring veils, candelabras, eulogies, and whatever else your BLACK HEART desires! Dress up, funeral attire!

Bad design always makes people laugh and I wanted to create an interactive experience where others can share their favorite examples of crappy design! Hosting a funeral seemed fitting for a Halloween themed ceremony. I came across several Figma parties through design communities. Figma parties involve participants working together in Figma to create experiences, play games, or make designs. After running this idea through the UX Wizards, they made the magic happen by discussing logistics and setting up the event through Meetup.

In Figma, I designed a coffin, graveyard background, and different pages for the event. I also assembled a playlist of spooky music. We performed a couple of rehearsals for the event to ensure the interactions work correctly and determine if there were any limitations to the number of people working in the Figma project simultaneously. Aesthetically, I was aiming for kitschy and used repulsive fonts and WordArt.

Tuesday evening rolls in. The UX Wizards and I meet up on Zoom 20 minutes before the event to ensure everything works. We have a quick rehearsal. After a few minutes of mingling and waiting for attendees to join, we begin the event with an introduction. Through demonstration, I explain how to drop examples of bad design into Figma. We shared the Figma URL in the Zoom chat and participants pop into the Figma file. Here are some shared examples of bad UX.

This example of Ling’s Cars showcases a complete disregard for color and has a very dated layout. While it is hilariously fun and playful, it is a usability nightmare.

What’s the point of charging a mouse when you cannot use it while charging? This is a terrible location for the charge port. No sense trying to reinvent the wheel here.

The icons and labels are confusing since they indicate opposite meanings for one button.. How does the user know if they are accepting or declining a call?

Participants dumped in a plethora of images: graphic design is my passion, memes, badly designed logos, and design failures. Some people gave eulogies for their examples. I performed the following eulogy:

The hour of death is upon us as the reaper raises its scythe towards bad user experiences. We have all been there… An unresponsive button, slow loading times, heinous color schemes, long lines at the grocery store, cheesy stock photos, boring design, the list goes on FOREVER. But tonight, we celebrate by freeing ourselves of the shackles of terrible UX.

As Wizards, we seek to revamp these experiences through practicing UX guidelines and design principles. We put users first and stress the importance of their goals, needs, and priorities. We defy logic and time. Our wizardry transcends the scope of humanity in our phantasmagorical quest to eliminate bad UX. No internal dialogues or shadow of doubt can stop us. Nothing equals the squalor of bad design! Fearlessly, we march on the Righteous UX Path. We exalt humanity with all the splendor that comes with magical user experiences.

Do not weep for poorly-designed user experiences. Let them be rightfully miserable. Relish in their sorrow. Thank you all for participating and the floor is now yours to share your own eulogies and thoughts. All are welcome to continuously fuel the pyre with more examples of bad UX. The stars shine towards those who destroy bad UX.

Afterwards, we buried the examples into the coffin and set it ablaze in the funeral pyre. Users were free to mingle afterwards to discuss the event and anything else they desired.

People were howling with laughter. One attendee stated “So fun. I’ve got sporadic chuckle attacks! Thanks for putting the FUN in funeral!” We had over 120 participants signed up on Meetup and over 50 attended via Zoom. I was relieved there were no technical difficulties or limitations. It was enthralling to host an event using terrible design to bring designers together for a fun evening. I am excited to host similar events in the future!