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Stop Changing UIs for No Good Reason

lobste.rs

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Re: Stop Changing UIs for No Good Reason

#271

Post by nitrogen »

thirdsun wrote: post #249
pbhjpbhj wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I help people out with their computers and I run updates (pretty much everyone I go to stay with!) they always complain if there's been a change in the UI at all - "why's that button moved?" "where's my favourites?" "how do I access my inbox now?" "why does it keep popping up that thing?" ... I'd really like to see some respect for this from people like Firefox - "we won't move any major UI elements or update th…

I couldn't disagree more. Of course there no sense in moving things around just for the sake of changing something, and implementing those design changes is always prone to making bad decisions. However I pretty much want the applications I use to move forward and if this means iterative design adjustments, then by all means, do it. The people complaining about any kind of change are usually the ones who learn using…

As a user who learns apps by concept, not memorization, it's still incredibly frustrating when the UI paradigm changes (such as the old switch from organized menus to chaotic ribbons, and from useful text to ambiguous icons). But even a conceptually well-versed user of software starts to develop a spatial/muscle memory for working significantly faster; experienced, intelligent users can still be thrown completely by minor UI changes that take them out of their working flow state.

Re: Stop Changing UIs for No Good Reason

#272

Post by 627467 »

Google/Android have been pushing major UI changes every other version. Why? Who knows.

I just gave a Moto G to my mother hoping that upgrading from an Android device to another would smooth the transition but - among other things - she couldn't find how to operate the new Google camera (a primary function for her).

Why? Because there's this "trend" of hiding all the GUI with gestures and stuff, despite the fact that displays are growing and there's more screen real-estate than ever.

And it's worse that some of these changes are subtle enough that it may even take you a few days to realize why you are so frustrated with your seemingly same phone: buttons have disappeared, borders removed, contrast decreased.

Ultimately I feel there's very little respect for the wider audience by today's "pioneers". Here in our bubble we all love novelty, new solutions, new paradigms, but the wider market doesn't care about this. They just want to keep doing what took them a long time to learn to do.

Re: Stop Changing UIs for No Good Reason

#273

Post by Zarathust »

protonfish wrote: post #91

The fact that we are discussing this generically as UI Design shows the immaturity of the concept. I can see at least two clear ideas needed to discuss this in a more detailed and rational manner. 1. We need to clearly separate the difference between UI design and UI decoration. Design should be driven by user testing that measures speed and rate of completion of tasks. If every feature of the latest UI is not measur…

You get two groups. One uses the old interface and the other uses the radically new shiny thing that might perform better. Surprise! The new interface performs better in selected metrics. Old interface hits the recycle bin and the new one become the norm. This us what seems to be the standard decision process.

I would propose the introduction of a third and maybe fourth group where returning users would also measure those selected metrics.

Re: Stop Changing UIs for No Good Reason

#274

Post by ajcarpy2005 »

nilkn wrote: post #181
mattmanser wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem is that if you swipe left it will open the dialer, right photo. Only up unlocks it. While it's useful having shortcuts to do these things, they've gone far too far and made it too hard to do what you most often want to do, which is simply unlock the phone. The old photo button worked well, for example. They had also previously used "up" on the lock screen for voice commands/google now, so I for one have l…

I still don't see how that's bad. My current lock screen, a custom one, only unlocks if I swipe right. Not up, not down, not left. Swiping left would open the camera. There's no easy way for me to get to the dialer straight from my current lock screen. From the way you describe it, Lollipop's lock screen sounds great to me. Full notification list, the ability to interact with the notifications, the ability with a sin…

Usefulness does not increase linearly with increased feature interface/interaction complexity. Usually it's the opposite.

Re: Stop Changing UIs for No Good Reason

#275

Post by Mikeb85 »

jackmaney wrote: post #254
jackmaney wrote: post #243

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would that not turn into WDFGHGFDSASERT?

Okay, so I grabbed my phone and tested it out. It...actually works. It's a bizarre method of text entry, but interesting nonetheless.

