4 ms·

The iPhone X UX is a nightmare

28 points by mromanuk 9y ago

grabcocque 9y ago
Yes, the people of Earth could never grasp the awesome complexity of a new edge gesture. Of course the home button was such a simple UX though: * Press place your finger on it to use Touch ID * Press once to go the home screen * Press twice when unlocked to bring up task switching * Press lock button then press twice to initiate Apple Pay * Press and hold to talk to Siri * Press at the same time as the lock button and then release to take a screenshot Yeah, it was such a SIMPLE bit of UX. If you’re a UX expert arguing for the supremacy of a verb with at least six overloaded meanings, imho you’re UX charlatan.
- zimpenfish 9y ago
  > a single new edge gesture There's at least three - swipe up for home; swipe up halfway and hold for task switcher; swipe left for previous app. If you've turned on Reachability, there's also swipe down to activate that.
  - grabcocque 9y ago
    The edge gestures for switching apps aren’t new, they’ve been on the iPad for some time. The swipe up to app switch/go home is the only new gesture. Anyway my point stands: the home button was a massively overloaded bit of UI and no serious UX person would defend that.
    - zimpenfish 9y ago
      > The edge gestures for switching apps aren’t new These aren't edge gestures - they're on the Home Indicator. And "3D Touch Edge + swipe" was already on the iPhones. > the home button was a massively overloaded bit of UI Cannot disagree.
dr_ 9y ago
I think the simplicity of the iPhone X lies in the fact that you don’t have to use all of the gestures to make the phone work for you. Swiping to go home is something you get used to relatively quickly, and I personally think faceID is great for unlocking the phone.
whizzkid 9y ago
I had a chance to play with an iPhone X and it was not really a disaster. Swiping up from the bottom worked without any problem. But it is little too big to my taste. You can not really use it with one hand. But this changes person to person. I am guessing that Apple is investing and working hard on new technologies and tried to fit some of these new things to iPhone X. This is like a transition version to new devices that we may see in the future. When Steve was the boss, Apple's main priority was iPhone. But this has changed over the years. iPhone became the best phone as intended and now is the time to work on new things. Like all other phone companies, Apple also needs to release a new model every year to keep those money flowing into company. My advise would be that you buy the model that you need, but know that new things will be coming at much faster pace than ever.
jhugg 9y ago
As the unfortunately named grabcocque pointed out, you’re only really replacing the simple button press with one gesture. Beyond that you’re replacing complex uses of the button with gestures. And most of the complex stuff is non-essential to using the phone.
SirensOfTitan 9y ago
Around new experiences, I usually allow myself a month or two before I complain. Before that point, I find it really difficult to separate my brain’s resistance to change from truly difficult UX. The issue with this article is that the author is comparing a familiar UX that they’ve had a decade to understand to a brand new paradigm. I see articles like this around every new product launch, and I don’t really find them constructive.
- narrowtux 9y ago
  Reminds me of the Office 2007 design woes. Now that everyone's used to it, nobody complains any more.
  - eitland 9y ago
    They fixed the dumbest part (a menu hidden behind the logo.) Some got used to it. Some stopped caring. It doesn't help: they've already decided what's best for us. Me: it still annoys me to a certain degree and I'm also happy to see that companies not only considers alternatives but also actually move to other products.
kasperni 9y ago
Had it for a week now and really like it. All the gestures feel very natural. And within a couple of hours you have forgotten all about a home button.
thisisit 9y ago
Here I was hoping for a review from a design site but this article is full of 2nd hand info and extrapolation from the said info. Looking at the mentioned tweet: https://twitter.com/JoannaStern/status/926488246204366854/photo/1 https://twitter.com/JoannaStern/status/926488246204366854/ph... Some of the actions like screenshots, notification center, wake etc don't look much different. Some will need getting used to. The only problem I see is two button action - volume down + wake for restart.
TYPE_FASTER 9y ago
I think this points more to the increasing complexity of mobile UI as the power on these devices increases. I can tap the trackpad or screen of my Surface Pro with one, two, three, or four fingers to do different things. In fact, I can configure three and four finger swipes in all four directions to do different things.
galtenberg 9y ago
Jesus Diaz, hadn't wondered where that guy went - but his consistency is charming
itsdrewmiller 9y ago
At this point the biggest issue I have with the X is that the home button gave a clear sense of phone orientation, so I could flip it around immediately if I picked it up backwards. I've stopped trying to push the home button for things, but I still have to look at it to tell which way is up.
moltar 9y ago
iPhone SE is the best version released by Apple.

