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iPhones are hard to use

blog.fawny.org

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Re: iPhones are hard to use

#161

Post by tartoran »

rayiner wrote: post #111
ProfessorLayton wrote: post #15

There's a lot to unpack here, and a lot to disagree with, as I believe there's plenty of evidence Apple cares a lot about accessibility. Also harping on specific terminology like password vs passcode is not really productive in terms of improving the underlying UX, as the word gets translated into tons of languages which may or may not have the same level of nuance. While I don't necessarily agree with the premise, e…

It's gotten worse. Screens keep getting bigger, but more and more functionality keeps getting hidden behind undiscoverable swipes and taps. I've been an iPhone user since the 3G, I used to program computers for a living, and I don't have a reliable mental model of what the available gestures even are these days. I'm reduced to randomly tapping and pressing and swiping like some sort of idiot.

I feel the same. And when I learn how it works I get it but it doesn't rub right to me, I say to myself weird. I think it's apple without Steve Jobs super crazy attention to detail and the overall feel of it degraded over time.

Re: iPhones are hard to use

#162

Post by JustSomeNobody »

0culus wrote: post #45
polalavik wrote: post #2

And now dumber than ever. At least on my iPhone 6s with the latest update. Now you have to go through 2 screens to send a photo to someone in imessage, whereas before the most recent photos were easily accessible. And on facetime you have to pull up a menu [that covers the entire screen] to flip the camera around, and if you accidentally hit it a couple times theres no way to know which way your camera is facing with…

Accessing the recent photos is now accessed directly as one of those "iMessage App" icons that appears in the ribbon above the keyboard. However, the UI change is annoying and I constantly open the camera (though you can also get to recent photos by tapping the icon at the upper left of the camera, when inside messages).

This is far and away the most annoying change for change's sake they did. Battery screen is a very close second. If I go to the "Last 10 Days" tab and click a blue bar, I can see my total hour usage. Can I click a green bar and get the exact percentage? Nope.

Re: iPhones are hard to use

#163

Post by euske »

It would be fascinating to see this from the Apple designer's point of view. I'm certain that this is a political problem inside Apple: how much priority each feature/module gets, how many pixels they can have, and how much exposure they get at the website, etc. iPhone (or any product really) is the product of politics as well as its technology.

Re: iPhones are hard to use

#164

Post by Bud »

karmakaze wrote: post #129
varenc wrote: post #110

Most of this article just lists semi-advanced features that people don't know about. I think that’s Apple’s intention... Having every feature and option up in your face can reduce usability and make simple tasks harder for the average user. Apple wants a product that's easy for anyone to use and that often means keeping non-essential features out of the way. I’d be more interesting in seeing feedback for Apple on how…

The problem lies in what's semi-advanced to one is critical or basic to many others. Apple has been known to hide (aka. make subtle) basic operations. How often have you wanted to load a page in 'desktop mode' in mobile Safari? It's there, just invisibly so. The UI does not teach in the name of clean/minimal design which is Apple's way: form over function. Edit: it's the equivalent to not putting keyboard shortcut ke…

"Form over function" is not "Apple's way". Apple's way is function, period, paragraph. And often, what "function" means is, don't bury the user under 200 options they will never use. Make choices. Be willing to say "no" to having every single option front and center.

Added to this is the obvious point that with a touch interface on a small screen, you cannot make everything obvious. It's impossible.

Re: iPhones are hard to use

#165

Post by robobro »

camtarn wrote: post #34
wheelie_boy wrote: post #18

Apparently Claudia is banned from there.

It's a weird blog. As well as the Claudia tooltip and throwing around 'autist' as an insult, the title bar at the top also has the 'title' attribute set to "Analogous to allowing transgenders to rewrite gay history. (Ask a Millennial who started Stonewall)", and it looks like there are a bunch of links/rants about "trannies" in the archives. Not that that should necessarily detract from what seems like a pretty reaso…

seeing "Windows autism" in the middle of the blog post was hilarious

Re: iPhones are hard to use

#166

Post by dragonsky67 »

stiGGG wrote: post #95
nilkn wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For what it’s worth, I use 3D Touch pretty much every day. The number one usage for me is moving the cursor around while editing text. I actually did it while writing this post; I decided I wanted to add a comma after “worth” at the beginning and did so easily with this feature.

Since iOS12 you can do this by holding the spacebar on devices without 3D touch

That's amazing, thank you. I had no idea this was possible on my iPhone SE. I'm assuming that there is a lot of other things that my phone can do that I am completely ignorant of.

