A User Experience Designer Switches from iOS to Android

#1

Post by hillel » Thu, May 22, 2014, 7:01 PM UTC

A User Experience Designer Switches from iOS to Android
jacksonfish.com

Re: A User Experience Designer Switches from iOS to Android

#2

Post by jnks » Thu, May 22, 2014, 8:03 PM UTC

It might be more fair if the reviewer also put together a list of UI failings on iOS. It's far from perfect!

Re: A User Experience Designer Switches from iOS to Android

#3

Post by [deleted] » Thu, May 22, 2014, 8:10 PM UTC

jnks wrote: post #2

It might be more fair if the reviewer also put together a list of UI failings on iOS. It's far from perfect!

[deleted]

Re: A User Experience Designer Switches from iOS to Android

#4

Post by Gracana » Thu, May 22, 2014, 8:15 PM UTC

The two-apps/choose-your-app problems are something that my mother has found very frustrating, and I haven't really been able to come up with a good solution for her. It bothers me as well, but I have enough experience with similar things to be able to deal with it. But for her, it's a bunch of new stuff that all conflicts and interoperates differently. It's a disaster.

Re: A User Experience Designer Switches from iOS to Android

#5

Post by spinlock » Thu, May 22, 2014, 8:23 PM UTC

Gracana wrote: post #4

The two-apps/choose-your-app problems are something that my mother has found very frustrating, and I haven't really been able to come up with a good solution for her. It bothers me as well, but I have enough experience with similar things to be able to deal with it. But for her, it's a bunch of new stuff that all conflicts and interoperates differently. It's a disaster.

Yup. I just cycle through the choices trying a different one each time. Once I find myself using one _all the time_ I set that as the default.

I think a great solution for this would be to let power users distribute their own versions. That way, you could just find a designer you trust and install their version. It's still fragmented but at least you could go with people like the author who have thought through it rather than an awful corporate designed by committee mess.

Re: A User Experience Designer Switches from iOS to Android

#6

Post by wdmeldon » Thu, May 22, 2014, 8:28 PM UTC

There are some definite valid criticisms here (Photos/Gallery being the least understandable oversight), but you really need to try the Nexus 5. Fragmentation needs to be dealt with and OEM's need to stop "differentiating" themselves into UI hell, but pure Android is definitely worth experiencing. It will mainly make you more upset at HTC.

Re: A User Experience Designer Switches from iOS to Android

#7

Post by izzydata » Thu, May 22, 2014, 8:31 PM UTC

Almost all of this guys problems are the result of giving the user options that simply don't exist in iOS. If you really need your OS to tell you how YOU want to do things then I guess you really should go back to the locked down iOS.

Choices are hard. Apparently even choosing what phone was too hard.

Re: A User Experience Designer Switches from iOS to Android

#8

Post by aaronem » Thu, May 22, 2014, 8:36 PM UTC

izzydata wrote: post #7

Almost all of this guys problems are the result of giving the user options that simply don't exist in iOS. If you really need your OS to tell you how YOU want to do things then I guess you really should go back to the locked down iOS. Choices are hard. Apparently even choosing what phone was too hard.

I often see the same argument made in defense of desktop Linux vs. Windows and OS X. It's a little more justifiable there, I suppose, but a phone is an appliance. Its job is to do the things I need it to do, to do those things well without fail. Otherwise, it's worse than useless, because it complicates my life rather than simplifying it.

Sure, as has been pointed out elsewhere, the iOS user interface is far from perfect. Judging by OP's experience, it's still a lot better than can be expected out of the vast majority of Android phones. It'd be one thing if that platform offered the options you so laud in a fashion which doesn't get in the way of satisfying the essential requirements of a pocket phone. Apparently, though, that platform fails to do so.

You can be just as contemptuous as you like of people who find Android unworthy of their time and money as a consequence. (Certainly nothing I say will change your mind! I've had enough arguments with Linux partisans to have realized that long since.) Your contempt for such people doesn't change the fact that Android has a problem.

Re: A User Experience Designer Switches from iOS to Android

#9

Post by robert_tweed » Thu, May 22, 2014, 8:36 PM UTC

I keep finding myself agreeing with the author whenever an encounter with the back button is mentioned.

One of my favourite things about an old HTC phone I had running a 2.x version of Android was that the back button worked very consistently everywhere. It made using the native apps feel like navigating around websites: just what you'd expect from Google.

On literally every Android device I've tried to use since then it's been a complete horror show. This should have been the best thing about the Android UI and it's ended up being the worst.

I think the thing that might be worse than back button behaviour is the horribly broken app permissions system.

Re: A User Experience Designer Switches from iOS to Android

#10

Post by MBCook » Thu, May 22, 2014, 8:43 PM UTC

wdmeldon wrote: post #6

There are some definite valid criticisms here (Photos/Gallery being the least understandable oversight), but you really need to try the Nexus 5. Fragmentation needs to be dealt with and OEM's need to stop "differentiating" themselves into UI hell, but pure Android is definitely worth experiencing. It will mainly make you more upset at HTC.

Unfortunately those 'improvements' afflict 95+% of Android users.

Just like all the crapware that was/is shipped on every Windows computer by OEMs these decisions are effecting Google's image.