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Most of this article just lists semi-advanced features that people don't know about. I think that’s Apple’s intention... Having every feature and option up in

• agumonkey 8y ago
  It's even anti-ergonomic in general to overload features. It's probably an easy frequency based relationship.
• karmakaze 8y ago
  The problem lies in what's semi-advanced to one is critical or basic to many others. Apple has been known to hide (aka. make subtle) basic operations. How often have you wanted to load a page in 'desktop mode' in mobile Safari? It's there, just invisibly so. The UI does not teach in the name of clean/minimal design which is Apple's way: form over function. Edit: it's the equivalent to not putting keyboard shortcut keystrokes into pull down menus.
  • SOLAR_FIELDS 8y ago
    Theres a lot of armchair design going on here. Obviously there is some sort of balance between showing the user too many options or not enough and making the important stuff obvious without cluttering the UI. I imagine if Apple had gone too far in the other direction (which they would never do IMO) that people would complain there are too many options. There is definitely room for improvement though. There are some regressions that are too obvious. The recent regression that comes to mind is forcing the end user to go through extra taps to switch the camera between front and back during a FaceTime call when previously it was a one-button click
    • deleted 8y ago
      [deleted]
    • TheOtherHobbes 8y ago
      That change is infuriating. Showing something/someone else on a FT call may be a minority pastime, but it's not exactly a super-obscure use-case. I seriously doubt there was a groundswell of users complaining they could swap cameras with a single tap. The other annoying change was putting the End Call button in a panel the bottom right. Regular users have muscle memory, and suddenly they have to relearn one of the main features. Changes like these are superficial tinkering and make work for the sake of appearances rather than considered, focused development.
  • biofunsf 8y ago
    Personally, I use the "Request Desktop Mode" features lots! I also moved it so it's the very first option listed for quick access. But I wouldn't do that on my grandma's phone... While 'desktop mode' is super useful the HN crowd, I don't think most users would benefit from it. A non-technical user is probably only minimally aware that mobile and desktop sites might have different features at all. And even when you do use it, it might not have the desired affect. I might have been browsing around on "mobile.site.com" for a while and repeating my request with a desktop User-Agent is still going to get me the mobile version. (this happens to me on m.facebook.com) To fix this I have to know how to modify the URL to point to the non-mobile-only version...easy for this crowd, but not for the average user. Certain CSS @media queries also don't seem to be affected by "Desktop Mode". (It only changes the User-Agent I believe?) So in other situations, it won't work no matter what and that's pretty frustrating/confusing/inconsistent if you don't know the details. Even if I do succeed, a desktop webpage on mobile can be a pain with all the zooming and zooming out needed. Sometimes desktop sites don't even work properly on mobile browsers! Now...we understand the constraints, but all these details come together to make it a pretty confusing feature for the average user. I think most users wouldn't get value from this so it's obscure by default...but for the technical types that love this, it's not too hard to figure out how to move this feature to a place where it's convenient to access. Overall I think the current design is a pretty good balance all things considered. (though I do wish the ability to move the desktop mode button to the 1st slot was more obvious. Definitely took me a while to figure this out)
    • nighthawk454 8y ago
      > I also moved it so it's the very first option listed for quick access It took me a second to realize that "Request Desktop Site" is available in the Share Sheet. I use it by long-pressing the refresh button.
      • biofunsf 8y ago
        hah I only discovered that long-press option just a couple months ago! Long pressing there also gives me a "request without ad blockers" button which I've found super useful as well. A bit weird this option isn't in the Share Sheet like desktop mode is... also isn't it weird that this is called the "Share Sheet" but has lots of buttons for non-sharing related things?
  • Bud 8y ago
    "Form over function" is not "Apple's way". Apple's way is function, period, paragraph. And often, what "function" means is, don't bury the user under 200 options they will never use. Make choices. Be willing to say "no" to having every single option front and center. Added to this is the obvious point that with a touch interface on a small screen, you cannot make everything obvious. It's impossible.
    • Green_man 8y ago
      is that what putting usb ports on the back of an iMac is? function, period, paragraph, and publication?
      • coldtea 8y ago
        >is that what putting usb ports on the back of an iMac is? Yes, why not? Tons of PC laptops had it that way as well, even industrial-style all-function PCs.
        • Green_man 8y ago
          well, older laptops had top mounted hinges that allowed for a lot of I/O real estate on the back. that allowed them to work well on a tight desk, with power, usb hub, whatever coming out the back. for a portable machine, i think most accessible things should be on the sides, and the newer hinges on most laptops that are mounted to the back of the chassis mean that back mounted ports aren't an option. the obvious function first choice is side mounted ports, with a bottom dock with power redundancy and everything else. best of both worlds. i don't know if older laptops are the relevant comparison point to a new imac all in one desktop though. I understand why they are on the back, but its clearly not a function first decision (putting them on the front would be way more functional.
