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iPhones are hard to use

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Re: iPhones are hard to use

#251

Post by Bud »

graeme wrote: post #179
Bud wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the user manual. Which is, btw, one of the very best user manuals you will ever see. It's very easy to find, and the fact you haven't found it tells me you probably didn't bother searching, since almost any Google search finds it instantly: https://support.apple.com/manuals/iphone And no: Apple does not "believe their product is so easy to understand that people will just get it". You just made that up. It's...sur…

I'm an avid apple user and honestly had no idea that manual existed. They could do a better job advertising it. Is there anything in the box mentioning it? Edit: and according to the article, the manual doesn't cover a lot of the hidden features described in the article. I learned at least five new things: select multiple pictures, announce calls, swipe right for forward, and a couple others I don't recall. I would r…

Absolutely correct. This is actually one of Apple's biggest flaws: failure to take credit for dozens and dozens of things that they do better than anyone else. Failure to advertise it, to market it, to inform.

Re: iPhones are hard to use

#252

Post by fyfy18 »

pcmoney wrote: post #21

Ok, I need to say it. This article just has iPhone in the title to get more views. This is a problem with not just all smartphones but all rapidly evolving technology products. Do you think you could hand an android phone to one of those example cases and have them do any better with it? Also half of the time I am in an apple store I am helped by someone who needs to use the accessibility features to check me out/in.…

Microsoft have done a pretty good job with Windows 10 when you first set it up.

By default it reads out all the prompts for setting up your PC with Cortana, so if you wish you can setup everything via voice. I haven't ever tried it, so can't comment on how well it works, but it seems like a good start...

Re: iPhones are hard to use

#253

Post by Bud »

PhasmaFelis wrote: post #198
Bud wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the user manual. Which is, btw, one of the very best user manuals you will ever see. It's very easy to find, and the fact you haven't found it tells me you probably didn't bother searching, since almost any Google search finds it instantly: https://support.apple.com/manuals/iphone And no: Apple does not "believe their product is so easy to understand that people will just get it". You just made that up. It's...sur…

> And no: Apple does not "believe their product is so easy to understand that people will just get it". You just made that up. You're being weirdly hostile about this. I like Apple's design for the most part, and I enjoy a good comprehensive manual as much as the next guy, but the expectation these days is that software should be self-teaching. Presenting the user with an incomprehensible pile of options is bad, but…

I am sorry if I came across as hostile. My apologies.

Re: iPhones are hard to use

#254

Post by exabrial »

Such a great point about diversity: they're not. Apple products allow you to live the life a 24 year old silicon valley hipster. Granted Apple is making a _ton_ of money off this target audience however, so it's hard to criticize their approach

Re: iPhones are hard to use

#255

Post by int_19h »

rayiner wrote: post #111
ProfessorLayton wrote: post #15

There's a lot to unpack here, and a lot to disagree with, as I believe there's plenty of evidence Apple cares a lot about accessibility. Also harping on specific terminology like password vs passcode is not really productive in terms of improving the underlying UX, as the word gets translated into tons of languages which may or may not have the same level of nuance. While I don't necessarily agree with the premise, e…

It's gotten worse. Screens keep getting bigger, but more and more functionality keeps getting hidden behind undiscoverable swipes and taps. I've been an iPhone user since the 3G, I used to program computers for a living, and I don't have a reliable mental model of what the available gestures even are these days. I'm reduced to randomly tapping and pressing and swiping like some sort of idiot.

I'm generally dismayed at the state of UX in general, and mobile UX in particular, these days.

It feels like we have regressed a lot from where we were in the "golden age of the desktop". I mean, we actually had standards for things - remember CUA? And UX was designed in a way that made it so that once you learn a few basic tricks (like double click and drag and drop), they would work everywhere, and they would do so consistently. Consistency, in general, was key to the UX of that era. Some things might not have been as easy to access as they are today, but all things could be found where you expected them. Even the menu hierarchy was largely standardized.

Now, even if you stick to one particular platform, it often changes the concepts radically within 4-5 years; and many of those aren't even consistently applied. Worse yet, instead of fixing the mess, the UX designers just keep piling more and more stuff, like Apple's "3D touch".

Re: iPhones are hard to use

#256

Post by tartoran »

megablast wrote: post #152

I think Apple intention was for people to grow with iOS. iOS has added more and more features, but if you started with an earlier version, and kept updating there are only minor changed to learn each time. Jumping into an iphone these days would be hard for someone coming from no smartphone.

I grew with IOS, loved 6 through 9, even 10 but with exceptions. I highly dislike the current version though

Re: iPhones are hard to use

#257

Post by kbenson »

graeme wrote: post #181
kbenson wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> People like to explain away Apple's success as merely the product of "fanboys" they've had for decades, as though the same 10 million guys who bought the first iphone are somehow responsible for the 50+ million phones apple sells each quarter. Given the world's fashion industry is worth trillions , it will take a more persuasive argument than that to convince me it's not heavily influenced by people's perception of…

Do you mean fashion, or luxury? Fashion and apparel is 1.2 trillion. But that includes clothing , which is a necessary item. The luxury goods industry, by contrast, is only worth 250 billion. https://www.statista.com/topics/1110/global-luxury-goods-ind... I feel your analogy is not very well founded.

> Do you mean fashion, or luxury? Fashion and apparel is 1.2 trillion. But that includes clothing, which is a necessary item.

I was using https://fashionunited.com/global-fashion-industry-statistics, which has slightly different values (but it's likely including labor force).

And yes, I meant fashion, including clothing. Either works in this case, as both are very large numbers, and a large amount of the general apparel category is also carried by brands and brand awareness. Just because it's not Louis Vuitton doesn't mean people aren't opting for the Gap instead of Walmart, Target, or in years past, Kmart because of perceived value and status.

> I feel your analogy is not very well founded.

Feel free to provide a counter example, or explain why the specifics you called out change the point I was trying to express. Maybe you thought what you already provided was self-evident, but I don't see it that way so I don't see how you've provided any evidence that it's not well founded.

Re: iPhones are hard to use

#258

Post by batiudrami »

ttty wrote: post #207
batiudrami wrote: post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When iPhones first came out they were a dream to use - but I think that was largely because they didn't do very much. Picking up an iPhone 3GS (the first one I saw in real life) the interface was fast, intuitive and accessible. However, as more features were added, Apple's desire to keep things appearing to be simple and clean, and their refusal to increase screen size, meant features get hidden away, behind swipes,…

Are you joking? On the iPhone 3 I couldn't even copy paste....

>because they didn't do very much

They also didn't send MMS. No Flash, at a time when the web was highly reliant on it. No front facing camera. No practical way to share files. But the interface was definitely simple and easy to understand.

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