> It's a bizarre method of text entry, but interesting nonetheless.

And by bizarre you mean fantastic... It's even better in a language like French, where swiping means not having to type in the accents, whereas normally you'd have to do a long press of the letter and then select the accent you want...

Re: Stop Changing UIs for No Good Reason

#276

Post by JeremyNT »

mattmanser wrote: post #52

Argh, lollipop's driving me up the wall! Vent time, woo! The thing I'm hating is that they've managed to completely screw up Chrome by getting rid of tabs and mixing them all in with your other apps, in an attempt to force you to use the bloody useless app switcher button instead of making it do something vaguely useful. And the lock screen, what the hell were they thinking? The amount of times I've opened the phone…

> And the new calendar app only allows you to see 6 hours at a time, so you can't get an overview of your day.

I find the new calendar baffling. Luckily, the old AOSP calendar is still available on F-Droid.[0]

[0] https://f-droid.org/repository/browse/?fdfilter=aosp+calenda...

Re: Stop Changing UIs for No Good Reason

#277

Post by zsombor »

deafbybeheading wrote: post #106

Some valid points, but GitHub's UI evolution has been phenomenal over the last two years.

Oh yeah having six or more horizontal navigation bars was pure pain. Considering how difficult is to effect changes with an established user base, plus the complexity of the domain itself, their new design is anything but cosmetic.

Re: Stop Changing UIs for No Good Reason

#278

Post by JeremyNT »

PuffinBlue wrote: post #101
mattmanser wrote: post #52

Argh, lollipop's driving me up the wall! Vent time, woo! The thing I'm hating is that they've managed to completely screw up Chrome by getting rid of tabs and mixing them all in with your other apps, in an attempt to force you to use the bloody useless app switcher button instead of making it do something vaguely useful. And the lock screen, what the hell were they thinking? The amount of times I've opened the phone…

Agreed. Some more venting... Calendar is now rubbish, month view is gone, schedule view is too limited and there's way to much whitespace and 'fat' place cards. Got multiple Google accounts? You can't remove the 'events' calendar. And 'Events' is ostensibly the first calendar in your actual online Google Calendar which you might have named 'Home' but in the app is steadfastly refuses to be called anything but 'events…

> Gmail app is now rubbish. HORRIBLE account switching. Do they even use their own app?

The gmail redesign is really jarring if you're still on KitKat. It "fits" visually with the design language of Lolipop, but it still feels like a major step backward in terms of usability.

The conspiracy theorist in me is inclined to conclude that they do not, in fact, use their own app; it's almost like they made the Gmail app worse to encourage people to migrate to Inbox.

Re: Stop Changing UIs for No Good Reason

#279

Post by nilkn »

ajcarpy2005 wrote: post #274
nilkn wrote: post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I still don't see how that's bad. My current lock screen, a custom one, only unlocks if I swipe right. Not up, not down, not left. Swiping left would open the camera. There's no easy way for me to get to the dialer straight from my current lock screen. From the way you describe it, Lollipop's lock screen sounds great to me. Full notification list, the ability to interact with the notifications, the ability with a sin…

Usefulness does not increase linearly with increased feature interface/interaction complexity. Usually it's the opposite.

That's a very general statement which hasn't been customized at all to the current scenario. So really there's no way for me to respond, but I'll try.

As I said, swiping up actually feels easier to me on a large screen than swiping left or right. And putting notifications on the lock screen is a critical feature in my opinion, something Android has desperately needed out of the box for a while now. I use a custom lock screen just for that feature because it's so useful.

Re: Stop Changing UIs for No Good Reason

#280

Post by Animats »

Mobile devices are now in the tailfin era, like 1950s cars. Every year, the styling changes, to force users to buy the new model. 1950s people actually used to buy a new car every year if they could afford it, partly because vehicle reliability and working life sucked.

Then Japanese cars with higher reliability and lower cost started to compete with Detroit's chrome-laden behemoths. That didn't end well for Detroit. Today, cars last about twice as long as they did in the 1970s.

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