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Nobody designs for small iPhone devices anymore

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Re: Nobody designs for small iPhone devices anymore

#131

Post by bajsejohannes »

tinus_hn wrote: post #45

A big part of the problem is people just not following the guidelines. If you have a toolbar with buttons that have labels, it’s not going to fit. But if you’re following the guidelines, you don’t have labels and it fits. If you have a list with a refresh button on the bottom you have to scroll to see that button on a small screen. But if you use the standard pull to refresh control, you don’t even need the button. I…

I'm curious if even Apple follow the guidelines. It has been way too long since I read them, but I remember the minimum button size being quite large. A while ago, the pull up menu (with camera/light/volume/airplane mode/etc) was redesigned. As part of that the play/pause/skip buttons became so small that my iPhone SE frequently does something other than my intention.

Re: Nobody designs for small iPhone devices anymore

#132

Post by tinus_hn »

snarkyturtle wrote: post #123
tinus_hn wrote: post #45

A big part of the problem is people just not following the guidelines. If you have a toolbar with buttons that have labels, it’s not going to fit. But if you’re following the guidelines, you don’t have labels and it fits. If you have a list with a refresh button on the bottom you have to scroll to see that button on a small screen. But if you use the standard pull to refresh control, you don’t even need the button. I…

Icons with labels are best practice for accessibility.

No, for accessibility icons have titles that are not on screen yet are read out by the screen reader.

Re: Nobody designs for small iPhone devices anymore

#133

Post by ArkanExplorer »

iPhone 7, iPhone 8, iPhone SE 2020 all share the same screen size and resolution - so isn't this a problem on those other devices as well?

And for that matter so do iPhone 6 and 6S, which are still current as of iOS 14.

iPhone 7 and up are still going to support iOS 15, so these devices will be with us for a while.

Re: Nobody designs for small iPhone devices anymore

#134

Post by tinus_hn »

simias wrote: post #92
tinus_hn wrote: post #45

A big part of the problem is people just not following the guidelines. If you have a toolbar with buttons that have labels, it’s not going to fit. But if you’re following the guidelines, you don’t have labels and it fits. If you have a list with a refresh button on the bottom you have to scroll to see that button on a small screen. But if you use the standard pull to refresh control, you don’t even need the button. I…

You make good points but IMO that's an Apple problem first and foremost, not an application designer problem. If an application doesn't follow the guidelines and breaks on some of the phones supported by the app store, then Apple should tell the application makers to fix it lest the app be removed. Last week I defended the move by Apple to remove that "crab house" app because they're the custodians of their walled ga…

There’s a point there but it is a difficult balancing act. Some of the largest third party apps, like Google Maps, feature the Google Material Design that is alien on iOS. There is no way to force Google to use an iOS design. Would it be a smart move from Apple to ban Google Maps from the iPhone?

Re: Nobody designs for small iPhone devices anymore

#135

Post by BelleOfTheBall »

evolveyourmind wrote: post #130

The real problem is that designers usually focus on a single device without considering any other screen size

This is in part because it's assumed that everyone will get the cool new model once it's out and, in particular with iPhones, there's a marketing push to acquire newer models, lest yours feels outdated or stops being supported by the company.

Re: Nobody designs for small iPhone devices anymore

#136

Post by frosted-flakes »

mnahkies wrote: post #118
tyfon wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The custom buttons without labels are a pet peeve of mine actually. I can never guess what the buttons do when they only have pictures and each app use their own icon set. There are some apps that use standard buttons that I recognize but far too many want to be fancy and roll their own making the app practically unusable unless you guess correct or press all buttons to see what they do. But you are correct in that i…

For software that you only occasionally use custom icons with no labeling is a real productivity killer. It's so much worse on mobile without tooltips as well, maybe we need to standardise a long press giving a description or something similar

Android already has that standard. Long press almost always brings up a tooltip.

Re: Nobody designs for small iPhone devices anymore

#137

Post by ectopod »

mucholove wrote: post #103

My font size is set to a fairly large size. For many apps, I have no idea what to click on because no one follows the autolayout. Some (see Evernote) are so bad that I can’t even click the sign in button because the touch target seems to be on the text and the button only shows 2 letters. ¿Should I be outraged? So it goes...

This isn't new. Back in 1992 you had two choices for DPI in Windows 3.1 but many applications couldn't cope with the larger setting.

I used it anyway because 1024x768 on a 14" CRT was unreadable with regular fonts.

Re: Nobody designs for small iPhone devices anymore

#138

Post by mgkimsal »

irae wrote: post #97
kawsper wrote: post #20

I have an original iPhone SE and I very rarely hit this, mostly by more amateurish applications, but it is still very frustrating when it happens. For an example there's an application I use to put money on my washing card, and also book washing machines in my building, and that doesn't work on my iPhone SE, even though that application is mostly a webview. It could be nice if Apple could detect these issues in the r…

I held on to my original SE for as long as I could. I have dozens of screenshots similar to the ones on the article, and I was getting tired of reporting unusable or hard to use apps on small screens. This was one of the key factors for me to switch to the iPhone 12 Mini. And even though some apps still have issues, they just don't test bellow the regular 12 size. The worst recurring bug across apps that still happen…

Similar here - I just went up to a 12 mini because the SE I had was... well - still worked, but I wanted to 'forward proof' myself a bit. I suspect it may not go past iOS 14 (I just upgraded - was on 12 for a long time). For things like banking, etc, I wanted to know my device will work for the next few years, and this is the smallest I can get that still is in the ios/apple world.

I somewhat regret this, as I miss the Touch ID. Rumors are the 13 models will have a Touch ID under the screen, which will be great, but, I don't know they'll have a 'mini' version either. Apparently the 12 mini is being discontinued? I can't tell if that rumor is true, or production is just being reduced in favor of the larger models. Either way, the "small form factor" just seems to be an afterthought.

Was reading a few viewpoints on this (perhaps it was even on HN?) some time ago, and ... one of the attractions of 'big screens' is that, for most people, that phone may be their only or primary internet access device. For me, I'm on laptops and large screens all day - I want small and conven ient and mobility in a phone, not large screens. If I want a large screen... I go to a large screen. I don't try to wrestle with getting a 7" device in to pockets to carry around with me. But people wanting 5" phones are apparently in a minority.

Re: Nobody designs for small iPhone devices anymore

#139

Post by frosted-flakes »

tinus_hn wrote: post #132
snarkyturtle wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Icons with labels are best practice for accessibility.

No, for accessibility icons have titles that are not on screen yet are read out by the screen reader.

Accessibility is not just for people who use screen readers. It's for everyone, including you and me.

Re: Nobody designs for small iPhone devices anymore

#140

Post by mnahkies »

frosted-flakes wrote: post #136
mnahkies wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For software that you only occasionally use custom icons with no labeling is a real productivity killer. It's so much worse on mobile without tooltips as well, maybe we need to standardise a long press giving a description or something similar

Android already has that standard. Long press almost always brings up a tooltip.

I guess much like aria attributes it varies based on the quality of the product/motivation of the business.

I just tried one of my banking apps and a Reddit client and found neither provided tooltips - perhaps they thought those particular icons are too self explanatory or perhaps they didn't bother/used a cross platform tech that didn't make it easy.

Actually even on Google maps I don't seem to get tooltips for the fab icons for center map / directions.

I do remember this being a thing but it feels like it's fallen out of fashion.

Pixel 3a / android 11

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