      • Bud 8y ago
        Where would you suggest the ports be located on a desktop computer whose sides are not thick enough to accommodate any ports? Perhaps they should be located in the middle of the screen? ;)
  • pasta 8y ago
    Or clearing the cache in Safari. The only options I know is to go to the settings and then find the Safari app. This is not so nice when you only want to reload the page while clearing the cached files. Could have been something like a long press or double tap on the refresh button.
  • userbinator 8y ago
    Edit: it's the equivalent to not putting keyboard shortcut keystrokes into pull down menus This reminds me that several versions ago, Windows stopped underlining the shortcut keys to the menu items by default --- taking away the only affordance to discovering that the keyboard can be used to more quickly activate the menus. I learned by accident long ago ("what's the Alt key for?"), and have used it since. In contrast, I remember trying to operate a Mac the same way but gave up experimenting with the Alt key and such to try to get the menus to show (I know about the shortcuts, but they are not easily discoverable/explorable in the same way that menus are) --- and only later found out that trying to operate the menus on a Mac from the keyboard is... not very intuitive and disabled by default (why!?!?): https://superuser.com/questions/117549/use-the-keyboard-to-activate-the-menu-bar https://superuser.com/questions/117549/use-the-keyboard-to-a... https://superuser.com/questions/504111/how-to-select-file-menu-in-mac-just-like-alt-f-in-windows https://superuser.com/questions/504111/how-to-select-file-me... (I'm not sure if the above even apply to pre-OS X --- when I discovered the function of Alt and the underlined keys in Windows, it was the Windows 3.1 era.)
  • rangibaby 8y ago
    Steve Jobs was heavily against hidden functionality (sorry there is a word for it I can't remember off the top of my head). It's why Macs had one-button mice for so long. It wasn't until the third major revision of the OS that iPhones got copy+paste!
    • reitanqild 8y ago
      > Steve Jobs was heavily against hidden functionality (sorry there is a word for it I can't remember off the top of my head). It's why Macs had one-button mice for so long. That doesn't make sense at all to me: The right click button on a mouse is visible. The Mac way of hiding it behind the ctrl key was non-discoverable and non-obvious to me.
      • bb88 8y ago
        Or under pull down menus... or context menus... or... Force touch just seems like a different form of right mouse clicking.
        • submeta 8y ago
          I know a few people who - even after trying - can't make "force touch" work properly. I love it and try to show them. But they can't seem to make the effort to learn it.
          • Piskvorrr 8y ago
            Are you saying they are...holding it wrong?
          • dublin 8y ago
            I know at quite a few people that have not upgraded their iPhone 6-vintage phones simply because they found 3D/force Touch to be a really significantly negative feature, and just flat don't want it.
      • eridius 8y ago
  • em500 8y ago
    > How often have you wanted to load a page in 'desktop mode' in mobile Safari? It's there, just invisibly so. Not a single time in the past 5 years or so. What's your point?
  • coldtea 8y ago
    >The problem lies in what's semi-advanced to one is critical or basic to many others. Well, that's not a dictum to design UIs by. This way everything becomes "critical". At some point you just use statistics, and if something is critical to fewer people, you can give it lower priority anyway than what most want to use everyday.
  • Ntrails 8y ago
    sorry to off topic - but how do you get safari to force desktop? I've been hacking URLS
    • dave84 8y ago
      Press the share button at the bottom (or next to the address bar in landscape/iPad), then scroll along the list of options at the bottom and you'll see "Request Desktop Site."
      • Ntrails 8y ago
        Cool, thanks!
    • tim333 8y ago
      I think the trick they are referring to is to go to the site then hold the refresh icon and a menu saying "Request Desktop Site" pops up. I thought cool, I'll try it with the nyt - It'll be like the original iPhone demo again but no - it goes to a pay screen. Mercury Browser kind of worked though which is an app that "can spoof the UserAgent string to trick websites into thinking the browser is a desktop browser."
• entee 8y ago
  I think the points that are well taken are those around identity, relationships and contacts. I've been using iPhones for something like 8-9 years and I didn't know I could specify a contact as a specific family relationship. A while ago when I wanted to configure emergency contact information it took me a google search to figure out that I needed to find the Health app buried on the last screen of the phone. At the very least, the emergency contact info should be stupid simple to find (I'd say top level in Settings). This isn't an "advanced" feature, it's a fairly vital and basic feature of a cell phone. Family relationship specification should be simpler too.
