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A User Experience Designer Switches from iOS to Android

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Re: A User Experience Designer Switches from iOS to Android

#21

Post by aaronem »

izzydata wrote: post #11
aaronem wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 per…

A phone is a computer and a user should be able to configure it however they want. If that isn't for you then don't use it, but that doesn't make customization an inherent flaw because someone doesn't personally want to deal with it.

Customization isn't a flaw. Obsessing over customizability, to the point where you fail to notice glaring flaws in the user interface and the behavior of the device, is a flaw.

Re: A User Experience Designer Switches from iOS to Android

#22

Post by MBCook »

blinkingled wrote: post #12

[Unreasonable expectations and little knowledge or inclination to try things out] Please don't read the previous bracketed sentence as snarky or insulting - it reflects the fact that he bought an unlocked phone and expected it to work great out of box with T-Mobile (including WiFi calling!) and he wasn't inclined to search the Play Store for TMobile Voicemail - so there is definitely substance to that sentence. But I…

Insulting iOS users is not a productive way to start a discussion.

1) It's fair to let people choose a different app (I know many people really want this on iOS), but I think his complaint is valid. There are many situations where it's completely unclear to a new user why they should use app X over Y for photo management/SMS/etc. To ask them before they've even used the app the first time nearly ensures they're not ready to make that decision. Sensible defaults and perhaps delaying the prompting until the device notices the user uses an alternate app a couple of times may be a better way to handle this.

3) Why should it matter if my HTC One came from a T-Mobile store or not? The fact that they behave differently (and especially that T-Mobile's support isn't prepared for that) is clearly an issue. I think the voicemail note is telling. How many people, upon buying a new phone, would think "I need to go download a special app to get my voicemail working"?

4) HTC took something that worked fine and made it more confusing. That's clearly a design mistake.

5) If something doesn't work reliably, that's a design issue. Especially if it used to work.

> But I stopped reading past that [...] I only saw "iOS is right" in some places.

That's not what I saw. Rorschach test for your preference for Android/iOS perhaps?

Re: A User Experience Designer Switches from iOS to Android

#23

Post by milesskorpen »

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.

The author specifically addressed this defense in his post — basically, Google owns Android. Whatever an OEM does, they're doing it with Google's tacit support. If that makes the experience awful, Google still has responsibility (though certainly not exclusive responsibility).

Re: A User Experience Designer Switches from iOS to Android

#24

Post by MBCook »

smrtinsert wrote: post #15
blinkingled wrote: post #12

[Unreasonable expectations and little knowledge or inclination to try things out] Please don't read the previous bracketed sentence as snarky or insulting - it reflects the fact that he bought an unlocked phone and expected it to work great out of box with T-Mobile (including WiFi calling!) and he wasn't inclined to search the Play Store for TMobile Voicemail - so there is definitely substance to that sentence. But I…

He completely missed the entire point of Intents which isn't surprising since he's not experienced in Android (better said, he's just an iOS guy).

I don't think he did, I think he was commenting on the UI implementation.

Just because you think the interface to something isn't designed well doesn't mean the underlying feature is worthless.

Re: A User Experience Designer Switches from iOS to Android

#25

Post by MBCook »

smrtinsert wrote: post #17
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.

This part is funny, app interoperability is a huge feature. Some people should just stay on iOS I guess. I love that I can click a link and have various ways of understanding or consuming it. I guess there needs to be some tweaking around how and when it saves preferences for these intents, but personally this is a big part of the reason I'm on Android.

As an iOS user the concept is great and many people would LOVE something similar in the iOS world. It sounds like the implementation has some interface flaws that cause people problems.

The core idea that I should be able to choose what app to use to manage my photos seems self-evident.

Re: A User Experience Designer Switches from iOS to Android

#26

Post by bdcs »

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.

To underscore your point, there was recently a speed test[1] conducted to compare the Moto E (~vanilla android, 120$ unlocked) vs Samsung Galaxy S5 (TouchWiz, ~700$ unlocked) in user tests (think Google+ load times, not MIPS). The Moto E was faster, despite having roughly 1/3rd the hardware metrics.

Hardware vendors and carriers are to blame for a lot of this UX disaster (e.g., including their own superfluous app, causing the Intents Dialog confusion on day 1 rather than popping up after you choose to install a new app for X). Is Google to blame for not doing a better job of controlling fragmentation? In my opinion, in the past, no. Android might not have taken off without the freedom given to manufactures/carriers. In the future, Google DOES need to wrangle this crapware problem (I think of it as crap icing on a delicious vanilla cake). Google is doing exactly this with Android Silver [2].

Finally, what does Android do wrong? Well, just look at CyanogenMOD's features to see what Android is lacking: privacy and app permissions, data limiting (ads), firewalls, etc.

[1]http://phandroid.com/2014/05/19/samsung-galaxy-s5-vs-motorol... [2]http://www.businessinsider.com/android-silver-launch-date-20...

Re: A User Experience Designer Switches from iOS to Android

#27

Post by smrtinsert »

MBCook wrote: post #24
smrtinsert wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He completely missed the entire point of Intents which isn't surprising since he's not experienced in Android (better said, he's just an iOS guy).

I don't think he did, I think he was commenting on the UI implementation. Just because you think the interface to something isn't designed well doesn't mean the underlying feature is worthless.

> because I don’t really know the difference between my choices. I have no real idea what the tradeoffs are in picking one app over the other. nd if the difference is so negligible, why do they even offer both.

