5 ms·

As someone who grew up using 160x160 and 320x320 PDAs, the idea a smartphone now uses a 1080x1200 rectangle to only give me eight buttons makes me want to throw

by causi 5y ago

As someone who grew up using 160x160 and 320x320 PDAs, the idea a smartphone now uses a 1080x1200 rectangle to only give me eight buttons makes me want to throw up.

SahAssar 5y ago
Those PDAs generally used styluses, similarly sized screens (or at least about half the size of current phones, 4-5", so a very different DPI) and it was considered okay to make interface elements so small that you could not walk and reliably hit them at the same time. By your logic we should be able to use a PDA interface on a smartwatch.
Isthatablackgsd 5y ago
As someone who used 132x65 pagers back then, my Blackberry RIM 850 can display more information in the screen than my Samsung Note 8. I loathe this "maximum white space!!" UIs as well. My boss prefers the grandparent-mode UIs whereas I prefer compact with every space is being used as possible. I like to have high-density texts like the old day of Reddit to minimum screen-scrolling.
- nix23 5y ago
  Oh man, blackberry's where such perfect communication devices, fast writing no additional bs...i miss that time, it was the perfect mix of smart and dump phone...and nothing more was/is needed.
  - naikrovek 5y ago
    oh yeah we all look back super fondly on the dozens and dozens of nested lists that somehow was considered passable as a user interface. I'm no fan of the current whitespace-heavy UI paradigm, but to say BlackBerry did it better is definitely not matching my own memories of my BlackBerry devices at all.
    - Isthatablackgsd 5y ago
      It is the design paradigm of Blackberry is what we prefers because it shows information of what we want and need without any fuss. The modern design paradigm is so backward and marketing-oriented, filled with ads and paddings the way bean counters have in mind. The 90s/00s era have a good design in mind that are human-oriented and natural to use. Now, everything felt off and harder to memorize those extra steps. My Blackberry make it feel like an important tool and easier to use (they are refers as Crackberry back then), modern smartphone tries their best to be hostile toward their users no matter what. If we stay on the goal of human-oriented design with modern style, then our design paradigm will be vastly different than what we have now.
      - naikrovek 5y ago
        I agree with the sentiment about UI designs today, and I think that those horrible lists of the BlackBerry were just as bad, for the very same reasons. some of those list items took some action immediately, some opened further lists, and there was no differentiation visually, for example. some may call that "tool-like", but I call it "lacking important contextual information", and it's just as bad as other UIs which lack important cues. > modern smartphone tries their best to be hostile toward their users no matter what they definitely do not try to be hostile. I sense an attitude on this site lately which is probably best summed up as "everything new is stupid" and that is just as misguided as believing that modern smartphones are intentionally hostile. MAYBE they're unintentionally hostile. Maybe, but I doubt it. Smartphones are imperfect, yes, and dark patterns DO exist, yes, and I can't recall ever seeing anything hostile in Android or iOS or iPadOS, ever. organized poorly? sure. oversimplified? yep! hostile? never.
  - jaytaylor 5y ago
    See: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28517447 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28517447 "Ask HN: Do you still miss your RIM BlackBerry?"
  - short12 5y ago
    Except for the web But otherwise I do agree it was a fantastic phone for easy communication. Although it was far too easy to txt and drive

by causi 5y ago

As someone who grew up using 160x160 and 320x320 PDAs, the idea a smartphone now uses a 1080x1200 rectangle to only give me eight buttons makes me want to throw up.

SahAssar 5y ago

Those PDAs generally used styluses, similarly sized screens (or at least about half the size of current phones, 4-5", so a very different DPI) and it was considered okay to make interface elements so small that you could not walk and reliably hit them at the same time. By your logic we should be able to use a PDA interface on a smartwatch.

Isthatablackgsd 5y ago

As someone who used 132x65 pagers back then, my Blackberry RIM 850 can display more information in the screen than my Samsung Note 8. I loathe this "maximum white space!!" UIs as well. My boss prefers the grandparent-mode UIs whereas I prefer compact with every space is being used as possible. I like to have high-density texts like the old day of Reddit to minimum screen-scrolling.

nix23 5y ago
Oh man, blackberry's where such perfect communication devices, fast writing no additional bs...i miss that time, it was the perfect mix of smart and dump phone...and nothing more was/is needed.
- naikrovek 5y ago
  oh yeah we all look back super fondly on the dozens and dozens of nested lists that somehow was considered passable as a user interface. I'm no fan of the current whitespace-heavy UI paradigm, but to say BlackBerry did it better is definitely not matching my own memories of my BlackBerry devices at all.
  - Isthatablackgsd 5y ago
    It is the design paradigm of Blackberry is what we prefers because it shows information of what we want and need without any fuss. The modern design paradigm is so backward and marketing-oriented, filled with ads and paddings the way bean counters have in mind. The 90s/00s era have a good design in mind that are human-oriented and natural to use. Now, everything felt off and harder to memorize those extra steps. My Blackberry make it feel like an important tool and easier to use (they are refers as Crackberry back then), modern smartphone tries their best to be hostile toward their users no matter what. If we stay on the goal of human-oriented design with modern style, then our design paradigm will be vastly different than what we have now.
    - naikrovek 5y ago
      I agree with the sentiment about UI designs today, and I think that those horrible lists of the BlackBerry were just as bad, for the very same reasons. some of those list items took some action immediately, some opened further lists, and there was no differentiation visually, for example. some may call that "tool-like", but I call it "lacking important contextual information", and it's just as bad as other UIs which lack important cues. > modern smartphone tries their best to be hostile toward their users no matter what they definitely do not try to be hostile. I sense an attitude on this site lately which is probably best summed up as "everything new is stupid" and that is just as misguided as believing that modern smartphones are intentionally hostile. MAYBE they're unintentionally hostile. Maybe, but I doubt it. Smartphones are imperfect, yes, and dark patterns DO exist, yes, and I can't recall ever seeing anything hostile in Android or iOS or iPadOS, ever. organized poorly? sure. oversimplified? yep! hostile? never.
- jaytaylor 5y ago
  See: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28517447 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28517447 "Ask HN: Do you still miss your RIM BlackBerry?"
- short12 5y ago
  Except for the web But otherwise I do agree it was a fantastic phone for easy communication. Although it was far too easy to txt and drive