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What does anyone have to gain by making it a quest to find these features? It doesn’t benefit the user who found them anyway and obviously doesn’t help the user

What does anyone have to gain by making it a quest to find these features? It doesn’t benefit the user who found them anyway and obviously doesn’t help the user who didn’t find them. Does it make you part of a UX VIP club to find them?

thih9 4y ago
The benefit is that the app ends up being simpler. The users who don’t need these features don’t have to know about them, don’t have to click through tutorials, or be pestered by hints.
- romwell 4y ago
  >The users who don’t need these features don’t have to know about them, don’t have to click through tutorials, or be pestered by hints. Welcome to the new iCalculator! To simplify your experience, the only operator button is "+", which now takes half of the screen, and is therefore easy to find and press, adding to the pleasure of using the calculator. You might ask, where's the "-" button? Was it stupid to remove it? No, it's brave! Don't be so negative about it; our UX studies show that "+" is statistically the most used button, and so your needs don't matter. If you need to subtract, swipe "+" button down; to multiply, swipe "+" right, and to divide, swipe "+" down. Swipe "+" up to raise to an exponent. To quickly square numbers, hold "+", then perform a square gesture clockwise aronud the button. To take a square root, perform it in reverse. You may notice that we have removed the digit buttons as well. That's because you don't need to type the numbers in - just say them out loud! Swipe the screen diagonally from the bottom left corner to the top right one to activate voice input. Note: digit buttons can still be enabled from the accessibility options in the system dialog. Note 2: voice recognition of operators is coming in a future upgrade. To clear your input, you can simply restart the app, no buttons needed. Note 3: you can enable a haptic shortcut in system acessibility settings: "Clear input by shaking phone". Finally, you can read this instruction manual by telepathically tuning into the lead engineer's mind, as it's not available anywhere else. Enjoy your intuitive iExperience!
  - pxmpxm 4y ago
    golf clap
  - thih9 4y ago
    That's one approach. Or we could add all kinds of buttons and some Clippy that gives you a random hint every now and then. I'd say Apple's solution is a nice middle ground.
    - romwell 4y ago
      >That's one approach. Or we could add all kinds of buttons Yes, we could add all kinds of buttons.... ...and get one of the best paid calculator apps in the app store, as discussed here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32902520 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32902520 Apple's solution is not "middle ground". It is Clippy: something that dumbs thing down to such an extent that they become harder to use.
- gnicholas 4y ago
  Who has ever used a calculator and hasn't needed a backspace key? This is not an unnecessary feature that can be hidden behind an unguessable UI. I wonder if anyone knows when this gesture was introduced. Has it been there since the beginning? I've had an iPhone since the day they came out, have watched most iPhone announcements and WWDC keynotes, and I had no idea about this gesture. I wonder how many Apple Geniuses are aware of it.
  - massysett 4y ago
    I have never needed this. If I make a mistake, use the C button, just like old-style pocket calculators. PCalc has a backspace button, along with a bunch of other buttons making it more complicated than the iPhone calculator. It makes sense that Apple kept it simple with just a C/AC button.
    - gnicholas 4y ago
      So could they just have an AC button, since one could also just start completely fresh? Given how Apple's Calculator works on the Mac, with the delete key erasing digits one at a time, it would be sensible for them to offer this key on iOS. If they offered no delete functionality, that would be insisting that no one needs it. They don't do this — they offer the functionality behind a gesture that is nearly impossible to discover.

thih9 4y ago

The benefit is that the app ends up being simpler. The users who don’t need these features don’t have to know about them, don’t have to click through tutorials, or be pestered by hints.

romwell 4y ago
>The users who don’t need these features don’t have to know about them, don’t have to click through tutorials, or be pestered by hints. Welcome to the new iCalculator! To simplify your experience, the only operator button is "+", which now takes half of the screen, and is therefore easy to find and press, adding to the pleasure of using the calculator. You might ask, where's the "-" button? Was it stupid to remove it? No, it's brave! Don't be so negative about it; our UX studies show that "+" is statistically the most used button, and so your needs don't matter. If you need to subtract, swipe "+" button down; to multiply, swipe "+" right, and to divide, swipe "+" down. Swipe "+" up to raise to an exponent. To quickly square numbers, hold "+", then perform a square gesture clockwise aronud the button. To take a square root, perform it in reverse. You may notice that we have removed the digit buttons as well. That's because you don't need to type the numbers in - just say them out loud! Swipe the screen diagonally from the bottom left corner to the top right one to activate voice input. Note: digit buttons can still be enabled from the accessibility options in the system dialog. Note 2: voice recognition of operators is coming in a future upgrade. To clear your input, you can simply restart the app, no buttons needed. Note 3: you can enable a haptic shortcut in system acessibility settings: "Clear input by shaking phone". Finally, you can read this instruction manual by telepathically tuning into the lead engineer's mind, as it's not available anywhere else. Enjoy your intuitive iExperience!
- pxmpxm 4y ago
  golf clap
- thih9 4y ago
  That's one approach. Or we could add all kinds of buttons and some Clippy that gives you a random hint every now and then. I'd say Apple's solution is a nice middle ground.
  - romwell 4y ago
    >That's one approach. Or we could add all kinds of buttons Yes, we could add all kinds of buttons.... ...and get one of the best paid calculator apps in the app store, as discussed here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32902520 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32902520 Apple's solution is not "middle ground". It is Clippy: something that dumbs thing down to such an extent that they become harder to use.
gnicholas 4y ago
Who has ever used a calculator and hasn't needed a backspace key? This is not an unnecessary feature that can be hidden behind an unguessable UI. I wonder if anyone knows when this gesture was introduced. Has it been there since the beginning? I've had an iPhone since the day they came out, have watched most iPhone announcements and WWDC keynotes, and I had no idea about this gesture. I wonder how many Apple Geniuses are aware of it.
- massysett 4y ago
  I have never needed this. If I make a mistake, use the C button, just like old-style pocket calculators. PCalc has a backspace button, along with a bunch of other buttons making it more complicated than the iPhone calculator. It makes sense that Apple kept it simple with just a C/AC button.
  - gnicholas 4y ago
    So could they just have an AC button, since one could also just start completely fresh? Given how Apple's Calculator works on the Mac, with the delete key erasing digits one at a time, it would be sensible for them to offer this key on iOS. If they offered no delete functionality, that would be insisting that no one needs it. They don't do this — they offer the functionality behind a gesture that is nearly impossible to discover.