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iOS7 is not about flat

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Re: iOS7 is not about flat

#21

Post by potatolicious »

MProgrammer wrote: post #3

Apple’s guidelines have always said that developers should avoid splash screens ‘or other startup experience.’ That's nothing new, but many developers ignore it anyway.

Easier said than done. This is trivial for single-purpose apps like Calculator or Weather, where it's easy to predict what the post-launch UI will look like (hint: there's only one screen...)

For much larger apps the "fake screenshot" is harmful. Take the Facebook app for example - what should the "fake screenshot" be? iOS does not differentiate between a completely fresh launch vs. a simple restore from background, and will show the same image no matter what.

So now you're in a situation where you've presented your users with a fake/blank Facebook stream, but really they were restoring to a photo they were looking at. Oops.

Or hell, do you even know if your user's logged in? Would be a shitty experience to show them the fake/blank stream but suddenly pop them back to the signup/login page no? What if they are logged in? Would be a shitty experience to show them the signup/login page and suddenly yank that out from under them.

This whole business is a shitty solution to a shitty problem: apps take forever and a day to launch.

Re: iOS7 is not about flat

#22

Post by baddox »

calinet6 wrote: post #13

Just what I want: every developer of the 200 apps I have on my phone thinking theirs is the most important one and trying to take over my entire phone every 20 minutes to background process. The self-centered perspective of the article is even slightly disturbing, basically implying that their app needs to pre-load data because it's so important and can't make the user wait. A common perspective, sure, but this is th…

Presumably it's only for apps with push notifications. I don't know about you, but I find it fairly easy to get rid of (or disable) apps with push notifications I don't want.

Re: iOS7 is not about flat

#23

Post by logicallee »

jliptzin wrote: post #12

IMO iOS 7 is a textbook case of fixing something that's not broken.

The transitions to mainframes, Personal Computers, laptops, mobile phones, smartphones, are textbook cases of fixing something that wasn't 'broken'.

I think if you're not careful the future will creep up on you without fixing anything.

Re: iOS7 is not about flat

#24

Post by untog »

joshdance wrote: post #17
calinet6 wrote: post #13

Just what I want: every developer of the 200 apps I have on my phone thinking theirs is the most important one and trying to take over my entire phone every 20 minutes to background process. The self-centered perspective of the article is even slightly disturbing, basically implying that their app needs to pre-load data because it's so important and can't make the user wait. A common perspective, sure, but this is th…

That's the thing. It will be in the background. You won't even notice.

But we've been told for years that Android is fundamentally broken because it allows this. I guess everyone changed their mind?

Re: iOS7 is not about flat

#25

Post by axxl »

MichaelGG wrote: post #20

Forgive my complete ignorance on the topic: Can't you just push down the information the customer needs? I get that it might be more difficult to use the push API but could an app theoretically have achieved the same experience via push? Also, I'm not quite sure API enhancements are what a release is "about". Admitting that the crazy 3D designs were over the top and adopting a design similar to Metro and Android Holo…

Unfortunately not, Apple's push API supports a max notification payload size of 256 bytes.

Re: iOS7 is not about flat

#26

Post by untog »

MProgrammer wrote: post #3

Apple’s guidelines have always said that developers should avoid splash screens ‘or other startup experience.’ That's nothing new, but many developers ignore it anyway.

...which has always infuriated me. So many apps throw up a static PNG of what the interface is going to look like. That's a horrible user experience, because I start trying to use it and don't get any response.

If the app is loading, show a loading screen. Don't tell developers to lie to their users to make the platform look faster.

Re: iOS7 is not about flat

#27

Post by uptown »

untog wrote: post #24
joshdance wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's the thing. It will be in the background. You won't even notice.

But we've been told for years that Android is fundamentally broken because it allows this. I guess everyone changed their mind?

Maybe stop worrying what "everyone" is saying, and form your own thoughts about things?

Re: iOS7 is not about flat

#28

Post by fredoliveira »

raphael_o wrote: post #10
MProgrammer wrote: post #3

Apple’s guidelines have always said that developers should avoid splash screens ‘or other startup experience.’ That's nothing new, but many developers ignore it anyway.

Right, not new to iOS 7 but this time Apple took the time to make a nice mock of what we shouldn't do!

Developing for iOS without going through the UX guidelines is a pretty good way to make an app that will not endure the recklessness of the App Store business.

Re: iOS7 is not about flat

#29

Post by potatolicious »

MichaelGG wrote: post #20

Forgive my complete ignorance on the topic: Can't you just push down the information the customer needs? I get that it might be more difficult to use the push API but could an app theoretically have achieved the same experience via push? Also, I'm not quite sure API enhancements are what a release is "about". Admitting that the crazy 3D designs were over the top and adopting a design similar to Metro and Android Holo…

Sort of. Yes and no. You can bundle whatever data you want on a push notification, but there are some restrictions:

- Size limits. It's a push notification, so the amount of payload you can attach is pretty limited. Not the whole conversation history of a chat, for example.

- Lack of guarantees or SLA means using it this for time-ordered information is a bad idea. For example, assembling a chat history from a series of pushes is generally a recipe for awfulness. Pushes are not guaranteed to arrive at all, nor arrive in a certain order.

- No sensitive information in pushes, since it's (mostly) transmitted in the clear. Apple recommends payloads be IDs and such and the human-readable component be general. "You have a new message!" rather than "You have a new naughty pic from Jane!".

Long story short, when your app wakes due to a push notification it's almost always smarter to fetch the canonical state over the networking than try to piece it together from the push payload. This incurs a pretty hefty user-visible delay and results in a shitty experience.

Re: iOS7 is not about flat

#30

Post by untog »

uptown wrote: post #27
untog wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But we've been told for years that Android is fundamentally broken because it allows this. I guess everyone changed their mind?

Maybe stop worrying what "everyone" is saying, and form your own thoughts about things?

I wasn't particularly worried about it. More noting the usual pattern of " is wrong until Apple does it". Background apps, flat design...
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