It's clear he's referring to the apps themselves, and he views the choice iteself as intrinsically worthless. So yeah, he completely missed the point.

Re: A User Experience Designer Switches from iOS to Android

#28

Post by ssmoot »

smrtinsert wrote: post #15
blinkingled wrote: post #12

[Unreasonable expectations and little knowledge or inclination to try things out] Please don't read the previous bracketed sentence as snarky or insulting - it reflects the fact that he bought an unlocked phone and expected it to work great out of box with T-Mobile (including WiFi calling!) and he wasn't inclined to search the Play Store for TMobile Voicemail - so there is definitely substance to that sentence. But I…

He completely missed the entire point of Intents which isn't surprising since he's not experienced in Android (better said, he's just an iOS guy).

"the point" is that it's not explained what the consequences are.

If I choose Photos to view images in Messaging, it's not made clear that only Gallery is an option to attach images. If it were, why would anyone choose Photos unless Gallery were somehow flawed? And even if it were, why should you have to use two different apps for each side of what to a user is basically the same operation?

Re: A User Experience Designer Switches from iOS to Android

#29

Post by blinkingled »

MBCook wrote: post #22
blinkingled wrote: post #12

[Unreasonable expectations and little knowledge or inclination to try things out] Please don't read the previous bracketed sentence as snarky or insulting - it reflects the fact that he bought an unlocked phone and expected it to work great out of box with T-Mobile (including WiFi calling!) and he wasn't inclined to search the Play Store for TMobile Voicemail - so there is definitely substance to that sentence. But I…

Insulting iOS users is not a productive way to start a discussion. 1) It's fair to let people choose a different app (I know many people really want this on iOS), but I think his complaint is valid. There are many situations where it's completely unclear to a new user why they should use app X over Y for photo management/SMS/etc. To ask them before they've even used the app the first time nearly ensures they're not r…

Insulting iOS users? Where do you get that from? Users are users - they have preferences. Some prefer simple and not having to think and some prefer tweaking, suprises and flexibility. If I had said "stupid" iOS users then it would be an insult.

1) No his complaint isn't valid. There are sensible defaults - it only becomes a choice if you install another app that does the same things. In this case Gallery is built in and Google Photos is well Google's. It's not as if every app has a choice on launch. And how exactly are you going to solve the problem of user not having tried one or the other if the user isn't willing to choose one? Throw him a training video for both apps? That sounds even worse.

3) The whole idea of Android is different things for different people. You don't go buy an $699 unlocked phone and use it as a Specifically Optimized for Carrier X phone. It is an unlocked phone designed to run on many carriers as possible. If you need to download an app or two for further customization that's not really a big problem. If it is, then you should've bought something from T-Mobile store that they've customized for you. Wanting it both ways while pretending to be a simpleton user doesn't warrant any discussion.

4) If you need a certain type of lock screen and aren't willing to install one - you should at least look at the phones in a retail store and pick the one with the right lock screen - you can find a lot I bet. Complaining about HTC having confusing lock screen is contradictory to entire point of how Android works.

5) Yeah, sure - but at least it works. What other better options do you have - not having it? That's a worse solution. But yes, Google can do some tightening up on both Copy/Paste and Back button.

> That's not what I saw

So you saw him giving a solution or two that is not "do it iOS way - including don't have a back button"?

Re: A User Experience Designer Switches from iOS to Android

#30

Post by ssmoot »

blinkingled wrote: post #12

[Unreasonable expectations and little knowledge or inclination to try things out] Please don't read the previous bracketed sentence as snarky or insulting - it reflects the fact that he bought an unlocked phone and expected it to work great out of box with T-Mobile (including WiFi calling!) and he wasn't inclined to search the Play Store for TMobile Voicemail - so there is definitely substance to that sentence. But I…

4. The MotoX lock screen sometimes unlocked with a swipe of a dot, and sometimes up from the bottom depending on wether there was an unaddressed notification. Incredibly annoying. You can unlock an iPhone 100% of the time blindly while pulling it out of your pocket. Not so Android.

5. No, it doesn't really. Because on iOS the convention is top-left. If it's not there, then you don't have that functionality in that app/area (obvious right?). On Android? Who knows what it does before you try it within a given app? Is it going to go "back"? Is it going to goto another app? The home screen? No idea.

7. iOS notifications are just better. I unpacked my MotoX. After following the first couple tasks in the Notifications list I wondered what that weird misaligned stack icon did. So I hit it. No more task list! Whatever Motorolla wanted me to see there and follow up on was just gone for good with no way to retrieve it. The universally praised "Active Notifications" on the MotoX? Never could figure out what's so "Active" about them. They don't seem to do anything iOS doesn't do except limit you to taking action on only the latest one (that's bad), and changing up how you unlock the phone (that's 0 for 2 bad).

I'll toss another one out there: The 90's called and they want their SMS App back. ;-)

I go back and forth between iOS and Android. Had a Nexus One. It was stolen. Got a 4S. Traded in an iPhone 5 for the MotoX. Traded in the MotoX for a 5C. This time I've kept my 5C and ordered a Sony Z Ultra GPE.

There's some neat things about Android for sure. But it's hard to believe there's people out there who are frequent users of both and think a superior UX is one of those things.

edit: Side note: I'm not sure I've ever seen such a down-vote brigade in effect on HN before. No replies, just down votes? If that doesn't scream fan-boy brigade I don't know what does...

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