28 points by mromanuk 9y ago

Yes, the people of Earth could never grasp the awesome complexity of a new edge gesture. Of course the home button was such a simple UX though: * Press place your finger on it to use Touch ID * Press once to go the home screen * Press twice when unlocked to bring up task switching * Press lock button then press twice to initiate Apple Pay * Press and hold to talk to Siri * Press at the same time as the lock button and then release to take a screenshot Yeah, it was such a SIMPLE bit of UX. If you’re a UX expert arguing for the supremacy of a verb with at least six overloaded meanings, imho you’re UX charlatan.

zimpenfish 9y ago
> a single new edge gesture There's at least three - swipe up for home; swipe up halfway and hold for task switcher; swipe left for previous app. If you've turned on Reachability, there's also swipe down to activate that.
- grabcocque 9y ago
  The edge gestures for switching apps aren’t new, they’ve been on the iPad for some time. The swipe up to app switch/go home is the only new gesture. Anyway my point stands: the home button was a massively overloaded bit of UI and no serious UX person would defend that.
  - zimpenfish 9y ago
    > The edge gestures for switching apps aren’t new These aren't edge gestures - they're on the Home Indicator. And "3D Touch Edge + swipe" was already on the iPhones. > the home button was a massively overloaded bit of UI Cannot disagree.

dr_ 9y ago

I think the simplicity of the iPhone X lies in the fact that you don’t have to use all of the gestures to make the phone work for you. Swiping to go home is something you get used to relatively quickly, and I personally think faceID is great for unlocking the phone.

whizzkid 9y ago

I had a chance to play with an iPhone X and it was not really a disaster. Swiping up from the bottom worked without any problem. But it is little too big to my taste. You can not really use it with one hand. But this changes person to person. I am guessing that Apple is investing and working hard on new technologies and tried to fit some of these new things to iPhone X. This is like a transition version to new devices that we may see in the future. When Steve was the boss, Apple's main priority was iPhone. But this has changed over the years. iPhone became the best phone as intended and now is the time to work on new things. Like all other phone companies, Apple also needs to release a new model every year to keep those money flowing into company. My advise would be that you buy the model that you need, but know that new things will be coming at much faster pace than ever.

jhugg 9y ago

As the unfortunately named grabcocque pointed out, you’re only really replacing the simple button press with one gesture. Beyond that you’re replacing complex uses of the button with gestures. And most of the complex stuff is non-essential to using the phone.

SirensOfTitan 9y ago

Around new experiences, I usually allow myself a month or two before I complain. Before that point, I find it really difficult to separate my brain’s resistance to change from truly difficult UX. The issue with this article is that the author is comparing a familiar UX that they’ve had a decade to understand to a brand new paradigm. I see articles like this around every new product launch, and I don’t really find them constructive.

narrowtux 9y ago
Reminds me of the Office 2007 design woes. Now that everyone's used to it, nobody complains any more.
- eitland 9y ago
  They fixed the dumbest part (a menu hidden behind the logo.) Some got used to it. Some stopped caring. It doesn't help: they've already decided what's best for us. Me: it still annoys me to a certain degree and I'm also happy to see that companies not only considers alternatives but also actually move to other products.

kasperni 9y ago

Had it for a week now and really like it. All the gestures feel very natural. And within a couple of hours you have forgotten all about a home button.

thisisit 9y ago

Here I was hoping for a review from a design site but this article is full of 2nd hand info and extrapolation from the said info. Looking at the mentioned tweet: https://twitter.com/JoannaStern/status/926488246204366854/photo/1 https://twitter.com/JoannaStern/status/926488246204366854/ph... Some of the actions like screenshots, notification center, wake etc don't look much different. Some will need getting used to. The only problem I see is two button action - volume down + wake for restart.

TYPE_FASTER 9y ago

I think this points more to the increasing complexity of mobile UI as the power on these devices increases. I can tap the trackpad or screen of my Surface Pro with one, two, three, or four fingers to do different things. In fact, I can configure three and four finger swipes in all four directions to do different things.

galtenberg 9y ago

Jesus Diaz, hadn't wondered where that guy went - but his consistency is charming

itsdrewmiller 9y ago

At this point the biggest issue I have with the X is that the home button gave a clear sense of phone orientation, so I could flip it around immediately if I picked it up backwards. I've stopped trying to push the home button for things, but I still have to look at it to tell which way is up.

moltar 9y ago

iPhone SE is the best version released by Apple.