Re: iPhones are hard to use

#167

Post by Bud »

JustSomeNobody wrote: post #154
varenc wrote: post #110

Most of this article just lists semi-advanced features that people don't know about. I think that’s Apple’s intention... Having every feature and option up in your face can reduce usability and make simple tasks harder for the average user. Apple wants a product that's easy for anyone to use and that often means keeping non-essential features out of the way. I’d be more interesting in seeing feedback for Apple on how…

Ok, but honestly, where does Apple list the instructions for using iOS as well as the preinstalled apps? They believe their product is so easy to understand that people will just get it. But then they go and change things like where they put the autobrightness switch and even seasoned iOS users have to hunt for it. Or go on Reddit. They just changed the battery page in settings. Where's the tutorial? An obvious place…

In the user manual. Which is, btw, one of the very best user manuals you will ever see. It's very easy to find, and the fact you haven't found it tells me you probably didn't bother searching, since almost any Google search finds it instantly:

https://support.apple.com/manuals/iphone

And no: Apple does not "believe their product is so easy to understand that people will just get it". You just made that up. It's...surprising what people will claim sometimes about what Apple "believes" based on zero evidence. The fact is, Apple knows very very well what is easy and obvious, and what isn't. They have done rigorous study of all of this.

I'm not saying that Apple always makes the right choices, design-wise. But to say that they are blithely ignorant of the basic usability facts surrounding the most successful consumer product in world history is...a bit of a stretch.

Re: iPhones are hard to use

#168

Post by jldugger »

bootlooped wrote: post #106
fudged71 wrote: post #7

Phones are computers now. We can't expect everyone to know AND USE all of the features. Many of the features are obscured on purpose.

I thought that when I read, "He (a senior citizen) also thought he had to use the Gmail app to read his Gmail" Like what do you want, an unskippable popup about the difference between email providers and email clients, and instructions on configuring IMAP and SMTP on a 3rd email app? That would only lead to more fear and confusion. The Gmail app is fine.

One wonders if he meant 'the user did not know that gmail had a browser UI commonly used on desktops'.

Re: iPhones are hard to use

#169

Post by whorleater »

brandon272 wrote: post #157
peapicker wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Since iOS doesn't know your plan billing dates, this is up to the carrier. Verizon, as much as I despise how much I pay them, has a fantastic app that does exactly this (show used data this billing cycle), which after installation is in your notification center, one swipe away.

Adding two fields to iOS to enter your billing cycle date and your monthly data limit seems trivial in the grand scheme of things. I believe Android does this? Perhaps I’m wrong. Also simple would be intelligent alerts for data usage, including alerts for apps that are known to use large amounts of data. (i.e. “Are you sure you want to use Netflix while not connected to WiFi? This may cause you to exceed your data li…

>Also simple would be intelligent alerts for data usage, including alerts for apps that are known to use large amounts of data

Besides a user curated version of this, how would your phone know which apps use a lot of data? Sure, we can probably knock out youtube/Netflix/spotify, but then:

1. You really don't think Youtube/Netflix/Spotify are going to complain that Apple, by default, discourages people from using their app?

2. I'm personally uncomfortable with the idea of my phone collecting how much data I'm using per app and sending it back to Apple. Privacy is one of the reasons I buy an iPhone.

3. Setting this up leads to some very shaky experiences. How do dual sims work? What about data-only/voice only sims?

4. Bizarrely, some carriers bill traffic differently. T-Mobile, for example, bills Netflix traffic differently than other traffic.

This isn't a bad notion, but a blanket pop up actually has a ton of competing interests going into it.

Re: iPhones are hard to use

#170

Post by Green_man »

Bud wrote: post #164
karmakaze wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem lies in what's semi-advanced to one is critical or basic to many others. Apple has been known to hide (aka. make subtle) basic operations. How often have you wanted to load a page in 'desktop mode' in mobile Safari? It's there, just invisibly so. The UI does not teach in the name of clean/minimal design which is Apple's way: form over function. Edit: it's the equivalent to not putting keyboard shortcut ke…

"Form over function" is not "Apple's way". Apple's way is function, period, paragraph. And often, what "function" means is, don't bury the user under 200 options they will never use. Make choices. Be willing to say "no" to having every single option front and center. Added to this is the obvious point that with a touch interface on a small screen, you cannot make everything obvious. It's impossible.

is that what putting usb ports on the back of an iMac is? function, period, paragraph, and publication?
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