4 ms·

I'm not sure if this is a slam or a support, but sure, let's talk about iOS. There is no affordance for switching homepages, summoning notifications, deleting

by jpxxx 14y ago

I'm not sure if this is a slam or a support, but sure, let's talk about iOS. There is no affordance for switching homepages, summoning notifications, deleting an application, moving an application, creating a folder, destroying a folder, or moving folders between pages. All homepage editing is hinted by a talkative modal popup that happens at first launch, the worst imaginable time for educating users on a relatively insignificant feature. The blue (Done) button rules your world until black (Edit) is required. (Trashcan) icons get overloaded with filing tasks, (Send To) prints except when (Print) prints except when "Print" prints. I've watched normal, bright human beings slam into every one of them. I've met people who literally never realized there was a lock button on their phone and simply throw it in their bag when they're done. These problems are no more excusable and no less vexing to novice iOS users. The thing is that iOS has such an incredibly clean core interaction model of "Everything Is An App" and "Press Home When You Are Done" that it goes a long way to forgiving all the crippy crap nonsense added on after the fact. And most every question you have can reliably answered by another iOS user of the same technical skill and comfort because they're using, substantially, the same thing. iPod, iPad, 3.x, 6.x, whatever. When Android can mean any of 20 different skins, layers, versions, and loadouts, even fundamental questions like "is there even a back button" have to be asked. Is it on the phone? Is it a soft key? Is it hiding due to context? IDK. Unless you know someone who has a substantially similar device, good luck with network learning. All computers suck. Android sucks in some key areas, starting with "Where are the apps"? The answer "depends" isn't good enough.

chimeracoder 14y ago
iOS sucks in some pretty key areas too. The only difference is what you're familiar with. I had been using an iPhone for two or three weeks before I discovered (by accident) that double-pressing the home button actually did anything. To my knowledge, this is the only time double-pressing anything is the correct interaction in iOS; I'm so trained at this point that you either single-press or long-press that this startled me. How anybody ever figures this out is beyond me. The same goes for navigating text - it also took me a while to find out that long-pressing creates a magnifying glass. I still prefer Android's version, which is consistent on all text fields (including the browser URL bar!) and faster. The browser forces me to scroll up all the way in order to navigate to a different page. The URL bar and search bar are inexplicably different, which makes no sense on a mobile device. I still couldn't tell you without looking which icons I can move on my homescreen and which I can't. Even if I look, I couldn't explain why I'm unable to move many of them. Settings - man, why does this have to be so complicated? Even Cyanogenmod, which offers a far greater level of customization, makes much more sense. Almost all relevant settings for a particular application are inside the application itself - this isn't split half-and-half arbitrarily. Taking a screenshot? I always forget that this requires pressing two buttons that are very awkward to hold down at the same time. On any ICS+ phone, I can just long-press the power button. Simple. Easy. The notification bar is completely superfluous. I receive a notification from Twitter, then tap that notification to go to Twitter to read it, and then I notice that I have to go back to the notification bar to clear the notification again. I've never had any problems with buttons. All Android phones have a back button; the only question is whether it is hard or soft, but I don't really care about that. Maybe that means I, the user, am just dumb. But I never have had any of these problems on Android.
- jpxxx 14y ago
  I couldn't agree more on Settings. Apple made the hideous mistake in iOS 2 of placing each third party app's settings in the OS's Settings app. Developers correctly determined that nobody wants to leave their app to change how it worked and mostly ignored it. But there they sit, dozens of them, ignored forever. For screenshots, Android absolutely does not get a pass. iOS has had instant PNG screenshots since 1.0. That it took Google 4 years to provide any kind of screenshot functionality at all sans debugger is almost insane. The rest, yep. Many of the unconventional features and idioms in IOS were released to great fanfare to the fans and featured in advertising. Those coming to the platform after the fact are left playing "hidden secrets". (as an aside, how are you unable to move icons? They are all movable. only a few built-in ones cannot be placed into a folder.) You're not dumb. Users are not dumb. They simply have their expectations on how something works met or not, and the more expectations and prior experience you come with, the more frustrating it is when those expectations are not met. Mobile OSes are not the end of the line in simple computer design. I firmly believe there's another order of magnitude to go, and I am certain I'll see it in my life.
  - chimeracoder 14y ago
    > Android absolutely does not get a pass. iOS has had instant PNG screenshots since 1.0 We're comparing usability, not features. Android's interface is more usable and intuitive. > only a few built-in ones cannot be placed into a folder I never use Newsstand. Why shouldn't I be able to place it in a folder > You're not dumb. Users are not dumb. They simply have their expectations on how something works met or not, and the more expectations and prior experience you come with, the more frustrating it is when those expectations are not met. I'm not sure what this is supposed to mean. All I know is that, after several months, I'm still frustrated that I can barely do basic things like type on the phone properly (at a reasonable speed) because of all the sloppy design with the text entry. Since the iPhone doesn't let you swap keyboards out, this means that my only other solution is to use my Galaxy Nexus for any serious work. So there you have it - this incredibly expensive hallmark of 'good design' is relegated to being little more than a flashy toy e-reader! Oh, the irony....

