4 ms·

But what's the point?

by tester756 23d ago

estearum 23d ago
Aspect ratios are very important for UI design.
- fwip 23d ago
  Moreover, app developers for iOS have to support fewer aspect ratios than developers of Android apps. In theory, this allows for more attention to be given to the UI design for each aspect ratio - rather than having to use a spring-style stretch layout. If I were to guess, this does look like a new ratio to support, but at least it's just 1 instead of 2.
- tester756 23d ago
  But why paper's ratio is important?
  - Fuzzwah 23d ago
    One reason is making it easy to scale things up or down for printing on standard sizes of paper.
  - benbayard 23d ago
    It's mathematically the only aspect ratio where this holds and thus you can resize in half and nothing has to move around.
  - abdullahkhalids 23d ago
    He is explaining that if you design an app that displays as desired on the outer display (in portrait mode). Then if you display that app to the inner display (also in portrait mode), it will show up exactly the same, just with everything twice as large. This obviously makes life easier for both users and developers.
- wtallis 23d ago
  Size is even more important for UI design. If you don't think you need to re-design the layout of your app when the screen doubles in size, you shouldn't be doing UI design.
jw1224 23d ago
With a ratio of 1:√2, you can cut the sheet in half parallel to its shorter side, and each half keeps the same proportions.
- randomh3r0 23d ago
  I think the parent comment meant: "What's the point with respect to a phone's screen". As far as I can tell this is irrelevant for a technical screen size and app ratios? As far as I can tell the toothpaste is already out of the tube when it comes to reducing the aspect ratio testing burden for developers but maybe I'm just way too far away from the mobile development space to be aware of the pain points this is solving.
Exoristos 23d ago
It's to make commercial use of paper mind-numbingly easy in terms of calculation and avoiding waste.
atonse 23d ago
I often make the argument about whether metric is "better" being split by "is it better on paper" vs "is it better in day to day life" - and most metric stuff breaks down in the latter, meaning, the non metric systems seem to be perfectly fine in day to day life, but almost always better on paper. Like Celsius - sounds great on paper, not any better (and in some ways, worse) in day to day weather/temperature. One of the few exceptions I find is metric paper sizes. It's such a beautiful way of designing the sizes that is not only perfect on paper (pun proudly intended), is also totally practical in real life.
- gog 23d ago
  Why do you think Celsius is worse in day to day life?
  - xattt 23d ago
    1990s LCD HVAC thermostats that didn’t go down to half degrees had better precision when set to °F vs °C.
  - vostok 23d ago
    I find that increments of 1C are too small to be useful in daily life but increments of 5C are quite big. As a result, you can't really round degrees Celsius to a multiple of 5 whereas full precision integer temperatures are too precise. So for example 15C and 17C feel like different temperatures, but each 1C step from 15C to 16C to 17C is not really useful. In contrast, it's very reasonable to round temperature to increments of 5 degrees Fahrenheit. So for example 58F and 60F are basically the same temperature as far as my perception is concerned.
    - 0x457 23d ago
      It's literally does not matter in day to day life. In the end you get to X degrees is cold, Y degrees is perfect and Z degrees is hot regardless of C or F. I grew up using C and now I'm using F, if I move to a country that uses C, I will switch again. Its meaningless.
noisebuffer 23d ago
I would imagine this helps a lot having two screens side by side. You can remote into another phone and help a user like an old relative accomplish something. Or run a virtual machine or AI control panel
- nonethewiser 23d ago
  There is no doubt this is why Apple did this.

But what's the point?

estearum 23d ago

Aspect ratios are very important for UI design.

fwip 23d ago
Moreover, app developers for iOS have to support fewer aspect ratios than developers of Android apps. In theory, this allows for more attention to be given to the UI design for each aspect ratio - rather than having to use a spring-style stretch layout. If I were to guess, this does look like a new ratio to support, but at least it's just 1 instead of 2.
tester756 23d ago
But why paper's ratio is important?
- Fuzzwah 23d ago
  One reason is making it easy to scale things up or down for printing on standard sizes of paper.
- benbayard 23d ago
  It's mathematically the only aspect ratio where this holds and thus you can resize in half and nothing has to move around.
- abdullahkhalids 23d ago
  He is explaining that if you design an app that displays as desired on the outer display (in portrait mode). Then if you display that app to the inner display (also in portrait mode), it will show up exactly the same, just with everything twice as large. This obviously makes life easier for both users and developers.
wtallis 23d ago
Size is even more important for UI design. If you don't think you need to re-design the layout of your app when the screen doubles in size, you shouldn't be doing UI design.

jw1224 23d ago

With a ratio of 1:√2, you can cut the sheet in half parallel to its shorter side, and each half keeps the same proportions.

randomh3r0 23d ago
I think the parent comment meant: "What's the point with respect to a phone's screen". As far as I can tell this is irrelevant for a technical screen size and app ratios? As far as I can tell the toothpaste is already out of the tube when it comes to reducing the aspect ratio testing burden for developers but maybe I'm just way too far away from the mobile development space to be aware of the pain points this is solving.

Exoristos 23d ago

It's to make commercial use of paper mind-numbingly easy in terms of calculation and avoiding waste.

atonse 23d ago

I often make the argument about whether metric is "better" being split by "is it better on paper" vs "is it better in day to day life" - and most metric stuff breaks down in the latter, meaning, the non metric systems seem to be perfectly fine in day to day life, but almost always better on paper. Like Celsius - sounds great on paper, not any better (and in some ways, worse) in day to day weather/temperature. One of the few exceptions I find is metric paper sizes. It's such a beautiful way of designing the sizes that is not only perfect on paper (pun proudly intended), is also totally practical in real life.

gog 23d ago
Why do you think Celsius is worse in day to day life?
- xattt 23d ago
  1990s LCD HVAC thermostats that didn’t go down to half degrees had better precision when set to °F vs °C.
- vostok 23d ago
  I find that increments of 1C are too small to be useful in daily life but increments of 5C are quite big. As a result, you can't really round degrees Celsius to a multiple of 5 whereas full precision integer temperatures are too precise. So for example 15C and 17C feel like different temperatures, but each 1C step from 15C to 16C to 17C is not really useful. In contrast, it's very reasonable to round temperature to increments of 5 degrees Fahrenheit. So for example 58F and 60F are basically the same temperature as far as my perception is concerned.
  - 0x457 23d ago
    It's literally does not matter in day to day life. In the end you get to X degrees is cold, Y degrees is perfect and Z degrees is hot regardless of C or F. I grew up using C and now I'm using F, if I move to a country that uses C, I will switch again. Its meaningless.

noisebuffer 23d ago

I would imagine this helps a lot having two screens side by side. You can remote into another phone and help a user like an old relative accomplish something. Or run a virtual machine or AI control panel

nonethewiser 23d ago
There is no doubt this is why Apple did this.