Almost every UI confuses and frustrates users by conflating two kinda-similar but importantly different controls: Back and Up.

“Back” is the navigational sibling of Undo - take me back one step, from where I am now to where I just was. But this is insufficient in many scenarios where the user is navigating a rich hierarchical control space (e.g. a file browser, a streaming app, a music service). The user also needs to go up a level in the hierarchy. If the user had previously been drilling down into narrower categories, then Back will indeed take them Up, but often these aren’t the same, and having only one control (I’m looking at you, Apple TV) is maddening.

The best UI to handle this, I’m sorry to admit, is the Windows XP file explorer.

Look at the first three buttons in the nav: Back, Forward, and…. Up! And it works as designed!

No matter how the user arrived at a location, they can click Back to return to their previous location, or they can go Up a level in the hierarchy from their current location.

These are different controls! Both are important! Stop conflating them!

Sincerely, annoyed users everywhere.