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Why Apple and Google are struggling to design simple software

washingtonpost.com

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Re: Why Apple and Google are struggling to design simple software

#41

Post by aroberge »

narrator wrote: post #8
exabrial wrote: post #5

Simple: The goal used to be create simple things that just work. Now its create thigs that push your platform. As an example, to pick on MSFT: I thought hell froze over when I saw Word in the Android app store. Its a hugely wonderful word processor. I typed out a blog post and when to save, but... well I wasnt signed into sky drive. I managed to finagle my way around those prompts after 5 or so mins. Next time I open…

Winter is coming for Microsoft. The rise of mobile and the slow down of PC speed improvements means they are having a hard time delivering real value that people want to pay for and need to find a way to generate recurring revenue through subscription services. Witness the rise of Windows 10. How can they make money if you permanently own your software? What if Moore's law stops and we're sitting here 10 years later…

Many universities are adopting Office 365 which comes with a free licence for faculty, staff, and students: they can install it on up to 5 different devices and have 1TB of space on OneDrive. The catch: after students graduate, they lose their free OneDrive and must start paying if they want to use upgraded versions of Office 365. By that point, many will have become "addicted" to the software and will gladly pay to continue to use it.

Re: Why Apple and Google are struggling to design simple software

#42

Post by V-2 »

Related article I read not long ago (focusing on Apple, although it mentions Google unfavorably, too): http://www.fastcodesign.com/3053406/how-apple-is-giving-desi...

Some interesting points:

* http://b.fastcompany.net/multisite_files/fastcompany/inline/...

* 'The headline of a Forbes article says it all: "Apple iOS 9 has 25 Great Secret Features." Secret features? If these are such great features, why are they secret?'

* 'Today’s devices lack discoverability: There is no way to discover what operations are possible just by looking at the screen. Do you swipe left or right, up or down, with one finger, two, or even as many as five? Do you swipe or tap, and if you tap is it a single tap or double?'

Re: Why Apple and Google are struggling to design simple software

#43

Post by dave2000 »

Twisell wrote: post #9

Focusing on iTunes to argue that Apple can't design simple software anymore seems a little bit unfair, while on the other hand I understand that it might be the only Apple desktop software used by people who run on MS Windows. But still, it really not representative of the Apple ecosystem IMHO. 3D Touch on iOS for instance is a state of the art demonstration of how to transparently and smoothly add a layer of functio…

I had a nightmare trying to free up space for an iPad software upgrade. I couldn't see what was backed up. The apple site had placeholder text in the area devoted to this topic. There was some way of syncing a folder with the contents of what was being backed up but this didn't work and there was no progress meter.

Re: Why Apple and Google are struggling to design simple software

#44

Post by userbinator »

bcook wrote: post #7
TeMPOraL wrote: post #4

I'm gonna ask a different question - why Google is struggling to design useful software? It seems that every iteration of their every product loses functionality and is being dumbed down to the point of uselessness.

Can you share a few examples? Google seems to be leaning more toward "normal users" but I enjoy the software nonetheless. Are you sure you are the intended user? Catering to a different userbase might be their intent.

Google seems to be leaning more toward "normal users"

The unfortunate thing is that these "normal users" today don't seem to have gotten much better at using computers compared to the generations before, despite having literally grown up with them. Dumbed-down software certainly isn't helping them become more advanced users.

Re: Why Apple and Google are struggling to design simple software

#45

Post by mrweasel »

lpsz wrote: post #35
mrweasel wrote: post #29

I don't know about Google, I don't really use any of their products, other than search. As for Apple, it seems like their trying to make things simpler, but forget that people do development work on Macs. It's never huge things that bugs be, just minor tweaks Apple make, and sometimes half-baked features. El Capitan has seriously made me consider if my next computer should be something other than a Mac. While I do li…

Curious what specifically. For me the underlying graphics changes and other tweaks in El Cap made my 5 year old MacBook Air snappy again, I use Xcode the entire day and things seem better than before. There is some initial flux around new release time (broken Homebrew or something else for a week) but they tend to settle down quickly.

Interesting, it made my 2011 iMac feel sluggish, not all the time, but in weird bursts. I have code that consumes a fair bit of memory, it's pretty much non-functional on the Mac and you can't do other stuff while it runs, runs in a few minutes on Linux and just a little slower on Mavericks.