  • nemothekid 8y ago
    It's a niche feature that has been there since at least iOS 4, (or at least I've known about it since iPhone 4, when I had the time to meticulously comb through every app on my Phone), but it wasn't actually useful until several interations of Siri later. Relationships is one of the features, to me that feels like Apple ended up building functionality on top of years after the feature was released, but since it was useless for so long nobody ever uses it. Did you know not only could you specify your relationships, but other people's relationship's as well? I'm not sure if Siri lets you contact people this way ("Call John's mom"), but I wouldn't be surprised if a hidden update to Siri enabled this feature as well.
    • gumby 8y ago
      > It's a niche feature that has been there since at least iOS 4 FWIW it's been in the MAC address book since the original OS X (jag-wire?)
      • angott 8y ago
        Yes, the feature has been there since iOS 1.0. Siri on iOS 4.0 started making use of it to enable voice commands (e.g. “call Mom”)
        • toxik 8y ago
• JustSomeNobody 8y ago
  Ok, but honestly, where does Apple list the instructions for using iOS as well as the preinstalled apps? They believe their product is so easy to understand that people will just get it. But then they go and change things like where they put the autobrightness switch and even seasoned iOS users have to hunt for it. Or go on Reddit. They just changed the battery page in settings. Where's the tutorial? An obvious place would be apple.com/batteries but I don't see it.
  • Bud 8y ago
    In the user manual. Which is, btw, one of the very best user manuals you will ever see. It's very easy to find, and the fact you haven't found it tells me you probably didn't bother searching, since almost any Google search finds it instantly: https://support.apple.com/manuals/iphone https://support.apple.com/manuals/iphone And no: Apple does not "believe their product is so easy to understand that people will just get it". You just made that up. It's...surprising what people will claim sometimes about what Apple "believes" based on zero evidence. The fact is, Apple knows very very well what is easy and obvious, and what isn't. They have done rigorous study of all of this. I'm not saying that Apple always makes the right choices, design-wise. But to say that they are blithely ignorant of the basic usability facts surrounding the most successful consumer product in world history is...a bit of a stretch.
    • graeme 8y ago
      I'm an avid apple user and honestly had no idea that manual existed. They could do a better job advertising it. Is there anything in the box mentioning it? Edit: and according to the article, the manual doesn't cover a lot of the hidden features described in the article. I learned at least five new things: select multiple pictures, announce calls, swipe right for forward, and a couple others I don't recall. I would rate myself as an advanced iphone user. I've made very complicated Siri shortcuts. But a lot of stuff has been rather hard to discover.
      • sitharus 8y ago
        It's referenced in the only piece of paper in the iPhone box at the end of the getting started instructions. Or at least it was when I got my latest phone a year ago.
• throwawaywindev 8y ago
  The WiFi thing is made more complicated by how the Apple Watch works. It uses an adhoc WiFi connection to your iPhone, so you don’t want the toggle to disable that. And it would be confusing to have different behavior depending on whether or not your watch is nearby.
  • snuxoll 8y ago
    Apple Watch uses Bluetooth to communicate with your phone, not WiFi (unless it’s out of Bluetooth range, in which case it will connect to a known network if possible, then LTE if you own a cellular model).
    • Operyl 8y ago
      Unfortunately true even in the case of Watch updates. That’s why the trick to make it faster is to kill Bluetooth via Settings.app after it starts downloading an update. Easily half the time spent waiting!
• rtpg 8y ago
  I get that, but I do think that saying that text size is an advanced feature is just not true. Loads and loads of people are older than 40. Loads of people just have weaker eyesight. Apple has really good accessibility tools, and it would make a _lot_ of sense for there to be a dedicated part of the onboarding for accessibility.
  • bonestamp2 8y ago
    Text size is part of the onboarding now.
    • ehsankia 8y ago
      Yep, that's how Android does it too. Text size is a very important option for older folks, and having people pick it during the initial setup alongside other accessibility options, helps a lot.
      • robterrell 8y ago
        I just set up a pixel 3 and it didn't ask anything about text size? Onboarding was like 3 steps, including "plug in your old phone".
        • yoz-y 8y ago
          Onboard if tends to be quite different if you already had a device though. With an iPhone you can just put it close to your old one and it will suck in everything. But if you set it up anew it will ask questions about privacy setup, text size and so on.
    • cududa 8y ago
      It has been since the 6/ 2015
    • fit2rule 8y ago
      If its important enough to put in on boarding, its important to have it handily available through easy to access means during regular use.
• mempko 8y ago
  Try downloading and playing an MP3.
