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Perfectly Cropped

tyler.io

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Re: Perfectly Cropped

#451

Post by cgriswald »

rkagerer wrote: post #376
Liquix wrote: post #309

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Herein lies the problem: it doesn't matter how much 'better' or 'smoother' or 'consistent' the change is - or is not, in this case. It's a gross oversight to never inform end users of the change in any way . How many iPhone users attentively watch WWDC or read each update's (often incomplete) release notes? 1%? 3%? 5% tops? Why roll out a feature when 95% of your users will need to discover it through trial and error…

While we're on the topic, those screen-masking "tutorials" you randomly get when apps push out an updated UI are annoying. I always skip past them. When I open an app, it's for a reason, and I want to start using it.

Then they try to cram the entire UI into that “tutorial”; as if you’re going to hold that all in your head after reading it once while trying to do something else. Then there’s no clear way to get back to it (if it’s even possible). And often if you accidentally click through one part you can’t even go back to that part.

Video games do this a lot, too. I’d play more games but it’s always a one-hour commitment to get started between opening videos and tutorials.

Re: Perfectly Cropped

#452

Post by Silhouette »

pier25 wrote: post #362
Zelphyr wrote: post #194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"It feels like change for the sake of change when it worked perfectly before." To my mind this is becoming a BIG problem in tech and I'm really saddened to see Apple falling for it. I guess too many people in a position to change things that feel like they need to justify their positions. Either way, it needs to stop. Sometimes good enough is good enough.

The JS ecosystem is plagued by this too. The other day I opened a Vue project from 2-3 years ago and after installing deps with NPM it reported something like 50 critical vulnerabilities. Fine, I'll update dependencies. After doing that nothing worked anymore. The Webpack config didn't work, the Webpack loaders for Vue didn't work, etc. I had configured this project with an "old" version of Vue CLI and now everyone h…

Sadly, this is what happens when whoever is calling the shots doesn't care about stability and backward compatibility any more.

Combined with the current culture of "evergreen" software that is always connecting to online sources (even if it's installed locally), applies automatic updates, and doesn't support old versions in parallel with newer ones for extended periods, it's like we've regressed at least a decade in the quality of the software we use. Although next week it could be 13 years. And if you refuse to play, you don't get security or compatibility updates either.

The likes of Google, Apple and Mozilla bear great responsibility for actively promoting the evergreen and ratchet models: browsers, mobile operating systems and web and mobile apps have probably been the main drivers, and Apple has gone even further by weaponising its control of the app ecosystem via its App Store monopoly. However, it's not just web and mobile that are broken; more recently, it's been creeping into desktop applications and even desktop operating systems (Windows 10) as well.

Just as it's been the case with user-facing software, so it has also been the case with development tools. We seem to have trained an entire generation of young developers now who have no concept of maintaining stable APIs, using open standards for data formats and communications protocols, designing for compatibility and portability, and so on. Perhaps unsurprisingly, this is also much worse in the worlds of web and mobile development.

It's a plague, and we need to kill it with fire.

Re: Perfectly Cropped

#453

Post by tres »

K0SM0S wrote: post #332
johnzim wrote: post #254

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Jonny Ive took control of software design about 7-8 years ago which I think caused a fall in usability even as things got prettier. Sometimes look back at MacOS 9, even with its numerous issues and marvel at how good a lot of the UI/UX was.

> Jonny Ive Ah, this would explain that. I seem to remember that he did not want to deal with software design, but pretty much had to to fill the gap after Jobs passed away. something along those lines. I'll cut him some slack for the monumental achievements in his career, but Apple as a company should re-think their UX strategy for the 2020's imho. And thank you for a nice trip via MacOS 9 memory lane!

I think what really changed was the departure of Scott Forstall after the death of Jobs & the decision to put Tim Cook in charge.

Remove that someone who didn't just look at software as an accoutrement to hardware -- but as a necessary, functional part of that hardware (skeuomorphism was the natural outcome of this worldview), then replace them with someone who reveres form over function and we end up where we are.

Still missing Scott Forstall.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scott_Forstall

Re: Perfectly Cropped

#454

Post by gcbw3 »

ITT: people who do not use OSS and use apple because "it just works" doing free tech support and QA-via-tweeter to apple numerous bugs.

sigh.

