Beautiful UI, IxD Fail
To find a beautiful product with poor UI is much more challenging than you might think.
Most beautiful things prove to be well thought out, partly why they are beautiful.
Most UI fails seem ugly, like the weird, hands-free, arm door handle.
However, I have come across what I found to be a beautiful product with poor UI.
My Apple wireless mouse.

From the top, you really can’t tell what it is. Even looking from the bottom it’s hard to tell.

However, it is sleek, minimalist style and lightweight. It has a smooth texture that is appealing to touch.

It is a little small though.

Now, what makes it a UI fail is in its usability.
It has way too many hidden features. I believe Apple wanted to make a mouse with the same capabilities as a trackpad.

I think that to offer a “secondary click” option, with no indicator of a median between the two sides of the mouse, violates an expectation of standards we as a society are accustomed to.
The mouse looks like one big button but it apparently had the capability to distinguish between clicks, taps, and light touch to indicate “scrolling”. All of these movements would seem to leave users feeling “in control”, but I disagree. I think it leaves a lot of room for errors and mistakes, which is a problematic thing according to Jakob Nielsen’s 10 Heuristics.

In addition to the first 3 settings, there are more movements that users can make. Swipe with one finger, versus swiping with two fingers. Then you can double tap with one finger to zoom, yet double tapping with two fingers opens mission control.
Due to the natural comfortability with having two fingers on the mouse, it can be very confusing to make use of all of these gestures without making errors.
It also violates rule 6 of the 8 Golden Rules of IxD: permit easy reversal of actions. It can be confusing even for me after years of use to understand how to get back to what I was doing if I accidentally swipe with two fingers instead of one, or tap with two fingers and open Mission Control.
I think the mouse itself is beautiful because of the minimalist style but I think they made it serve too many similar functions to be a good IxD product.