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Confusing UI in iOS7

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Re: Confusing UI in iOS7

#11

Post by terabytest »

Finally a post that doesn't just say "iOS7 BAD". Pretty well motivated, and I can agree with it in part. The inconsistencies it shows with the red button are confusing indeed (I just tried it on my iPad, the button in the stopwatch will change state when you begin touching, the one in the timer changes state when you lift your button, which is confusing because it doesn't work as expected).

The one thing I don't agree with is how the writer argues that, because the UI elements like the "+" button are red, it means they might be misinterpreted as performing a negative action. I think it's not a good point because it's easy to tell that red is the accent color of the application (for example the active navbar button is red), and thus it doesn't really play a role in telling the user whether the action is a positive or a negative one. The fact that the big round buttons start as green, and only become red once tapped (along with a change in their label), should make it easy to tell that they're not red because it's the accent color of the app, instead they're red because they perform a destructive action (in this case, resetting the timer). Their label further confirms their purpose.

As a last remark, I don't think that even the least savvy users are to be treated as "dumb". If they care enough, they will figure it out nonetheless. This isn't one of those issues that would make it impossible to use the app. You just need to put a small amount of thought in using it.

Re: Confusing UI in iOS7

#12

Post by Pxtl »

I'm actually surprised that there's so little visual consistency there... this stuff usually would be handled by reusable widgets - which, of course, gives you consistency for free.

Still, people bag on Apple's design problems because Apple's stuff often feels almost perfect. I tried out a BB Q10 the other day and I couldn't even figure out how the heck you get to the home screen. I got stuck in the voice-search app and couldn't figure out how to back out. That's one of those "I'd give it a detailed critique but where the heck do I even begin" moments.

Re: Confusing UI in iOS7

#13

Post by dmyler »

Apple definitely removed as many affordances as possible with each screen, almost to the extreme. Now, have I figured out how each screen works? Yes. Do I think the UI would be improved with a few more visual hints (button backgrounds, consistent color choice for actions)? Yes.

iOS 7 is such a large reset from previous iOS versions, and I would expect to see this new design language evolve over future releases. The best comparison I read: think of the changes between OS9 and OSX.

Re: Confusing UI in iOS7

#14

Post by masklinn »

> I have no idea why the calendar is in German although the rest is in English

I had the same issue (with a different language). I really hope it's a bug because it makes no sense. Here goes:

In General > International, you can set "language" to english. So far so good. Then you can set "region format" for things like date and time formatting to use a sensible local format instead of e.g. the crazy US date format.

But when you go into Region Format, it turns out to be some sort of weird mix of countries and languages.

If you select a country — e.g. Germany, Finland, Croatia — , you'll get the english dates in the region's format but if you select a language (and possibly a territory for the language) — Chinese > Singapore, Cherokee (United States) or Lingala > Congo Brazzaville, you'll get the date formatted in that language instead, with your specified system-wide language ignored.

By default, you probably have a language selected — I had anyway. I think it's the same setting as in iOS6 but the semantics have changed.

edit: after checking, it worked the exact same way in iOS6 and a colleague (who also updated to iOS7) had the right setting without changing anything, so I guess both TFAA and I had the "wrong" setting in iOS6 and it got ported over to iOS7. Yet as TFAA I was kind-of shocked to see dates in a language different than the rest of the OS in iOS7 even though I apparently did not notice it in 6.

Re: Confusing UI in iOS7

#15

Post by sambeau »

josefresco wrote: post #8
samnardoni wrote: post #4

Everything is confusing if you pretend to be an idiot.

Everything is confusing if you pretend to be a user. There, fixed that for you. You may not agree with the tone of the author but his point (albeit small, repeated and not explained fully) is accurate.

Only if you pretend your user is an idiot.

Far better to test, watch, measure and iterate.

Re: Confusing UI in iOS7

#16

Post by lstamour »

terabytest wrote: post #11

Finally a post that doesn't just say "iOS7 BAD". Pretty well motivated, and I can agree with it in part. The inconsistencies it shows with the red button are confusing indeed (I just tried it on my iPad, the button in the stopwatch will change state when you begin touching, the one in the timer changes state when you lift your button, which is confusing because it doesn't work as expected). The one thing I don't agre…

The + sign and nav buttons are "tinted" as red, as are the rest of the app's functions. When overlay UI appears, such color tints become grey. That's consistent throughout Apple's apps -- every app has a colour to tint with.

The green circles shown are the inconsistent buttons. They're trying to do too much, both compensating for the choice of red and encouraging you to click them. Their thick circle borders are redundant, and the lack of consistency on these custom buttons is indeed an issue.

The calendar is probably set to a different language/country's date formatting. That's a feature and is observable in other OSes. (English menu, arabic dates, for example)

The unique bit about alarms -- for iPad only -- is that table representation. They should have cut it out until the next iOS revision.

Re: Confusing UI in iOS7

#17

Post by Jare »

iOS7 apps are littered with this kind of stuff. In truth, I doubt iOS7 is any more confusing to a newbie than the original iOS was, and since there's so very little to do in most places, it doesn't take much experimenting to learn. The most grating thing to me at an intellectual level is the lack of consistency, but part of the smartphone experience is using apps which often have their own styles anyway (especially games).

I just tell myself it's all a giant A/B test and iOS8 will consolidate one specific set of styles.

Re: Confusing UI in iOS7

#19

Post by LarryMade2 »

Apple lost intuitive when it went to OSX. Things were just there, and worked, menus had understandable names dialogs were terse and to the point. Sometimes it was messy but you never felt lost.

Re: Confusing UI in iOS7

#20

Post by garethadams »

jbrooksuk wrote: post #3

I believe Montag was highlighted because that's the current day.

In an English locale (as the rest of the UI suggests), "Montag" isn't a day at all, let alone the current day.

The incorrect text is a UI bug, certainly, but the underlying issue suggested in multiple places is, how can you distinguish between a negative action and an accent in apps where both of those are identified by the same colour?

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