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Apple's products are getting harder to use, ignore principles of design (2015)

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Re: Apple's products are getting harder to use, ignore principles of design (2015)

#41

Post by mihaaly »

chrisseaton wrote: post #2

Is anyone trying to back this up with a proper scientific study of whether users find it easier or harder to use? Seems just like opinion and debates about aesthetics otherwise? If I wanted to claim that JavaScriptCore was getting slower and I didn't post any data to back that up people would laugh me out of the conversation.

As long as we miss SI unit for the "hard to use" attribute we will have to fall back to user opinions and debates - and potential randomly constructed half cooked polls.

The opinions and debates are not looking well for Apple though.

Re: Apple's products are getting harder to use, ignore principles of design (2015)

#42

Post by heavenlyblue »

You know what I hate? I hate the fact that every time I open an app (most of which I use relatively rarely), I get a bunch of popups trying to introduce me to a variety of features I never needed in the first place. That goes beyond iOS, but also websites including Slack.

E.g. Why does iOS, instead of silently allowing me to use it's new version, feeds me this gamified introduction to "what's new in 13.x.y.z?".

What I want is a piece of software that doesn't change. Or when it changes, it doesn't notify me of it - it just keeps working until I find enough time to actually go on my own journey of discovery.

I am not-so-subtly exhausted by every single half-capable developer spoon-feeding me their "new features". I've downloaded your app because of the features it _had_ - I mostly don't care about what you add later on.

Re: Apple's products are getting harder to use, ignore principles of design (2015)

#43

Post by NeedMoreTea »

afandian wrote: post #19

I remember as a child showing my mother how to do stuff on our family Mac with OS 7.5 and being baffled that she didn't 'get' the UI. A decade ago I wrote some Cocoa stuff and read the HIG religiously. Now I'm in my 30s. I can't work out how to do stuff on my iPhone (Android makes perfect sense). mac OS, of which I have used every major version of since 6, is starting to break with the mental model I understand and i…

When I read the HIGs -- whether long ago on the Mac or Amiga, or later OSX it made sense, and the rationale for why something was some way made sense. It was actually quite easy to code something to fit, as the rules were clear, simple and (mostly) logical. There felt like an internal consistency that has slowly eroded over the last decade. Mainly thanks to phones.

Both Android and iPhone have internal inconsistencies along with hidden features that annoy or are gratuitously clever, often added in the yearly fit of featuritis and change for yearly change's sake. Windows and MacOS want to move further away from the desktop metaphor to phone+.

End result is I think just about everything - laptop, phone, tablet, stereo in the car :) is getting worse for usability. Peak on each was half a dozen versions back.

I am old, but I kind of hoped for more. :)

Re: Apple's products are getting harder to use, ignore principles of design (2015)

#44

Post by Nextgrid »

afandian wrote: post #19

I remember as a child showing my mother how to do stuff on our family Mac with OS 7.5 and being baffled that she didn't 'get' the UI. A decade ago I wrote some Cocoa stuff and read the HIG religiously. Now I'm in my 30s. I can't work out how to do stuff on my iPhone (Android makes perfect sense). mac OS, of which I have used every major version of since 6, is starting to break with the mental model I understand and i…

Do they even read the HIG themselves anymore? The latest iOS is a shit-show and full of inconsistencies between iPhone, iPad, and whatever you think would be considered “common sense”.

Re: Apple's products are getting harder to use, ignore principles of design (2015)

#45

Post by msla »

rosybox wrote: post #11
threeseed wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This comment makes no sense. Apple hasn't fundamentally changed the UI on iOS or OSX since the initial releases apart from say the iOS look & feel refresh and gestures to support iPhone X. And in the last few releases there have been almost no UI changes. It's actually one of the disappointments of the Apple platforms.

Not fundamentally changing the design is a plus for usability and accessibility. It would be a disappointment if I had to relearn a UI I've been using over a decade just because I upgraded my software. I don't have time for that. Go get your crazy wizbang UI interfaces on Linux. There are plenty there.

> Go get your crazy wizbang UI interfaces on Linux. There are plenty there.

And here I am, using Window Maker, utterly unchanged for decades, older than the distro I use.

Re: Apple's products are getting harder to use, ignore principles of design (2015)

#46

Post by wwweston »

josteink wrote: post #29
jbverschoor wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The iPhone has become a 2-handed device instead of a 1-handed device.

The iPhone SE may have been the last true iPhone IMO. Too bad Apple seems hellbent on the much less usable 6” monstrocitious these days.

Typing this on my SE. Only thing that makes me remotely interested in newer models is the improved camera abilities. Not sure it’s worth it to give up the form factor and affordances.

Also gonna hang out on iOS 12 for as long as possible if what I’ve heard about text selection for 13 is true.

Re: Apple's products are getting harder to use, ignore principles of design (2015)

#47

Post by kohtatsu »

judge2020 wrote: post #38
josteink wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> hidden things like 3D Touch is the exact problem I’ve had an iPhone for around 5 years now and I still have no idea what 3D Touch is. I hear it’s not supported on all models, so my phone may be lacking it, but if it does, I wouldn’t even be able to tell.

Pressing hard on a UI element, like an app icon[0], tweet, etc will show certain actions. On the newer models without a pressure-sensing screen, you can hold the UI icon for about a second to perform the same thing. 0: https://imgur.com/a/wOTDT3s

I.e. it never really mattered. My girlfriend still swears by it tho.

Re: Apple's products are getting harder to use, ignore principles of design (2015)

#48

Post by scarface74 »

criddell wrote: post #31
scarface74 wrote: post #4

This article is just a rant without many concrete examples, studies, or suggestions for improvements.

My suggestion would be to just stop adding new features to iOS, macOS, Windows, etc... They are done and only need updates to add support for new hardware, fix bugs, reduce resource consumption, and close security holes.

At least the Mac needs a few things.

- a low power mode

- a restricted data mode

- a modern scripting interface , basically port Workflows to the Mac

Re: Apple's products are getting harder to use, ignore principles of design (2015)

#49

Post by mihaaly »

threeseed wrote: post #6
bitwize wrote: post #3

Apple has fallen into the same trap that Microsoft has -- changing their UI not to advance the state of the art, but just for the sake of changing it so they have something new to sell.

This comment makes no sense. Apple hasn't fundamentally changed the UI on iOS or OSX since the initial releases apart from say the iOS look & feel refresh and gestures to support iPhone X. And in the last few releases there have been almost no UI changes. It's actually one of the disappointments of the Apple platforms.

> Apple hasn't fundamentally changed the UI on iOS or OSX since the initial releases

A whole lot of design department got insulted just now! Seeing their focus in product design almost the whole Apple! :)

Jokes apart even I - design/visuals/very-cool-new-feature-wow agnostic - can see serious changes. Changes that are f*ing up my workflow and user experience!!

Re: Apple's products are getting harder to use, ignore principles of design (2015)

#50

Post by sombremesa »

charlesism wrote: post #10
krackers wrote: post #7

I feel that for OSX, everything past Mavericks has been a downgrade. What's the point in having a beautiful hiDPI display if you're going to flatten all UI elements into a solid color?

Everything past Snow Leopard . Lion was a disaster, and there is literally no feature I use that I prefer in any Mac OS created since then. What's more, the OS has become uglier and buggier. Edit: actually, I like the addition of Finder > Cut, and Finder > Rename. So, hey, there is something!

I really love sidecar.
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