Re: Perfectly Cropped

#455

Post by conductr »

This same bug hit me when I upgraded. I literally thought they removed the feature. Then I thought surely not, and went back and tried again. Took me a solid 2 minutes (which felt like way too long) of poking around to realize to scroll like your wife.

Re: Perfectly Cropped

#456

Post by marcus_holmes »

heartbreak wrote: post #442
reaperducer wrote: post #287

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It was in the WWDC keynote speech. The rest of the world else can "discover" it the next time a bug crawls on their screen.

It's also in the Tips app, which prompts via notifications to learn about new features in iOS after an upgrade. You can ignore it, or you can let it walk you through the changes to your device.

yeah, but who has time? Tips will spend 5 mins walking you through how to change the preferred colour scheme for the Weather app, when what I want to do right now is answer the phone.

Then, 2 months later, I want to change the colour scheme in the Weather app. Can I remember how? Or even remember where I saw to do that? Or even find the right tip? Obviously not...

Re: Perfectly Cropped

#457

Post by com2kid »

TurkishPoptart wrote: post #443
com2kid wrote: post #416

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Finding apps and launching them quickly seems like an art to learn. Swipe up from home screen, the launcher + search bar appears. It is somewhat annoying that none of the primary buttons now brings up the launcher, but that change happened long ago. :/ IIRC pressing the home button while on the home screen would make the launcher appear. Since it is Android there is probably a utility to add that back. Of course us…

>(But seriously, Windows Phone 7, most discoverable UI ever!) Was that the one with all the floating "tiles" on the screen? IIRC it was influenced by the Zune UX. I remember when my father purchased a Windows phone as his first smartphone. It had already been announced they'd stop supporting them, but the Verizon guy didn't tell him that. I actually rather liked the UX and OS; the thing about Android's "desktop" that…

Yup, that was Windows Phone.

Everything was laid out so that further content was partially clipped. It was awesome. The OS was butter smooth and great on battery life.

Re: Perfectly Cropped

#458

Post by marcus_holmes »

hk__2 wrote: post #359
nothrabannosir wrote: post #318

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 1. Do a three finger unpinch gesture, and it will paste at the cursor. Crazy! Apparently there's a whole set of commands accessible this way, most notably three finger swipe left = undo!!! This is a significant improvement. They could've told me while I was painstakingly shake - confirm undo - shake - confirm undo - shake - confirm undo ...... ing!

> Crazy! Apparently there's a whole set of commands accessible this way, most notably three finger swipe left = undo!!! This is a significant improvement. How is that an improvement? I get that the shaking gesture is horrible, but this one is not better: a three finger swipe is unusual, impossible to discover, hard to do. I don’t get why swiping left, usually associated with going to the right (= forward in Western c…

yeah, I absolutely loath these gestures with a passion. Impossible to get right when you need them, and impossible to avoid doing by accident when you don't

Re: Perfectly Cropped

#459

Post by eecc »

thaumasiotes wrote: post #399
gowld wrote: post #333

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, that's the incentive. But then why aren't their managers laying off or reassigning the staff who have nothing to do but fiddle with things that were already fine? The problem goes right to the top of product development leadership.

> why aren't their managers laying off or reassigning the staff who have nothing to do but fiddle with things that were already fine? A manager who loses all his staff isn't a manager.

Yup, it's just another redundancy.

Re: Perfectly Cropped

#460

Post by heartbreak »

marcus_holmes wrote: post #456
heartbreak wrote: post #442

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's also in the Tips app, which prompts via notifications to learn about new features in iOS after an upgrade. You can ignore it, or you can let it walk you through the changes to your device.

yeah, but who has time? Tips will spend 5 mins walking you through how to change the preferred colour scheme for the Weather app, when what I want to do right now is answer the phone. Then, 2 months later, I want to change the colour scheme in the Weather app. Can I remember how? Or even remember where I saw to do that? Or even find the right tip? Obviously not...

The grandparent asked if this was supposed to be discoverable and the answer is no, Apple does not expect you to discover it. If you want to learn about it, it’s in the Tips app (that they prompt you to use). Not wanting to use the Tips app seems like a personal issue.
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