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Why I loathe the new app switcher in iOS 11

ericasadun.com

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Re: Why I loathe the new app switcher in iOS 11

#51

Post by coldtea »

nadagast wrote: post #46
djrogers wrote: post #27

I have a couple of problems with this article, the first and most glaring of which is the fact that the author is conflating the new iPad UI with the iPhone UI. The second problem is that the author went out of her way to turn on every possible option for the control center, then complains that can’t tell what things are - using specific examples that aren’t even on by default. I personally like the new iPad UI - it…

I agree, it's better than iOS 10. Though quitting apps does feel worse, but maybe that's intentional?

Users aren't meant to manually manage apps. Perhaps it should not even be offered as an option in the first place, except as something like "force quit" of last resort.

Apps are shown by recent-use, so that takes care of "which I'm using for this task now".

Re: Why I loathe the new app switcher in iOS 11

#52

Post by coldtea »

exodust wrote: post #36
robin_reala wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, absolutely not saying it doesn’t happen. But one extra long press to kill the current app isn’t problematic given that ideally you shouldn’t have to do it at all, and no-one needs to kill every recently used app (or rather, if you’re finding problems in multiple apps you really need to reboot your phone instead).

Often I want to properly exit the app because I don't want it starting next time where I left off, but instead from its default opening state, starting screen, initial menu, a clean slate. A one tap exit button in the app is perfect for that, but sadly missing from many apps. Swiping up from app list was next best thing and its sad to hear this has been removed. The idea that exit buttons are redundant is completely…

>Often I want to properly exit the app because I don't want it starting next time where I left off, but instead from its default opening state, starting screen, initial menu, a clean slate.

That might be legit as a wish, but it's not an encouraged (or expected) use case in iOS though. The default is "return where one had left", so this is in some way an abuse of the system to do something it can manage, but wasn't designed to offer.

In which case it's expected that it might clash with other UI choices.

Re: Why I loathe the new app switcher in iOS 11

#53

Post by coldtea »

helloindia wrote: post #16

As someone who've used iPhone since the first version of it, usablitlity has been on decline since iOS 9. They removed very simple two step gestures like swipe-delete in music player. In the iOS10 search bar, if you search an app and start that app, the 'search button' remains active on the top left, press on which leads you back to search. (Why would I want to go back to search after I've found my app?" In iOS9, the…

>They removed very simple two step gestures like swipe-delete in music player

Thank god for that. I hate swipe to delete anywhere, very easy to accidentally trigger AND confirm.

(I also hate the "shake to undo" -- and I hate to imagine someone with disability/arthritis etc having to go through that, but I digress).

>In the iOS10 search bar, if you search an app and start that app, the 'search button' remains active on the top left, press on which leads you back to search. (Why would I want to go back to search after I've found my app?"

Because multitasking. I often want to launch several apps.

>As someone who listens to music wherever I go, I liked the music control access on lock screen. But in iOS 10, they put AirDrop and Airplay controls on the first tab of control centre and music control is on second tab, requiring a second swipe(I'm walking on road and I'd like least amount of distraction)

Then just use the headphone controls?

Re: Why I loathe the new app switcher in iOS 11

#54

Post by coldtea »

hoodoof wrote: post #49

There's a big problem in design which is that everything needs to change over time, just because change is good . So even when a design is perfect, it just has to be changed eventually because everything has to be reviewed and modified.

>So even when a design is perfect, it just has to be changed eventually because everything has to be reviewed and modified.

a) which design is perfect?

b) which elements do users not complain of it being "stale" when it hasn't been changed in a while?

Re: Why I loathe the new app switcher in iOS 11

#55

Post by brad0 »

derefr wrote: post #4

The Control Center's little control panel (reminiscent of the one in macOS 1, by the by) is an accelerator —a bunch of non-canonical secondary ways to reach items that have canonical locations in Preferences. Accelerators are about recall, not recognition. They're intended for touch-typing, not discoverability. The app close buttons are indeed too small, though. Maybe they only tested them on the iPad Pro with the Pe…

Here's my problem with the app close button.

It's EXACTLY the same visual design as the delete app button.

When designing anything you should keep the extremes in mind. In this case that would be my 60+yo mum and dad. I'm almost certain that they'll see that black X and think it will delete their solitaire game/Facebook etc.

Another anecdote, my dad got an iPhone recently from an old feature phone. One month he got a big data bill, supposedly because of background data. Now he religiously opens the task switcher and kills apps when he's done with them. It gives him a sense of control.