  • eclipxe 8y ago
    Works just fine. Save to files. Open and listen in Files.
• NotAmazin 8y ago
  I don't think making your market small and extremely fragmented is call for innovation. Certain features should be available easier for the ease of the user. If you don't like the environment you're using, and you can't change it, you're being abused by the software.
• TulliusCicero 8y ago
  This article makes it clear why the major tech companies are so focused on making intelligent assistants and on using machine learning to make using software more contextual. Our tech keeps getting more powerful, to the extent that the interfaces and sheer number of options outstrip the average person's capabilities to manage.
  • Cthulhu_ 8y ago
    The problem with assistants and the like is that they hide features even more. On iOS you can browse through the apps and settings, on Siri you can't. Sure you can try some but there's a lot of "Why didn't I think of that?" options available there.
    • TulliusCicero 8y ago
      That's true, but I think there's a lot of less technologically proficient people for whom this actually works better. Like, as tech nerds we have no problem navigating lists of lists of settings, we can usually guess where a setting will be if it exists. But for a lot of people, just asking "Hey Siri, can you make the letters bigger?" would be more accessible.
    • dkonofalski 8y ago
      But that's where the behavior analysis here would be key. Someone mentioned it in a previous post but imagine if Siri, by way of the FaceID sensors, detected that someone's face was closer to the screen or that they were squinting and recommended that she could increase the size of the text on whatever they're reading. Better yet, imagine if someone repeatedly hit a point on the screen followed by the back button and Siri suggested making the buttons on screen larger. At that point, people would view Siri as more of the personal assistant she's meant to be and ask her if she can do things rather than what she can do.
• Cthulhu_ 8y ago
  I don't know about intention, I mean e.g. the Health app is pretty clearly on the primary means of launching apps. I think it's more of a matter of people not actually sitting down to learn and explore their device. Mind you I do believe Apple should release a proper manual. Barring that, there's a series of iphone books, websites and magazines that will go over these features over and over again. If people don't invest the time themselves, why should Apple bother? Also why is Apple and the iphone singled out? It's the same rhetoric for Windows, where the start button is a mystery to the computer illiterate. TL;DR educate yourself or don't get an iphone. I do believe text size should be an option for the first configuration though (and if you give your old phones to other people, do a factory reset and let them run through that initial setup themselves). It gets complicated with apps though, designers often don't keep the variable size text in mind. That feature - at least when I looked into it a few years ago - gives you fixed text sizes to work, which is fine for default looking apps but a bit problematic when you're implementing a certain style.
• simion314 8y ago
  I think that instead of defending the design we need to focus on this problem: -we have feature X but only 1% of users find it where 10 of users use it after someone else shows them how to use it. Maybe a feature that is only for 5-10% of users is advanced or niche but we need to design it better so this niche/advanced features are irrecoverable. I do not know how to solve this on mobile, I know that some software on desktop has a tooltip dialog when you open it(with a checkbox to disable this feature) that presents some cool advanced feature, you can click Next and Next to see more and more advanced features. I seen this in Intellij, they also have a list of the actions you performed sorted by usage, so you can look at it later , notice you used action X the most and that you can speed it up if you learn or configure a shortcut
  • pbhjpbhj 8y ago
    Settings having a search facility is helpful. Something like `apropos` that searches all installed apps and suggests matches seems like it would already be in the latest gen phones?
    • simion314 8y ago
      You still need to know that something exists and how it was named to be able to search for that setting.
      • pbhjpbhj 8y ago
        You need to have an idea it exists, but with well designed search/indexing you shouldn't need to know the name of it. E.g. "duplicate screen" "copy what's on my display" "mirror to another device", etc., should all show "MirrorShare" (and possible other options) on Android.
  • deleted 8y ago
    [deleted]
• saiya-jin 8y ago
  You can generally either dumb down the product that it has very few options to tweak (I call it a lazy engineer's choice), or you can design the product that it has the initial setting for average joe, then you can drill deeper into advanced settings if you need. Plenty of software does this right. These type of complaints are the most common I hear from technical people that switch from android to iphone - the lack of customization, the product is on purpose 'dumbed down'.
• djtango 8y ago
  I recently had to help my mother with some tech support. One of the things I needed to do was turn off the device - I had to actually Google how to turn off an iPhone X. This is after me owning 3 generations of iPhone (3S-4S) and an iPad AND the family owning one of every main iPhone since 3S. Is turning off the device an advanced feature?
  • Double_a_92 8y ago
    > Is turning off the device an advanced feature? I guess most people really never need to turn it off. Maybe when switching sim cards to not hotplug them?