worst app in history
the journal of Michael Werneburg
twenty-seven years and one million words
To date, the worst applications I have used were:
- SAP, the work-place workflow management system, circa 1997. Specifically, the version of Solaris desktops. It featured things like buttons that would vanish when you clicked on them; not simply disappearing, but the rest of the interface could shuffle about to fill the gap where it was. It was unstable, would lose sessions, would lose data, and made life hell. Oh, and it would somehow exhaust your system resources in no time.
- LINE, a current-era communications tool to stretch the meaning of the words "communications" and "tool" to the breaking point. It is hard to use, full of spam users pushing scams, and tries to autocomplete what you're saying not with words but stickers. Yes.
- Air Canada's website, circa 2001. To this day, perhaps the most frustrating experience ever dumped on the Internet.
But it's time to bid Air Canada's long-standing effort, which held on to second place for twenty years, goodbye. And LINE is demoted to third. And to my astonishment it's time to demote 1997 SAP as well. Because now I've had the experience of using the TikTok app and I can really summarize the experience by saying I wish Earth would be struck by an asteroid and I don't even care if I get the satisfaction of watching. Appalling content, an aggravating interface, mis-handling of links into the app, and so many notifications that it drained my battery inside four hours. I cannot over-state the degree to which the content is an indictment on our species and a single-handed refutation on the concept of human culture.