Apple had amazing people working on the UX for iOS. Once there wasn't a challenge any more these guys moved to new problems, leaving others who weren't as passionate driving the UX.

Re: Why I loathe the new app switcher in iOS 11

#56

Post by majewsky »

CharlesW wrote: post #22
helloindia wrote: post #16

As someone who've used iPhone since the first version of it, usablitlity has been on decline since iOS 9. They removed very simple two step gestures like swipe-delete in music player. In the iOS10 search bar, if you search an app and start that app, the 'search button' remains active on the top left, press on which leads you back to search. (Why would I want to go back to search after I've found my app?" In iOS9, the…

Things change. For example... > But in iOS 10, they put AirDrop and Airplay controls on the first tab of control centre and music control is on second tab... ...in iOS 11, it's not. But those (generally) aren't usability declines as much as necessary rethinks about how apps and OS functionality should work. It's unfortunate that they sometimes break muscle memory, but I'd be much more worried if the iPhone still work…

> > Few more iOS iterations, and I think I'll switch to Android.

> That will probably solve everything. /s

It actually could. On Android, he can make his own LineageOS-based build and implement a completely custom UI.

Re: Why I loathe the new app switcher in iOS 11

#57

Post by supercoder »

dcw303 wrote: post #44
supercoder wrote: post #40

I love it. Erica is a dev as far as I know, not sure if she has much idea about design.

Why can't a dev have much idea about design? Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works.

Because then she'd be a designer.

Re: Why I loathe the new app switcher in iOS 11

#58

Post by exodust »

coldtea wrote: post #52
exodust wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Often I want to properly exit the app because I don't want it starting next time where I left off, but instead from its default opening state, starting screen, initial menu, a clean slate. A one tap exit button in the app is perfect for that, but sadly missing from many apps. Swiping up from app list was next best thing and its sad to hear this has been removed. The idea that exit buttons are redundant is completely…

> Often I want to properly exit the app because I don't want it starting next time where I left off, but instead from its default opening state, starting screen, initial menu, a clean slate. That might be legit as a wish, but it's not an encouraged (or expected) use case in iOS though. The default is "return where one had left", so this is in some way an abuse of the system to do something it can manage, but wasn't d…

A "session" ought to have a beginning and end rather than be stuck as CPU-managed neverending story. I'm only asking for the option to control things, not one or the other.

Open a few browser tabs for example, you're shopping for new shoes. Find shoes. Close browser. Makes no sense that tomorrow you open the browser and your 15 shoe tabs from yesterday's session are still there when all you want is your home page.

Ever tried closing 15 tabs in iOS Safari? That's 15 taps.

Likewise, the "don't need to save" idea is flawed too, with plenty of examples why a good old save button actually makes more sense that having the OS save every single change you make, even the mistakes.

I'm also with the OP on icon confusion. The one that always gets me is the bookmarks icon in iOS Safari. I always press the little book icon when I want to save a bookmark. No... that's not right. Must press the '+' button to add a bookmark. The actual bookmark icon is for retrieving bookmarks, not saving them. I'm only human though, so I reach for the book when I want to perform a bookmark action. I guess I'm wrong every single time.

Re: Why I loathe the new app switcher in iOS 11

#59

Post by hungerstrike »

coldtea wrote: post #51
nadagast wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree, it's better than iOS 10. Though quitting apps does feel worse, but maybe that's intentional?

Users aren't meant to manually manage apps. Perhaps it should not even be offered as an option in the first place, except as something like "force quit" of last resort. Apps are shown by recent-use, so that takes care of "which I'm using for this task now".

Users have to do what users have to do though. Apple may not mean for them to "manually manage apps" (i.e. killing apps; not some monumental task), but there are plenty of reasons for users to need to do it which are listed here and in the article comments.

So why are we making it harder for them to do things that they definitely need to do? I think the only opinion we've heard so far has been "because that's what Apple wants users to do".

This is typical Apple - they are totally ignoring what users actually need to do and acting like it's a superior design. Next thing you know, they'll provide no means to resize a window by any corner or edge on Macs. Then Apple evangelists will defend that decision for years and years as if it were somehow better (or "just different"...but definitely not worse than anything else!)

Re: Why I loathe the new app switcher in iOS 11

#60

Post by teilo »

Sure, it's a minor annoyance to have to hold down a pane to be able to close apps, but in the end, closing an app is only necessary when an app is malfunctioning, which doesn't happen that often. (Yes, it's happening more right now, - but it's an early beta. What do you expect?)

I still find way too many people who are convinced that every app shown in the app switcher is using up their battery or actively running. I suspect this is the audience that will be most annoyed by the change.

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