41–50 of 97 posts
" 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…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> 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 jus…
What has OP misunderstood? That he or she _should_ prefer iOS over Android because of a demagogoic quote? It's unclear what your point is here. That said, the other day I was using Google Maps for iOS and could not figure out how to switch directions from public transit to car. It seriously took me a few minutes of playing to realize how to do it. I feel like people implementing Material do it in a kind of perfunctor…
> I think Android has surpassed iOS in terms of
> design and usability.
I'm not saying OP should prefer anything over another thing, just that only talking about how devices look is missing the broader goals of design and usability.
But my mom used the newest iPhone last week -- she used iPhone 4 as her full time phone back in the day -- and she could not navigate Safari properly. That's how unusable the iPhone is now even for a legacy iOS user. Whatever happened to days when toddlers could figure out iPads? Is this really the company that brought sliding, tapping, pinching actions to touchscreens?
I think when it comes to Flat UI, Apple seriously lost the new design wars to Google. To add function, you need corresponding forms. Previously, Apple could hide the new function in the skeuomorphism wrapper and it didn't feel like too much on the plate. Form wasn't needed as it mimicked real world. With 7.0 and beyond, they tried to use the z-axis, but willingly chose form over function over and over again, and it shows! Google, on the other hand with their material design and paper element succeeded in wrapping together functionality in 3 dimensions, widgets (paper elements) and feedback based animation in such a way that the usability endpoint is very static to interact with the various functions. If you can use the Phone app on Lollipop, you can use anything.
And all this while Apple managed to put in yet another dimensions to somehow preserve their z-axis to two layers to make sure integrity of Flat UI is preserved. iOS' UI isn't just flat, it's also congested -- just like my flat table.
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…
Windows has historically has really excellent keyboard support, at least back in the Win3.1 days, where driving an entire app from the keyboard was simple, easy, obvious and frequently easier than using the mouse. This slipped a bit with later versions of Windows, with too many apps having unnavigable widgets. But, despite Microsoft's many mistakes, this was something they got absolutely right back at the very beginn…
The original Mac OS was designed to be mouse-first. Keyboard shortcuts were there, but only to be used as well as, not instead of the mouse.
Windows had to be completely usable by keyboard as it began as a graphical overlay to a keyboard-only interface - and it wasn't possible to guarantee every machine it was on had a mouse.
It's a bit like now I suppose. iOS was designed to be touch-first, with limited keyboard and no pointer support, and Windows adds a touch overlay to a keyboard and pointer-first system.
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…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> 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 jus…
> the priority is how things _work_ I really wish that they would apply this to iTunes and with their power/USB cables. They've done a good job with OSX - F3, F4 and the multi-window support all work really well. Multi-windowing is an especially big improvement over windows. But there are easily 10 x as many iTunes users as OSX users so they should really do something about it.
OS X used to have a separate syncing application, iSync, for PDAs that was simple and generally worked. I was dusappointed when the moved everything into iTunes (really, calendar and photo setting in my music player?)
What is the concern with USB and power? I really like lightning and MagSafe.
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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
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What has OP misunderstood? That he or she _should_ prefer iOS over Android because of a demagogoic quote? It's unclear what your point is here. That said, the other day I was using Google Maps for iOS and could not figure out how to switch directions from public transit to car. It seriously took me a few minutes of playing to realize how to do it. I feel like people implementing Material do it in a kind of perfunctor…
OP starts with: > I think Android has surpassed iOS in terms of > design and usability. But then only describes how materials _looks_. Both Windows and Android have been plagued with attempting to make things look a particular way without consideration for how they _work_. Ironically, Apple is often criticized for exactly this, when in my experience they really do sweat the _work_ details. I'm not saying OP should pr…
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…
1. Cmd-Tab does not select windows, it selects apps. If the app is hidden (Cmd+H), it will be unhidden.
2. They are not such a frequent click targets. Also, that is not a maximize button.
I see what your problem with 1+2 is: you are using minimize function to reveal windows behind the current window like you did in Windows. Well... don't. There are other ways to do it (Mission Control, Dock, hide), you are not supposed to use minimize so often.
3. Seriously? It's only an issue if you're seeing Mac the first time in your life.
4. Because there is no maximize function.
5. Keyboard-only never was a design goal.
6. Alt+Cmd+I. Learn about significance of Alt button, you'll discover a lot of functions that you think are missing.
7. Because Enter renames the item.
8. The blue button. (Apple has recently broken that in some dialogs in 10.11 and hasn't fixed yet.)
9. Finder does not allow to cut&paste files, yes. Of all your list, this is the only valid critic, which does not stem from mis-using the thing.
Trust me as Mac user, we are not suffering, and when rebooting to Windows to play PC-only game, we do not feel any improvement (to put it mildly). What you think is "the most intuitive way to do it" is actually just "the most familiar to me way to do it".
There is a term for this, "baby duck syndrome": https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/baby_duck_syndrome
> (humorous) The tendency of computer users to always think the system (software or usage paradigm) they originally started using is better.