UX Fails: The “Junk Drawer” Problem
Where do *you* keep your rubber bands and sticky tape?
Ah, the Junk Drawer
The dumping ground.
It’s typically in the kitchen, and accumulates a myriad of “stuff” that doesn’t have a designated place elsewhere in the house. It often serves as a catch-all for things that people don’t want to throw away, but aren’t sure where else to store.
Over time, the drawer becomes cluttered, leading people to occasionally sift through it and either organize or discard its contents. The very nature of a junk drawer is that it’s a bit disorganised and full of miscellaneous items.
Bottom Navigations
See my previous rant on Bottom Navigations for a little more background – but essentially the UI for these navigations must use screen realestate extremely sparingly, as they are persistent in the users viewport.
The general rule is to limit Bottom Navigations to just 3–5 navigation items.
That’s not a lot of items.. *ominous music*
The Anti-Pattern
A common anti-pattern that has now emerged in the Bottom Navigation paradigm is the use of the ‘User/Profile/Me” tab as a dumping ground for various miscellaneous screens that don’t easily fall within other tabs, i.e. the dreaded “junk drawer”.
Example #1: Domain
In this example, Domain uses an “Account” tab.
In addition to the “Preferences/settings” that you would expect – a bunch of sticky tape and rubber bands (err, I mean “Utilities”) have also been thrown in the drawer too.
Example #2: Airbnb
Similarly, in the Airbnb app example, a “Profile” tab is used.
And again, in addition to the personal “Preferences” and “settings” that you might reasonably expect – a ruler and some old receipts (err, I mean “Tools”, and “Legal” stuff) has also been tossed in for good measure.
How “anti” is the pattern?
“If not here, where” you might ask?
“The junk drawer is a good place to find things”, you might add.
And you’re probably right.
Digital UX patterns tend to mimic the patterns and behaviour of the physical environments we are all used to.
The fact that junk drawers are the rule and not the exception in our households is probably a fair indication that this pattern does at least share some alignment with typical human behaviour.
However, just because a bunch of people behave a certain way – doesn’t mean it’s the best way to get things done.
Solution: call a spade a spade?
Here’s one way to do it, just be honest and rename the tab to be called “Menu” 😅
Thoughts? Ideas? Criticisms?
A better way?
Let me know!
