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My favourite stupid design: In iOS, your alarm, when it goes off, has two buttons: Snooze and stop. They are properly spaced out. The timer app has a similar U

My favourite stupid design: In iOS, your alarm, when it goes off, has two buttons: Snooze and stop. They are properly spaced out. The timer app has a similar UI, two buttons, one to repeat, and one to stop, spaced out. The problem: They are swapped!

boatsie 6y ago
This bothers me as well and I constantly end up snoozing my timers! I can only imagine the reason it’s not fixed is that some people will complain that they reversed the buttons in their app!
meatmanek 6y ago
It's funny when you compare the two (and I'm pretty sure I've accidentally restarted a timer that I meant to stop because of the muscle memory I have around alarms), but it makes sense to me. For alarms, the biggest, most obvious button absolutely must be snooze, not stop. The plausible harm caused by accidentally stopping when you meant to snooze is very high: you miss an interview, final exam, court date, or are late to work one too many times. The plausible harm caused by accidentally snoozing when you meant to stop the alarm is orders of magnitude lower -- you are embarrassed when the alarm goes off somewhere quiet, maybe you get kicked out of the movie theater. For timers, 90% of the time, you want to stop the timer. Another 5% of the time, you want to start the timer again for a different amount of time. (How often do you put something in the oven for 35 minutes and then discover it needs another 35 minutes? Usually you just need a few more minutes.). Only occasionally do you want to restart the exact timer you just finished. It's a nice feature to have, but it's appropriate to make it subtle.
- asdff 6y ago
  IMO for the alarm app, the stop button is too small. Probably once a week I think I've hit stop and then I'm brushing my teeth and hear my alarm ramp up to 100% volume in the next room, to the chagrin of my neighbors who work nights in the adjoining thin walled unit.

boatsie 6y ago

This bothers me as well and I constantly end up snoozing my timers! I can only imagine the reason it’s not fixed is that some people will complain that they reversed the buttons in their app!

meatmanek 6y ago

It's funny when you compare the two (and I'm pretty sure I've accidentally restarted a timer that I meant to stop because of the muscle memory I have around alarms), but it makes sense to me. For alarms, the biggest, most obvious button absolutely must be snooze, not stop. The plausible harm caused by accidentally stopping when you meant to snooze is very high: you miss an interview, final exam, court date, or are late to work one too many times. The plausible harm caused by accidentally snoozing when you meant to stop the alarm is orders of magnitude lower -- you are embarrassed when the alarm goes off somewhere quiet, maybe you get kicked out of the movie theater. For timers, 90% of the time, you want to stop the timer. Another 5% of the time, you want to start the timer again for a different amount of time. (How often do you put something in the oven for 35 minutes and then discover it needs another 35 minutes? Usually you just need a few more minutes.). Only occasionally do you want to restart the exact timer you just finished. It's a nice feature to have, but it's appropriate to make it subtle.

asdff 6y ago
IMO for the alarm app, the stop button is too small. Probably once a week I think I've hit stop and then I'm brushing my teeth and hear my alarm ramp up to 100% volume in the next room, to the chagrin of my neighbors who work nights in the adjoining thin walled unit.