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How Apple Is Giving Design a Bad Name

fastcompany.com

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Re: How Apple Is Giving Design a Bad Name

#2
I think Android has surpassed iOS in terms of design and usability. I upgraded to a Android 5.0 recently (lightly modded by One Plus), and the design is really stunning. The icons have been redesigned to appear as though they they are made of actual flat material adding almost a hybrid 3d flat design that looks great. The colors are vibrant without being overwhelming. Messenger and Contacts applies a new color to your contacts which helps you keep in mind with whom you are speaking. All the Google apps exhibit similar colors and styles to add for consistency.

I'm not a designer and maybe its just personal preference, but I'm a long time Android user and this is the first time the stock Android has been pleasant to look at. I use other's iPhones and, despite the great display, the UI now appears rather dull in comparison.

https://design.google.com/

Re: How Apple Is Giving Design a Bad Name

#3
Strangely composed article: "Norman" is introduced from nowhere along with the multiple authors.

Some valid points but all rather overstated ("destroying design") and finishes with admitting that a lot was fixed in iOS 9. However, that's not enough because another overblown article calls new features "secret"...

Re: How Apple Is Giving Design a Bad Name

#4
Its a good article.

Force touch is a good example of this. Adding a new action without any signifier for its availability or its purpose when we already have a baffling mix of durations and gestures. Madness.

An innovation by a platform would be to invent a new way to aid discovery / learnability of a UI not just add a new input. For example gestures - there should be a system standard way to be told about the available gestures and their effect for each screen - a bit like browsing a menu to learn what a tool can do. Instead its left to each app to try and invent a tutorial mode.

Re: How Apple Is Giving Design a Bad Name

#5
The authors, Don Norman and Bruce Tognazzini, have both been rather cranky in their writings for years. Sometimes Tognazzini seems almost too ready to criticize anything new.

cf: Tognazzini's "Top Ten Reasons the Apple Dock Sucks" (http://www.asktog.com/columns/044top10docksucks.html)

Re: How Apple Is Giving Design a Bad Name

#6
post #2

I think Android has surpassed iOS in terms of design and usability. I upgraded to a Android 5.0 recently (lightly modded by One Plus), and the design is really stunning. The icons have been redesigned to appear as though they they are made of actual flat material adding almost a hybrid 3d flat design that looks great. The colors are vibrant without being overwhelming. Messenger and Contacts applies a new color to you…

    > The production of beautiful objects is only one
    > small component of modern design…
As the authors say, and as Steve Jobs and Jony Ive have reiterated in almost every Apple product launch, how something looks is only a small part of the design Apple focuses on. Historically, the priority is how things _work_.

This is probably the most misunderstood aspect of Apple products. A screenshot of software XYZ may look just as thoughtful as an Apple product, but rarely in practice is that true.

Re: How Apple Is Giving Design a Bad Name

#7
He seems to diect a lot of critisim at iOS, basing it on design principles that appear to be more relevant to desktop computing. Discovering new features, undo, consistencey. These seem relevant when using a computer to create something, but less so on a phone which is usually used as a media consumption device.

Re: How Apple Is Giving Design a Bad Name

#8
post #2

I think Android has surpassed iOS in terms of design and usability. I upgraded to a Android 5.0 recently (lightly modded by One Plus), and the design is really stunning. The icons have been redesigned to appear as though they they are made of actual flat material adding almost a hybrid 3d flat design that looks great. The colors are vibrant without being overwhelming. Messenger and Contacts applies a new color to you…

It's definitely just subjective tastes. Personally I find the colour schema of Material Design to be too saturated and garish. Case in point. YouTube on iOS:

http://appleinsider.com/articles/15/10/05/youtube-for-ios-ge...

Re: How Apple Is Giving Design a Bad Name

#9

Its a good article. Force touch is a good example of this. Adding a new action without any signifier for its availability or its purpose when we already have a baffling mix of durations and gestures. Madness. An innovation by a platform would be to invent a new way to aid discovery / learnability of a UI not just add a new input. For example gestures - there should be a system standard way to be told about the availa…

I would say that even a tutorial mode doesn't get back all the usability, because you need to explicitly look for the tutorial. In a desktop GUI, you have buttons, and they are obviously buttons. You can figure out what they do by clicking on them. You can usually find the keyboard shortcut by hovering over the button.

Even with a tutorial, there is no smooth transition in a touch interface. Nothing to indicate that a double tap or a three-finger swipe will be recognized. Instead of being presented with new features, the user needs to go looking for them.

Re: How Apple Is Giving Design a Bad Name

#10

Its a good article. Force touch is a good example of this. Adding a new action without any signifier for its availability or its purpose when we already have a baffling mix of durations and gestures. Madness. An innovation by a platform would be to invent a new way to aid discovery / learnability of a UI not just add a new input. For example gestures - there should be a system standard way to be told about the availa…

Force Touch is an fascinating example because it's the equivalent of a "right click". The same right click Apple famously used to hate because of the very discoverability issues you have raised.

I think if Apple keeps Force Touch to certain specific use cases e.g. pop or contextual menus off app icons then it could be still very useful.

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