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Perfectly Cropped

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Re: Perfectly Cropped

#141

Post by achow »

dreamcompiler wrote: post #105
achow wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Our designers seem more interested in coolness than usability. I think a lot of designers are big on artistry but low on understanding how to help people actually use things. This stereotyping of a profession is becoming a cliché and is being rude towards a profession who has contributed so much to make technology accessible. The example in the blog would not have been intention of the design spec, it looks like mo…

Designers deserve every bit of this stereotyping. There was a time when designers were taught to value fitness for use . Now "design" seems to be exclusively about aesthetics. This may be rooted in how designers are taught or simply in how they now practice. Or it could be that managers insist on aesthetics-only, in which case designers need to push back hard. Whatever the cause it's a failure on the part of designer…

> This may be rooted in how designers are taught or simply in how they now practice

No course or degree on interaction design - free online to ivy leagues across the world - teaches 'design for aesthetics' and neither do designers in design departments of startups or of big corporates have design sprints where designs are shortlisted because one is more beautiful than others.

Infact 'Design Sprint' [0] 'Design Thinking' [1] are things because design is about problem solving. I understand majority in HN are engineers/developers but that is no reason to make this is a tech echo chamber.

[0] https://www.gv.com/sprint/

[1] https://www.ideou.com/blogs/inspiration/what-is-design-think...

Re: Perfectly Cropped

#142

Post by scrooched_moose »

jahbrewski wrote: post #12
the_duke wrote: post #10

I switched to Android around the time iPhone 5 came out. Whenever I touch one now, I feel like a idiot and dinosaur. It can take me minutes to figure out the most basic things, and often I end up searching on the web. In the pursuit of a "clean" UI, iOS has become completely unintuitive and confusing.

My favorite unintuitive iOS feature is “shake to undo”

I was out with a group of friends last night and had an interesting conversation when no one else realized you can search iMessages.

From the main Messages window, swipe down and previously hidden search bar appears. There's no indication this is an option or it exists.

As far as I know it's been there since at least iOS 9.0 (probably longer) and 6 people hadn't found it yet.

Re: Perfectly Cropped

#143

Post by bhauer »

AceJohnny2 wrote: post #137

Windows Phone 7 was really interesting because the OS UI very intentionally did "bad crops" of items to indicate scrolling was possible https://www.google.com/search?q=windows+phone+7+ui&tbm=isch

That still looks better, in my opinion, than the mobile operating of today. A proper dark theme many years ago, and an elegant (IMO), simple, touch-oriented UI. It avoided the "play skool/AOL" aesthetic that really rankles me with more popular UIs: rounded corners, circles that should be squares, etc.

All that said, I agree with the article's point that UIs that do not more clearly reveal the totality of their user interface actions are frustrating. I've often found iOS to be especially bad at this for outsiders like myself, especially with respect to hardware features outsiders are completely unfamiliar with such as "press harder than usual."

Re: Perfectly Cropped

#144

Post by suzzer99 »

coldcode wrote: post #48

Our mainstream iOS app has tons of these kind of issues. Our designers seem more interested in coolness than usability. I think a lot of designers are big on artistry but low on understanding how to help people actually use things. I did UI design back in the 80's when it was actually a programmer duty more than an art thing. Of course back then were no phone sized screens and the UIs were much simpler in desktop app…

Exactly. It's the same concept with buttons that give no visual indication they've been pressed, then 3 seconds later something happens. But depressed button state looks so dated!

Re: Perfectly Cropped

#145

Post by newscracker »

lonelappde wrote: post #72
jahbrewski wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My favorite unintuitive iOS feature is “shake to undo”

iOS 13 just added a delightful feature where long press on a web browser link it opens on Safari, even if you are in Firefox, and even if you are in private browsing. It pops up a split screen window that has no close-window button . The only way to close the pop up window is to exit your browser and go Home, and then go to Safari to clean up.

I too found that annoying. If I understand correctly what you’re referring to, if you notice closely, there is a “Hide Preview” on the top right of that Safari popup. Tap that once and you’ll be back to just seeing a nice menu of what to do with the link and no more opening the link in a Safari popup.

Re: Perfectly Cropped

#146

Post by rlv-dan »

chias wrote: post #135

I need to use a MacBook Pro for work. Discovering that there is an option to make scrollbars always visible when there is scrolling to be done was, by a significant margin, the best QOL improvement I have discovered. This happens to me so often it's ridiculous. Maybe because I'm just used to seeing a scrollbar if there is a Y-overflow, and people that grew up with this system know to -- I guess just like try scrollin…

It seems like much of the design rules that evolved by experience is being thrown away by designers because they don't think it's looks nice or is clean enough. Interfaces like Windows 95 that are neither too early nor too modern seem to be really excellent at conveying meaningful information to the user.

Re: Perfectly Cropped

#147

Post by suzzer99 »

nkrisc wrote: post #125
AnIdiotOnTheNet wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We, as an industry, used to do a lot of UX research. Today's designers ignore all of it because they don't like what it says. Spacial file managers? Global menu bars? 3D buttons? Ew. Let's just make shit up.

Today's designers, just like kids these days. In reality, most design work these days is shifting to research and usability testing. Any designer who doesn't consider these things is just not a great designer and has much to learn.

From my experience today's designers just chase whatever Apple is doing. The second Apple moves away from something it becomes instantly dated.

Re: Perfectly Cropped

#148

Post by teetermld »

chias wrote: post #135

I need to use a MacBook Pro for work. Discovering that there is an option to make scrollbars always visible when there is scrolling to be done was, by a significant margin, the best QOL improvement I have discovered. This happens to me so often it's ridiculous. Maybe because I'm just used to seeing a scrollbar if there is a Y-overflow, and people that grew up with this system know to -- I guess just like try scrollin…

Checking to see if something scrolls is way easier than looking at a design, calculating in your head if the margins look equidistant from one another thus deducing that it must be the bottom of the screen.

I always thought 'below the fold' was so overused or at least only for people who never use a computer, but I guess that's definitely wrong.

Re: Perfectly Cropped

#149

Post by MiroF »

newscracker wrote: post #138
the_duke wrote: post #10

I switched to Android around the time iPhone 5 came out. Whenever I touch one now, I feel like a idiot and dinosaur. It can take me minutes to figure out the most basic things, and often I end up searching on the web. In the pursuit of a "clean" UI, iOS has become completely unintuitive and confusing.

The poor design described in the article is really bad. But > Whenever I touch one now, I feel like a idiot and dinosaur. It can take me minutes to figure out the most basic things, and often I end up searching on the web. This is exactly how I feel when I pick an Android phone (even with stock Android). Finding apps and launching them quickly seems like an art to learn. And don’t even get me started on how settings…

I use both and am now a current iPhone user. Certain things on iPhone (like muting all notifications with "Do Not Disturb" are much more unintuitive on the iPhone)

Re: Perfectly Cropped

#150

Post by rlv-dan »

dmitriid wrote: post #122
DrBazza wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Brilliant. Every single image that I saw is of an Apple product. The so-called masters of UI.

We (the authors) are Mac and iPhone users, so yeah, our exposure to things is skewed towards MacOS and iOS :) And yeah, it pains us to no end :)

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