Live data from Hacker News

Perfectly Cropped

tyler.io

231–240 of 571 posts

Re: Perfectly Cropped

#231
post #135

I need to use a MacBook Pro for work. Discovering that there is an option to make scrollbars always visible when there is scrolling to be done was, by a significant margin, the best QOL improvement I have discovered. This happens to me so often it's ridiculous. Maybe because I'm just used to seeing a scrollbar if there is a Y-overflow, and people that grew up with this system know to -- I guess just like try scrollin…

I pretty much always use an external mouse on my Mac at work and at home. Plugging in a mouse automatically makes scrollbars always visible on a Mac and I didn't even realize that for a long while

Clearly, those of us who prefer a real mouse are too addled to use anything more sophisticated, so I suppose this, at least, is a +1 in the usability area.

Re: Perfectly Cropped

#232
post #156

"But I see them impact my aging parents all the time." I've realized lately that I'm actually entering this zone. For the last 20 years I've been talking about how stuff like this is a nightmare for the "aging" community. 20 years is a long time, and now I'm falling into it. The big one for me in this new version of iOS was that: 1) I couldn't figure out how to move my cursor around. It used to be perfect. I held my…

Designers gotta design, I guess. How to justify that $300,000 annual compensation when there's no work left to do?

As evidenced by all the posters here who didn't know about features, there's plenty of work left to do.

Re: Perfectly Cropped

#233
post #211

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"It feels like change for the sake of change when it worked perfectly before." To my mind this is becoming a BIG problem in tech and I'm really saddened to see Apple falling for it. I guess too many people in a position to change things that feel like they need to justify their positions. Either way, it needs to stop. Sometimes good enough is good enough.

Apple design often prioritizes "slick, stylish and minimal" over straightforward, obvious and pragmatic utility. It's definitely gotten worse as demonstrated with the iPhone X, but they've always had things like hidden gestures and timed presses for basic functionality. Android designers aren't doing much better though.

Agreed, on both accounts. I'd like to interject that 15-10 years ago, Apple was stellar at this, I only noticed their general UX/UI out-of-this-world-excellence slipping down (slightly, still among the best-in-class, just not the unrivaled best) as of 2014 or so for the very first "little things", and by 2016-17 it had become a true UX issue for me.

I frequently support my mother for all digital things, and everytime I need to fix something on her iPad (or formerly her iMac, since then I put her on Windows), I too often spend several frustrating hours with a 50/50 chance of success. Android for my SO is the same, my god, it's a misery of UX, the absence of thought into human cognitive flow reminds me of old Windows sometimes.

To be fair I think we're seeing one downside of an agile ecosystem where things are much less holistic, much more disjointed than with previous waterfall, major version box paradigm. It'll take time before we collectively learn how to address these issues under the (relatively) new DevOps model. Things are moving fast, faster than ever; UX requires time. There's a fundamental tension here, it's not an easy problem.

Re: Perfectly Cropped

#234
post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was out with a group of friends last night and had an interesting conversation when no one else realized you can search iMessages. From the main Messages window, swipe down and previously hidden search bar appears. There's no indication this is an option or it exists. As far as I know it's been there since at least iOS 9.0 (probably longer) and 6 people hadn't found it yet.

This is a common iOS design pattern now. I'm sure there are lots of search bars you are missing.

I've been using an iPhone since 2010 and I had no idea

Re: Perfectly Cropped

#235

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or the "shake to undo" in Notes on iOS that is totally undiscoverable. Also, three fingers gestures, 4 key keyboard shortcuts and ton of UI that changes when alt is pressed, Apple OS are actually harder to use than Windows in some respect.

Shake to undo applies to all text boxes on iOS. But I don't blame you if you didn't know that, I only knew about it from the iPhone OS 3(?) keynote that introduced it!

Well, I actually learnt about it years ago then forgot it. So, not only its impossible to find, it’s also easy to forget because no visual clues remind it.

Re: Perfectly Cropped

#236
Maybe we could bounce all scrollable areas along their scroll direction when you open an app so you can see they're hiding a control. Like a 0.5 second tutorial.

Re: Perfectly Cropped

#237
post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Has anyone ever used that on purpose?

Yes, often, it is such an odd manoeuvre that it is hard to forget, like dragging an ejectable to the trash. But I feel like I look stupid. And it does not always work. There has to be a better way.

> it does not always work.

Just keep shaking until you see the popup appear. The phone also "thumps" (with the vibration motor) to let you know it felt what you were trying to do.

Disclaimer: I am not trying to posit that this is a better way.

Re: Perfectly Cropped

#238
post #232

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Designers gotta design, I guess. How to justify that $300,000 annual compensation when there's no work left to do?

As evidenced by all the posters here who didn't know about features, there's plenty of work left to do.

Indeed there is, but not in the area of adding more cryptic, convention-breaking features offering little improvement in the user's experience, even when they do not actually degrade it.

Re: Perfectly Cropped

#239
post #135

I need to use a MacBook Pro for work. Discovering that there is an option to make scrollbars always visible when there is scrolling to be done was, by a significant margin, the best QOL improvement I have discovered. This happens to me so often it's ridiculous. Maybe because I'm just used to seeing a scrollbar if there is a Y-overflow, and people that grew up with this system know to -- I guess just like try scrollin…

Peak OSX / MacOS was Snow Leopard. From next version they hid scrollbars, swapped default scroll direction and started a steady move to make it seem everything should be hidden like iOS.

Snow Leopard was also the last version that included Rosetta; after that many old apps became unusable.

Re: Perfectly Cropped

#240

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You know, those things can also make something called a 'phone call' where you are voice-connected?

Not so easy to do when you haven't committed your coworkers numbers to memory.

...call home, get spouse to send email or call co-worker. Have some imagination.
Post reply on HN