Everytime the internet gives me grief, I fall deeper into a desparate desire to experience the beginning of the internet before all this crap became "mandatory" (and by crap I mean pop up ads, autoplay videos, constant cookie notifications, and terribly formatted sites that are confusing to everyone but the regulars). Having grown up with the internet (I predate Windows XP by like 6 months), I am pretty used to its constant changing and adapting and have a pretty good sense of how to navigate it safely. But it took a few instances of helping an older friend order food or trying to explain to an elderly customer that no, the brightly colored website with unreasonably good deals was not our company's website to see just how chaotic and unintelligable it is to those who didn't grow up as addicts.
In my opinion, no modern webiste is user-friendly. Take for example, the Jimmy John's website that I was trying to help my friend use. When you first get to the page, you are visually slapped in the face with huge banners advertising (at the time of me writing this) new red velvet cookies and their rewards program (honestly I've been ordering from them for like 6 months and still don't know what the little awards are for). Now lets try and order my usual, the number 11, but take off the lettuce because lettuce is either good or it tastes like lysol juice. You click delivery because thankfully they have the sense to make that eyecatching on the top of the page. That link takes you to a page with another large ad for their rewards on the side, which draws your attention from the area where you put in the delivery address. Once you passentering the delivery address (and don't get hung up by the address autofill popup), you'll get to the menu. And what's nice and big on the page? Another self-ad for the red velvet cookie that doesn't even look that appetizing. But then after a moment you can notice the menu tabs to the left. Now the real fun begins.
I know exactly where to find the sandwich I want; I've done it probably 50 times. But do you? Now its a game of "where's waldo" trying to figure out where it is. If you do find it, clicking on it take you to another page, evevn if you don't realize that it is one (since the top banner doesn't change and the screen only flashes for a moment). I usually get the combo because I like my chocolate chip cookie and large dr. pepper, and leet me tell you that going through the drink list is a form of torture. For someone with poor eyesite or who has difficulties sometimes differentiating lines of text, it's frustrating trying to find the correct option. Did you know they had actual bottled drinks? I didn't until I nearly ordered a bottled coke instead of a fountain coke for my friend. There isn't any visual aid to help you differentiate either so you have to actually read or skim the text to find what you need. Choosing to customize a sandwich is even worse. A huge dropdown with every option they have appears and the way they label the different options (more/normal/less/none) is kind of confusing if you aren't a "youth". How is an older person supposed to know that "EZ" means they put half the normal amount? "XTRA" makes some sense, even if the cutting off the "E" makes me :/. And when altering the sandwich toppings, you have to know what is already on the sandwich to add to or take off (this is kinda reasonable but also it took me a full minute to realize that there was avocado spread on the veggie sandwich and figure out how to take it off one time because I personally have never heard of avocado spread on a veggie sandwich but I also don't like avocados so).
Now I'm gonna just quickly summarize the rest of this process and my point because I have to go to bed to get up in like 7 hours (sometimes I am a responsible adult, and my bedtime is like the only time). To check out after finishing your sandwich choice you go through like 3 separate pages just to place the order. Doing it on the app isn't much better, since the onscreen keyboard covers most of the options when you're filling it out for payment/contact info (trust me this is an issue for some people). All in all what I'm trying to say here is that many parts of the internet, from major retailers/businesses to small companies or websites have ui's that work great for technologically adept people like anyone under the age of 35/tech bros but are confusing or frustrating to those who don't need to or want to use the internet regularly. I'm sure my explanation here isn't all that great, but the next time that you order something or have to navigate a strange website, think about how usable it is for those not as cultured as you and I.