March 20, 2026
Volume? More like Volu-madness
The worst volume control UI in the world
Designers go feral, internet begs for a plain slider
TLDR: A viral Reddit challenge asked for the worst volume controls imaginable, spawning hundreds of ridiculous designs and reminders of real-world UI disasters. Commenters laughed, shared war stories, and agreed: playful experiments are great online, but in real products a simple, familiar slider is what keeps users sane.
Reddit challenged the world to build the worst volume control ever—and chaos answered. Hundreds of cursed designs poured in: wheels that spin forever, sliders hidden behind puzzles, and UI pranks that feel like CAPTCHA nightmares. The tone? Gleeful anarchy. One top joke: “I just want to get to 11,” a wink to Spinal Tap bravado. Others connected the absurdity to playful web toys like Not A Robot and Password Game, cheering the creativity while clutching their headphones.
Then the pros showed up with horror stories. A veteran in pro audio recalled a real product with a volume control “so widely despised” the company shipped special firmware just to kill it. Nostalgia burned too: someone dragged QuickTime 4’s cursed mouse dial back into the spotlight, and TikTok entries made the rounds—like a version where you must play tic-tac-toe just to turn it up. The big debate: fun sandbox vs. user suffering. The thread echoed the article’s lesson on “wants, cans, needs, shoulds.” Sure, we can reinvent the wheel, but should we? The crowd’s verdict: invent all the nightmares you want for laughs, but when it ships, keep the volume a humble, friendly slider. Our ears—and sanity—thank you.
Key Points
- •A Reddit thread invites developers and designers to create intentionally bad volume control UIs.
- •The post has collected hundreds of examples and continues to grow.
- •The exercise is framed as a fun way to build creativity and think beyond conventional patterns.
- •The article introduces a framework: wants, cans, needs, and shoulds in design decision-making.
- •It concludes that while many can innovate using tools like Principle and Framer, there’s no need to reinvent volume controls; the critical question is whether one should.