More specific example the "Open with" when you right click on something is extremely slow.

It's not really helpful, but over all El Capitan just feel not quite done to me.

Re: Why Apple and Google are struggling to design simple software

#46

Post by LoSboccacc »

aroberge wrote: post #41
narrator wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Winter is coming for Microsoft. The rise of mobile and the slow down of PC speed improvements means they are having a hard time delivering real value that people want to pay for and need to find a way to generate recurring revenue through subscription services. Witness the rise of Windows 10. How can they make money if you permanently own your software? What if Moore's law stops and we're sitting here 10 years later…

Many universities are adopting Office 365 which comes with a free licence for faculty, staff, and students: they can install it on up to 5 different devices and have 1TB of space on OneDrive. The catch: after students graduate, they lose their free OneDrive and must start paying if they want to use upgraded versions of Office 365. By that point, many will have become "addicted" to the software and will gladly pay to…

Idk I was a huge supporter of ms productivity software up until when they tried to convert me from a customer to a cow and managed to move the hell away from one drive quite fast. Shame because the integration was so much better than dropbox (i.e. Files aren't downloaded until accessed and you can control how) and because their office suite is really miles better than competitors.

Re: Why Apple and Google are struggling to design simple software

#47

Post by userbinator »

cm2187 wrote: post #12
narrator wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Winter is coming for Microsoft. The rise of mobile and the slow down of PC speed improvements means they are having a hard time delivering real value that people want to pay for and need to find a way to generate recurring revenue through subscription services. Witness the rise of Windows 10. How can they make money if you permanently own your software? What if Moore's law stops and we're sitting here 10 years later…

> How can they make money if you permanently own your software? Your hardware will die or become obsolete quickly enough that you still have to buy a new machine and with that a new windows license. In fact I wouldn't be surprised if the churn for smartphones and tablets was a multiple of desktop pcs. Cars are a mature industry. You still have to replace your car regularly, but the new car doesn't go faster. But I ha…

Your hardware will die or become obsolete quickly enough that you still have to buy a new machine and with that a new windows license.

In other words, planned obolescence. Often more euphemistically known as "lifecycle engineering/management". Solid-state electronics can function indefinitely if they're designed well and not abused, but the companies obviously don't like that so they're deliberately trying to shorten it, often saving some cost too. I have 20+ years old hardware that still works just fine, and I wouldn't be surprised if it continues functioning 20 years from now.

Re: Why Apple and Google are struggling to design simple software

#48

Post by LoSboccacc »

jamstruth wrote: post #19
Twisell wrote: post #9

Focusing on iTunes to argue that Apple can't design simple software anymore seems a little bit unfair, while on the other hand I understand that it might be the only Apple desktop software used by people who run on MS Windows. But still, it really not representative of the Apple ecosystem IMHO. 3D Touch on iOS for instance is a state of the art demonstration of how to transparently and smoothly add a layer of functio…

I seem to remember seeing a lot of commenters in the iPhoneSE announcement thread saying that they'd completely forgotten that 3DTouch even existed. It may be "smoothly" integrated but so much so that nothing has visibly changed, nothing to indicate that there is a new feature or where it's usable.

It's like the first iteration 3DS, nintendo mandated that every game must also be able to run in 2d for compatibility and usability, so noone could really push the feature into new territory

Re: Why Apple and Google are struggling to design simple software

#50

Post by johnchristopher »

V-2 wrote: post #42

Related article I read not long ago (focusing on Apple, although it mentions Google unfavorably, too): http://www.fastcodesign.com/3053406/how-apple-is-giving-desi... Some interesting points: * http://b.fastcompany.net/multisite_files/fastcompany/inline/... * 'The headline of a Forbes article says it all: "Apple iOS 9 has 25 Great Secret Features." Secret features? If these are such great features, why are they secre…

I remember Windows 95 came with an interactive tutorial (with exercises) that explained how the mouse gestures worked and how to manipulate windows, files and folders and start up applications.

I wish something like that was still bundled with Windows Seven/8.1/10, Ubuntu, Android, etc. That would save the regular folks I have to help some time and frustration when they want the device `to bloody work`.

Anecdote: I met a lot of 40~50 years old people who are persuaded children and teenagers know the ins and outs of those interfaces. I stopped bothering explaining them they don't but that stereotype doesn't seem to die and it keeps on hopping to the next generation.

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