Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

iPhones are hard to use

blog.fawny.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

371–380 of 652 posts

Re: iPhones are hard to use

#371

Post by Naracion »

fit2rule wrote: post #358
aidos wrote: post #352

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why? The initial setup is for the things you set once and never need to change. I tell my phone I want it in English during on boarding - and then I never need that setting again.

Eyesight changes over time. People learn new languages, and want to switch. Making these decisions for the user and then forcing them forever is decidedly un-user-friendly.

How often do you think this happens? I am through and through an Android + Windows user and hate Apple for certain things but I do have to admit their design decisions are pretty solid most of the time.

It's not like you're learning a new language everyday. Nor losing your eyesight. Keep in mind that the life of a cellphone is anywhere between one and six years, for most tends to be around three (speculation). Isn't reason enough to make it a top priority for people to be able to access language / text size changes in their settings everyday.

Re: iPhones are hard to use

#372

Post by NotAmazin »

varenc wrote: post #110

Most of this article just lists semi-advanced features that people don't know about. I think that’s Apple’s intention... Having every feature and option up in your face can reduce usability and make simple tasks harder for the average user. Apple wants a product that's easy for anyone to use and that often means keeping non-essential features out of the way. I’d be more interesting in seeing feedback for Apple on how…

I don't think making your market small and extremely fragmented is call for innovation. Certain features should be available easier for the ease of the user. If you don't like the environment you're using, and you can't change it, you're being abused by the software.

Re: iPhones are hard to use

#373

Post by dustinmoris »

Not sure I agree with the majority that's been said there and I say that despite replying from a Pixel now. I think most critique there had little to do with Apple and isba general tech-has-advanced-so-far problem that some demographics might struggle to stay on top of everything new. The same things apply to my Pixel phone. Currently my biggest annoyance is that in the latest update they changed the WiFi button in the top menu to turn on/off WiFi instead of opening the list of available networks. Now I need to long press it to open up the menu and I see that my wife struggles to do that now. Some things will always be difficult for people. My grandma also struggles with a contact less payment card and personally I don't see how chip and pin is easier than a quick tap with the card but she swears it's easier to her, so what can I do!?

Re: iPhones are hard to use

#374

Post by fit2rule »

coldtea wrote: post #360
fit2rule wrote: post #340

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If its important enough to put in on boarding, its important to have it handily available through easy to access means during regular use.

I don't think so. What's important for setup is not important everyday. Some things you just need to be able to set once and forget. No reason to put those things front and center.

Language? I'd quite like to be able to change that frequently. I see no good reason to have mono-culture enforced by the OS. There are three languages spoken in my household, by various family members. Changing the language dynamically for them would be a benefit, not a hindrance.

Text size? Same - I often have to show something to my elderly family members, but digging deep into the menu's to find the Text Size setting is very distracting.

I think what's happening in this thread is that people are simply attempting to justify bad design decisions without thinking things through. Language should be something you can change, with ease. Same with text size. Ditto, Wifi access, etc.

Re: iPhones are hard to use

#375

Post by coldtea »

fit2rule wrote: post #369
coldtea wrote: post #362

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or, you know, the person can search for 1-2 minutes how to change the font, when they need to, if and when their "eyesight changes" enough during their years of using iPhones to warranty it. Better than cramming every such feature as a first priority, and making a UI that's confusing for everyday use.

You didn't read the article? Even though its buried there, in the system prefs, people who need to change such settings still cannot find them. That's the point: the UI is already confusing for everyday use, and we honestly expect better of Apple.

>You didn't read the article? Even though its buried there, in the system prefs, people who need to change such settings still cannot find them.

They can always look them up (online), set them, and forget them. Better than having all such settings front and center over more commonly used settings.

Re: iPhones are hard to use

#376

Post by danellis »

reitanqild wrote: post #292
rangibaby wrote: post #286

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Steve Jobs was heavily against hidden functionality (sorry there is a word for it I can't remember off the top of my head). It's why Macs had one-button mice for so long. It wasn't until the third major revision of the OS that iPhones got copy+paste!

> Steve Jobs was heavily against hidden functionality (sorry there is a word for it I can't remember off the top of my head). It's why Macs had one-button mice for so long. That doesn't make sense at all to me: The right click button on a mouse is visible. The Mac way of hiding it behind the ctrl key was non-discoverable and non-obvious to me.

> sorry there is a word for it

You're probably thinking of either discoverability or affordance.

Re: iPhones are hard to use

#377

Post by coldtea »

fit2rule wrote: post #374
coldtea wrote: post #360

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think so. What's important for setup is not important everyday. Some things you just need to be able to set once and forget. No reason to put those things front and center.

Language? I'd quite like to be able to change that frequently. I see no good reason to have mono-culture enforced by the OS. There are three languages spoken in my household, by various family members. Changing the language dynamically for them would be a benefit, not a hindrance. Text size? Same - I often have to show something to my elderly family members, but digging deep into the menu's to find the Text Size sett…

>Language? I'd quite like to be able to change that frequently. I see no good reason to have mono-culture enforced by the OS.

That's an outlier request, if I ever saw one, and the accusation is absurd (they give localizations for the OS and tons of things like Siri for dozens or hundreds of languages, so to say they ..."enforce a mono-culture" because they don't allow one to see Spanish one day and French the next on the menu" is contrived at best.

The vast majority of people just don't change the language frequently, and wouldn't do it even if it had a dedicated rotary switch on the side.

If that's the best argument, Apple is doing pretty well.

Re: iPhones are hard to use

#378

Post by lozenge »

sutterbomb wrote: post #182
lozenge wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Opening the app switcher is essentially a gesture. As is opening quick settings. Opening notifications makes a little more sense as notifications appear at the top of the screen. Rearranging the home screen is also a gesture.

Thanks, fair examples. How is home screen arrangement handled in android?

A long press on the icon you want to move and you've picked it up (it comes "closer" to you and moves to be exactly under your finger). Drag it around and other icons will move around to preview/indicate where it'd be. Let go and it drops into place. There is no jiggling. You can also drag to Remove or Uninstall (Remove leaves it in the alphabetical app drawer).

Creating folders is the same as iPhone.

There is a caveat that if the icon was held very still then you'll open a menu similar to 3D touch menu. I never use this because it isn't that discoverable.

Re: iPhones are hard to use

#379

Post by tomaskafka »

askafriend wrote: post #153
nilkn wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For what it’s worth, I use 3D Touch pretty much every day. The number one usage for me is moving the cursor around while editing text. I actually did it while writing this post; I decided I wanted to add a comma after “worth” at the beginning and did so easily with this feature.

This exact function is duplicated by long pressing on the space bar. This has been there since iOS 11, I believe. So you don't actually need 3D Touch to have the benefit of the awesome cursor UX.

Whaaaat? I'm on my 3rd iPhone and I never found this, I just assumed that Apple was punishing people who wouldn't upgrade to 6s by denying them this feature.

Re: iPhones are hard to use

#380

Post by xg15 »

parinvachhani wrote: post #361

It's sad to see that many people here in the discussion are not trying to critically assess the subject matter in proper context and rather targeting the article author about his bias or why he dedicated a whole paragraph to a certain issue. Seriously? We can all do much better than this.

What is the proper context?
Post reply on HN