Welcome to the latest episode of the Testing Peers podcast.
This time, join David, Chris, Sanne and Beth as we discuss Bad Quality By Design (a more SFW term for ensh!ttifcation).

Where products and services become deliberately less usable or joyful over time, often to drive monetisation. This isn’t accidental degradation, but intentional design choices aimed at nudging users towards subscriptions, upsells, or ad exposure.

Examples the Peers discuss include:

• Getting a “premium” experience temporarily, then losing it unless you pay
• Making it easy to sign up but frustratingly hard to cancel
• Designing mobile apps that force you onto desktop for key actions like unsubscribing
• Cookie banners and friction-heavy consent flows
• UX patterns that prioritise business goals over user experience (e.g. CarPlay’s rigid UI rules)

The group reflect on how this gradual decline in delight has eroded pride in product quality. AI tools, for now, feel delightful by contrast because they’re still in the VC-funded honeymoon phase, but this too may fade. The group calls out the trade-off between "good enough" and genuinely caring about quality.

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