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iPhones are hard to use

blog.fawny.org

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Re: iPhones are hard to use

#501

Post by Sharlin »

wool_gather wrote: post #495
rtpg wrote: post #245

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I get that, but I do think that saying that text size is an advanced feature is just not true. Loads and loads of people are older than 40. Loads of people just have weaker eyesight. Apple has really good accessibility tools, and it would make a _lot_ of sense for there to be a dedicated part of the onboarding for accessibility.

Text sizing is addable to the control center, as are other accessibility shortcuts. That's about as fast access as I think it's possible to get. Worth noting that there's a fair number of apps historically that don't really support text sizing. Until iOS 11, if you were using a non-system font, you had to do the resizing manually. They made it much, much easier to buy in to Dynamic Type in iOS 11, so hopefully this w…

> Text sizing is addable to the control center, as are other accessibility shortcuts.

I don't think that was the point. The point was that people don't even know it's possible to change text size, never mind about other accessibility features, because they're not easily discoverable. Besides, the people who don't know about text sizing don't know about control center customizability either...

Re: iPhones are hard to use

#502

Post by Sharlin »

simonh wrote: post #345
jtokoph wrote: post #341

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I bet the end users are not setting up the phones themselves and the younger people doing the setup skip all of the prompts except WiFi.

Not if you do it in an Apple Store, at least in my experience.

Only a small fraction of iPhone users have ever been to an Apple Store, never mind bought their phone from one.

Re: iPhones are hard to use

#503

Post by Sharlin »

coldtea wrote: post #359
rtpg wrote: post #245

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I get that, but I do think that saying that text size is an advanced feature is just not true. Loads and loads of people are older than 40. Loads of people just have weaker eyesight. Apple has really good accessibility tools, and it would make a _lot_ of sense for there to be a dedicated part of the onboarding for accessibility.

> Loads and loads of people are older than 40. Loads of people just have weaker eyesight. Even so, all of those people have to change their text size just once or twice. They can look it up when they need to. It's not like it's a feature they need to use everyday.

The point was not accessibility in day-to-day use. The point was discoverability of the feature in the first place! You cannot look up how to change text size if you haven't even realized that the possibility exists.

Re: iPhones are hard to use

#504

Post by jacobush »

danaris wrote: post #480
jacobush wrote: post #472

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can make the onboarding so simple they don't need help?

Not if the problem has nothing to do with how simple the onboarding actually is, and everything to do with the users being scared to try things.

Why?

Re: iPhones are hard to use

#505

Post by artimaeis »

nrb wrote: post #101
bobthepanda wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've literally never seen the Tips app. Granted, I haven't had a new device in a while; but I don't recall this being present when I bought my iPhone 7, and it certainly didn't show up when I upgraded to iOS 12 over the weekend. And as someone who has had iOS devices for a while, I'm not sure that I would ever get it, since my first thing is usually to just transfer a backup to my new phone. The point is, devices use…

Yeah, the Tips app is new in iOS 11. It might have been relegated to some "Preinstalled" app group somewhere or pushed to one of the last pages. It's definitely front and center on new phones now.

The Tips app was new as of iOS 9:

https://web.archive.org/web/20151204044205/http://www.apple....

Re: iPhones are hard to use

#506

Post by chadlavi »

nilkn wrote: post #91
reaperducer wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

3D Touch seems to be the Touch Bar of the mobile world. Both are great ideas, but only sparsely exploited even by Apple, itself.

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.

Same here. I was really surprised to find that most people don't use/know about/want it.

Re: iPhones are hard to use

#507

Post by tk75x »

askafriend wrote: post #153
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.

This exact function is duplicated by long pressing on the space bar. This has been there since iOS 11, I believe. So you don't actually need 3D Touch to have the benefit of the awesome cursor UX.

Fun fact, before Apple so graciously incorporated this feature into their software, it was a tweak you could install after jailbreaking the previous versions of iOS. Same with the "quick reply" from notifications and a dozen other actually useful features. This behavior from Apple reinforced my belief that all they do is absorb other's innovations, make them shiny, and then sell at a ridiculous markup.

I agree with the author that the iPhone is hard to use

Re: iPhones are hard to use

#508

Post by tk75x »

pvinis wrote: post #460
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.

I also use it every day, but for apps. Many of the apps I have on my home screen, have "shortcuts", not in the new siri way, but in the "do something/go somewhere quickly in the app" way. I used it to call a person, I use it to open a new tab on Firefox, I use it to add a new todo item, I use it to go to a specific tab on an app. I would be very sad if it goes away at some point..

Samsung manages to include the "shortcut" functionality you mention AND the ability to reorganize apps through a simple long press. Like a commenter above already mentioned, 3D touch was most likely a solution looking for a problem.

Re: iPhones are hard to use

#509

Post by eugeniub »

myspy wrote: post #469
tylerjwilk00 wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree. Android seems to have more consistent UX for apps regardless of developer. Back button is such a key input that I always feel trapped in iOS, where as on Android everything feels intuitive and multitasking is a breeze.

Swiping on the screen from left to right is the iOS back button.

Too bad it doesn't work on some apps, and that it works inconsistently on other apps, and that it doesn't work on modal screens. Then there's the added concern of trying to swipe back but instead doing a swipe gesture on some item on the current screen.
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