I logged into Mailchimp yesterday and found that they moved the header navigation to the left side.
Instead of the previous menu option words like Campaigns or Audience there were icons signifying each that I had to hover over to figure out what they might mean. Then when I went to my Reports the css breakpoints seemed to be wonky making that screen hard to read and use.
Half-jokingly It almost feels like constantly confusing people is a trick to boost engagement temporarily while people are forced to figure things out.
You aren't wrong at all. Stores regularly re-organize and what it says to customers is "your knowledge is worth nothing". The disregard of customer knowledge is an absolute anti pattern.
Some stores do it, some don't. However, when they do it's intentional in order to force you to go through aisles you might not have walked through otherwise, thus exposing you to more advertising and chances for impulse buys in addition to what you actually planned to get.
Yes, it's a definite dark pattern, but not so much an antipattern.
Instead of the previous menu option words like Campaigns or Audience there were icons signifying each that I had to hover over to figure out what they might mean. Then when I went to my Reports the css breakpoints seemed to be wonky making that screen hard to read and use.
Half-jokingly It almost feels like constantly confusing people is a trick to boost engagement temporarily while people are forced to figure things out.