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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

#31

Post by mabcat »

rangibaby wrote: post #11
duncanawoods wrote: post #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 availa…

Steve Jobs was against hiding features in modes, which is why the iOS lacked any kind of context menu until version 3, and Apple mice lacked right click for a long time. Speaking of Apple's mice, they are some of the worst offenders in "looks good but don't try using it". There's the infamous hockey puck, and currently the Magic Mouse. I use one when I'm desperate, but usually give up when it magically gives me hand…

> against non-obvious features (there's a word for this, I can't remember it)

Are you thinking of "affordance"? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affordance

Re: How Apple Is Giving Design a Bad Name

#32

Post by aviraldg »

ino wrote: post #29
bko wrote: 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 positioning of the FAB or "Floating Action Button" on top of the content, makes sense when you think about it but in practice I find it frustrating: - Because the way I hold the phone, most of the time my thumb is covering it and I don't see it. - Because it is supposed to be the "main" action, it makes all other actions move around. Example: on Google Photos, the FAB is search. on Gmail the FAB is "create" and s…

I don't think everyone would agree with your reasoning. In fact, your reason for disliking the FAB (it's position) is all the more reason for it to be there because it's easy to tap.

Re: How Apple Is Giving Design a Bad Name

#33

Post by TheOtherHobbes »

rangibaby wrote: post #21
izacus wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I thought I was the only one that gets wrist pains after using the Magic Mouse. There's something really wrong with how that piece of hardware is designed it seems :/

Do you have big hands? I've used Microsoft mice since the Intellimouse Explorer 3.0 because it's easy to push around. I know people who hate it because it's too big for them though.

I'm very comfortable with the Apple mouse.

But that's a single data point. The problem seems to be that the industry has decided that everyone has the same standard pair of hands.

Which is nonsense, obviously. It's like selling shoes or clothes in a single standard size.

So what happens in practice is people keep trying different mouse models until they find one that happens to fit. For me, the Magic Mouse works fine. For someone else, it won't fit at all.

This is also a problem with design. In spite of a century of theory and history there's really no such thing as an ideal standard design, because everyone's cognitive needs/skills are different.

So what happens in practice is that "design" means "looks polished and expensive, and confers accessible social proof". This attracts a price premium, and that's where the feedback loop is in the market.

The feedback loops for usability are more diffuse and not nearly as strong.

The problem with Google's Material is that it doesn't understand the social proof element. It's purely utilitarian. (IMO it's not brilliant for usability either. But that's a different issue.)

Apple's design language has been much better at creating social proof through aesthetics. As long as it keeps doing that, usability can be good-but-not-great and it will still be a commercial success.

Never mind Windows 8/10 - the less said about that, the better.

Re: How Apple Is Giving Design a Bad Name

#34

Post by bad_user »

"So often, the user has to try touching everything on the screen just to find out what are actually touchable objects."

This happened to me many times on iOS and I'm a (still young) software developer, being familiar with most user interfaces that happened since Windows 3.11 until now. To be honest, biggest culprits are third party apps, but they follow official guidelines and Apple's example. This was my biggest problem with Windows Phone too, with the whole transition to flat interfaces that don't give clues on what can be tapped. If this can happen to us, then other people don't stand a chance.

But you know what's worse? Every couple of years we change the UI just for the sake of change.

Re: How Apple Is Giving Design a Bad Name

#35

Post by dmd »

cja wrote: post #22
jbrooksuk wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cut can be done with CMD+C and then I think it's CMD+Alt+V for paste and remove original.

Thanks. There's no context menu option like in Windows so no one knows about this without googling.

Have I just walked into some alternate reality?

On my Mac, cut is command-x.

Re: How Apple Is Giving Design a Bad Name

#36

Post by thejew »

cja wrote: post #13

Moved from Windows to OSX a couple of years ago after hearing for so long how much better the Mac experience and usability was. Some examples of why this was wrong: 1. Cmd-Tab lets me select a hidden window but it won't show it! 2. Many frequently used click targets are too small. For example, the close, minimise and maximise buttons. 3. The close minimise and maximise buttons reveal their functions only when the mou…

I agree with all of your points. I have done tons of research on how to use the keyboard only.

1. If the window is minimized (minimize with Cmd-M) you can Cmd-tab to it let go of Cmd hold tab and press option and let go of tab and the window will reappear.

2. I use Cmd-W to close windows and Cmd-M to minimize windows. If you hold Shift while double clicking the title bar of the window you can maximize it in the same paradigm as windows.

3. I use the shortcuts.

4. see 2.

5. Yes.

6. If you hold Cmd-option-I after selecting files.

7. Cmd-O for Open. It started to make more sense to me.

8. Sometimes you can press (and this is inconsistent) Control-(the letter the button that you want to press starts with, so Control-C for Create)

9. Sure there is a cut operation.

Re: How Apple Is Giving Design a Bad Name

#37

Post by tatx »

koyote wrote: post #27

Am I the only one who has always thought of the Apple UI to have always been form over function/usability by a long shot? I remember the first time I used an iMac: I spent about half an hour trying to figure out how to eject a CD. A context menu might not look very elegant but it's insanely useful and powerful and very easy to get the hang of. In the end I had to be told/taught that the way to eject the CD on a mac w…

That Apple was ever good at design was probably the relative side effect of other software and hardware developers being abysmally bad at it (probably due to monopolistic inefficiencies). And now that the competition is heating up and challenging Apple on the design front, the flaws that earlier would have been swept under the carpet by ardent fans, including me, are becoming difficult to disregard.

Re: How Apple Is Giving Design a Bad Name

#38

Post by [deleted] »

cja wrote: post #13

Moved from Windows to OSX a couple of years ago after hearing for so long how much better the Mac experience and usability was. Some examples of why this was wrong: 1. Cmd-Tab lets me select a hidden window but it won't show it! 2. Many frequently used click targets are too small. For example, the close, minimise and maximise buttons. 3. The close minimise and maximise buttons reveal their functions only when the mou…

[deleted]

Re: How Apple Is Giving Design a Bad Name

#40

Post by [deleted] »

bad_user wrote: post #34

" So often, the user has to try touching everything on the screen just to find out what are actually touchable objects. " This happened to me many times on iOS and I'm a (still young) software developer, being familiar with most user interfaces that happened since Windows 3.11 until now. To be honest, biggest culprits are third party apps, but they follow official guidelines and Apple's example. This was my biggest p…

[deleted]
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