by jpxxx 14y ago

chimeracoder 14y ago

iOS sucks in some pretty key areas too. The only difference is what you're familiar with. I had been using an iPhone for two or three weeks before I discovered (by accident) that double-pressing the home button actually did anything. To my knowledge, this is the only time double-pressing anything is the correct interaction in iOS; I'm so trained at this point that you either single-press or long-press that this startled me. How anybody ever figures this out is beyond me. The same goes for navigating text - it also took me a while to find out that long-pressing creates a magnifying glass. I still prefer Android's version, which is consistent on all text fields (including the browser URL bar!) and faster. The browser forces me to scroll up all the way in order to navigate to a different page. The URL bar and search bar are inexplicably different, which makes no sense on a mobile device. I still couldn't tell you without looking which icons I can move on my homescreen and which I can't. Even if I look, I couldn't explain why I'm unable to move many of them. Settings - man, why does this have to be so complicated? Even Cyanogenmod, which offers a far greater level of customization, makes much more sense. Almost all relevant settings for a particular application are inside the application itself - this isn't split half-and-half arbitrarily. Taking a screenshot? I always forget that this requires pressing two buttons that are very awkward to hold down at the same time. On any ICS+ phone, I can just long-press the power button. Simple. Easy. The notification bar is completely superfluous. I receive a notification from Twitter, then tap that notification to go to Twitter to read it, and then I notice that I have to go back to the notification bar to clear the notification again. I've never had any problems with buttons. All Android phones have a back button; the only question is whether it is hard or soft, but I don't really care about that. Maybe that means I, the user, am just dumb. But I never have had any of these problems on Android.

jpxxx 14y ago
I couldn't agree more on Settings. Apple made the hideous mistake in iOS 2 of placing each third party app's settings in the OS's Settings app. Developers correctly determined that nobody wants to leave their app to change how it worked and mostly ignored it. But there they sit, dozens of them, ignored forever. For screenshots, Android absolutely does not get a pass. iOS has had instant PNG screenshots since 1.0. That it took Google 4 years to provide any kind of screenshot functionality at all sans debugger is almost insane. The rest, yep. Many of the unconventional features and idioms in IOS were released to great fanfare to the fans and featured in advertising. Those coming to the platform after the fact are left playing "hidden secrets". (as an aside, how are you unable to move icons? They are all movable. only a few built-in ones cannot be placed into a folder.) You're not dumb. Users are not dumb. They simply have their expectations on how something works met or not, and the more expectations and prior experience you come with, the more frustrating it is when those expectations are not met. Mobile OSes are not the end of the line in simple computer design. I firmly believe there's another order of magnitude to go, and I am certain I'll see it in my life.
- chimeracoder 14y ago
  > Android absolutely does not get a pass. iOS has had instant PNG screenshots since 1.0 We're comparing usability, not features. Android's interface is more usable and intuitive. > only a few built-in ones cannot be placed into a folder I never use Newsstand. Why shouldn't I be able to place it in a folder > You're not dumb. Users are not dumb. They simply have their expectations on how something works met or not, and the more expectations and prior experience you come with, the more frustrating it is when those expectations are not met. I'm not sure what this is supposed to mean. All I know is that, after several months, I'm still frustrated that I can barely do basic things like type on the phone properly (at a reasonable speed) because of all the sloppy design with the text entry. Since the iPhone doesn't let you swap keyboards out, this means that my only other solution is to use my Galaxy Nexus for any serious work. So there you have it - this incredibly expensive hallmark of 'good design' is relegated to being little more than a flashy toy e-reader! Oh, the irony....