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iPhones are hard to use

blog.fawny.org

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Re: iPhones are hard to use

#311

Post by headsoup »

CamperBob2 wrote: post #80
onemoresoop wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am older, ~40, and my relationship with technology changed over time. I'm no longer eager to learn a new interface as I was when I was younger. When I was younger a shiny thing would make me excited, take my eye and sort of fool me that this new thing is cool. I'd be excited to learn what the new thing was all about. I'd spend a few hours and figure it out. Back then apple was winning big with consistent and intuit…

I am older, ~40, and my relationship with technology changed over time. I'm no longer eager to learn a new interface as I was when I was younger. I don't mind learning a new interface or even coming up to speed with an entirely new UI paradigm, if there's something in it for me. But my objection is that as soon as I learn it, someone who is paid to look busy will change it for no reason other than to justify their ro…

Actually the MS 'Metro' design used in the ZuneHD and Windows Phone UI (best Home screen design by far) were both more logical and discoverable than the iOS UI (well until they released the Win Phone 10 UI with the hamburger menus...), but everyone just learned how to navigate iOS because 'everyone's doing it.'

I still believe the iOS UI is terrible. Navigation is all over the place, the wall of icons gives no preference to priority (other than creating folders), the icons and colours change (as mentioned in the article) and interaction is inconsistent (press/long-press).

But everyone learnt the interface so now it's 'good.'

Re: iPhones are hard to use

#312

Post by headsoup »

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.

There is a difference between feature use and phone usability. A lot of people seem to give Apple a pass on usability because Apple are stylish, or the marketing says they're brilliant, or something.

Re: iPhones are hard to use

#313

Post by mrhappyunhappy »

Reader mode for all sites is amazing - I never knew I could do this. My default behavior for anynweb article has been to hit the reader view icon in safari every single time.

My biggest gripe about iOS is how terrible autocorrect is. Even as I type this, iOS is aweful at predicting what I'm entering when I miss the letters. When I had an Android phone I was always delighted that big G was so good at getting my words right and at predicting what I would type next so I could speed up my input just by selecting the right words at the top of the keyboard. Impossible to do with iOS.

Re: iPhones are hard to use

#315

Post by headsoup »

threeseed wrote: post #36

Who is this guy and why he is so oblivious to his own bias ? He says that few people understand AirDrop, Apple Pay, iMessages Apps. Even though we have numbers on Apple Pay adoption (people do understand it) and we know how much Apple invested on Animoji (many younger people love apps). Also does he know Apple has anonymous telemetry ? They don't guess what is popular or not. They know.

I think you're confusing 'number of people using something' with actual usability.

Just as everyone learned to use Windows because it was everywhere, people learned to use iOS. That does not necessarily mean it's especially good.

Re: iPhones are hard to use

#316

Post by lern_too_spel »

new_here wrote: post #275

This is another case of Apple being held to a higher standard than competitors in the market. Apple literally revolutionised the smartphone market with the simple usability of the iPhone. Of course, there are things that can be improved (with many decent suggestions from the author that most power users would agree with) but based on the author’s mild annoyances and casual observations that elderly, visibly challenge…

> Compared to the accepted norm that malware apps are almost routinely found in the public Google Play store.

To add to the author's list of things that iPhone users don't know that Apple keeps hidden, several orders of magnitude more iPhone users have been infected with malware than Google Play Store users despite the Play Store having several orders of magnitude more users.

https://www.macrumors.com/2015/09/20/xcodeghost-chinese-malw...

Re: iPhones are hard to use

#317

Post by mempko »

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…

Try downloading and playing an MP3.

Re: iPhones are hard to use

#318

Post by dingaling »

kemayo wrote: post #218
graeme wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm an avid apple user and honestly had no idea that manual existed. They could do a better job advertising it. Is there anything in the box mentioning it? Edit: and according to the article, the manual doesn't cover a lot of the hidden features described in the article. I learned at least five new things: select multiple pictures, announce calls, swipe right for forward, and a couple others I don't recall. I would r…

It's the first thing mentioned on the small-print card that's in the box. I somehow suspect that most people don't read this card. More likely to be found is that in the Tips app that a newly set-up iPhone tries to point you to, once you've gone through a few tips one'll suggest that you download the manual through Apple Books.

> one'll suggest that you download the manual through Apple Books.

That reminds me of the 1990s scenario of having to know and understand FTP in order to install a web browser.

Wouldn't it be more sensible to have it preloaded on the phone? I presume the OS is already regionalised, so they could include the appropriate manual.

Re: iPhones are hard to use

#319

Post by lemoncucumber »

saagarjha wrote: post #215
lemoncucumber wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use this all the time because it's convenient, but there have always been two things that frustrate me about it: 1) There's no way to scroll the text while moving the cursor by moving it to the end of the last visible line, the way there is with the cursor interface you get by directly touching and holding the text. 2) Sometimes when I'm doing this it will randomly select the word my cursor is over, and I've never…

> There's no way to scroll the text while moving the cursor by moving it to the end of the last visible line, the way there is with the cursor interface you get by directly touching and holding the text. This should work–at least, it does for me. > Sometimes when I'm doing this it will randomly select the word my cursor is over, and I've never figured out exactly what triggers this. On 3D Touch devices, pressing hard…

> This should work–at least, it does for me.

I should have been more specific: this works for me up to a point, but there’s no way to keep scrolling. To see what I mean, try to use that method to delete the last character of a long URL in the address bar of safari — you can’t scroll all the way over to it.

> On 3D Touch devices, pressing harder does this.

I had suspected that might be the case, and I’m able to reproduce it now. Not having any haptic feedback on the second, harder 3D Touch feels inconsistent though.

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