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Perfectly Cropped

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Re: Perfectly Cropped

#391

Post by matt-attack »

unlinked_dll wrote: post #335
_bxg1 wrote: post #323

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In fairness, iOS these days is wildly unintuitive, and I'm not yet thirty. It's positively littered with hidden gestures and features that you'd never discover during normal usage. Many of them are really slick once you learn about them! But discoverability is worse not only compared to previous Apple software, but even to other systems like Android. And from what I've read, iPadOS is even worse.

I switched from iOS to Android in the iPhone 4 days, and switched back last month. The new iOS UI/UX is horrible and it's extremely difficult to understand how the hell to navigate anything. Part of this is the obsession over gestures in place of buttons, the size of the screens and distance of the swipes also makes it difficult to use with one hand (I can't use my thumb to unlock the device), apps are completely uni…

> The Podcasts app might be the best example of a horribly designed product. I can't believe anyone at Apple is actually using that app.

Every time I start an episode I immediately just to the nice "jump 15sec" button that's in the lower right so that I can skip the lead-in ads. But I've found that button to be terribly unreliable. As I find myself jamming it over and over trying to skip the ads that I'm hearing.

What I discovered is the contact patch for the button is actually quite small, so you have to just delicately tap it with the tip of your finger so that it doesn't register touch outside of it boundary. Super frustrating when the clear boundaries of buttons disappears back in the dawn of "all things flat".

Note this may have improved in iOS 13 but I have yet to upgrade.

Re: Perfectly Cropped

#392

Post by reaperducer »

globular-toast wrote: post #76
the_duke wrote: post #10

I switched to Android around the time iPhone 5 came out. Whenever I touch one now, I feel like a idiot and dinosaur. It can take me minutes to figure out the most basic things, and often I end up searching on the web. In the pursuit of a "clean" UI, iOS has become completely unintuitive and confusing.

The iPhones have degraded in every respect as far as I can tell. When I got my first Android phone about 4 years ago I didn't want to spend a lot of money. I was surprised at how expensive the iPhone was but after using a friends phone I understood that it was a higher quality product and you got what you paid for. But my girlfriend recently got the latest one (11?) and I was shocked at how bad it is. It feels absolu…

Somehow it's considered OK that the phone doesn't even sit flat on a surface

That's a feature, not a bug.

When placed on a surface, the phone becomes a tripod, so that any hard dirt or crumbs can't scratch the majority of the surface. It reduces the potential surface area and the parts of the phone that will most likely be scratched by being placed on a dirty surface are confined to the bottom edge and the edge of the lens protrusion.

Re: Perfectly Cropped

#393

Post by ProfessorLayton »

bloody-crow wrote: post #341
Moru wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But why do I spend so much money to get a thin phone and then spend even more to make it thicker?

Because you can put a decent case on a thin phone and get a reasonably sized brick that can fit in a pocket and doesn't feel too awkward to hold in your hand. When you put a case on a not-so thin phone, it becomes way to large for most people.

iPhones as recent as the SE are able to lay flat on a table + be reasonably sized with a case. It really is a bizarre trend that I hope goes away.

Re: Perfectly Cropped

#394

Post by matt-attack »

nothrabannosir wrote: post #318
andrewla wrote: post #273

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To summarize this thread (HN is still the best place to get IOS tips and tricks): Three ways to move the cursor, from most reliable to least: 1. Hold down space bar and you'll enter a mode where moving your finger moves the cursor. 2. Drag it from its current location to a new location. This gets finicky, especially if you move your finger out of the text area; the cursor will move to the end of the text, but the hig…

> 1. Do a three finger unpinch gesture, and it will paste at the cursor. Crazy! Apparently there's a whole set of commands accessible this way, most notably three finger swipe left = undo!!! This is a significant improvement. They could've told me while I was painstakingly shake - confirm undo - shake - confirm undo - shake - confirm undo ...... ing!

Don't forget that three finger swipe right does... "redo"!

Re: Perfectly Cropped

#395

Post by _bxg1 »

unlinked_dll wrote: post #343
_bxg1 wrote: post #342

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've gotten to where I really enjoy using it (for the most part: the notifications list stands out as feeling terrible compared to Android), but only after, like, reading guides on the internet . Which is the kind of thing Apple products have traditionally prided themselves on not requiring.

re: notifications Is there a way to dismiss them with a single gesture like on Android? I haven't figured that part out, it's weird since swiping it right opens it, but so does tapping it, and swiping left opens a Manage | View | Clear All (x) menu. It's so hard to use this thing with one hand...

If you tap the X on a stack there's a "Clear All" button

Re: Perfectly Cropped

#396

Post by _bxg1 »

obituary_latte wrote: post #368
unlinked_dll wrote: post #343

Earlier quoted context omitted.

re: notifications Is there a way to dismiss them with a single gesture like on Android? I haven't figured that part out, it's weird since swiping it right opens it, but so does tapping it, and swiping left opens a Manage | View | Clear All (x) menu. It's so hard to use this thing with one hand...

Just tried it and it looks like you can long-press then swipe down to dismiss.

See I've had an iPhone for a year now and I didn't know that

Re: Perfectly Cropped

#398

Post by _bxg1 »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #389
unlinked_dll wrote: post #335

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I switched from iOS to Android in the iPhone 4 days, and switched back last month. The new iOS UI/UX is horrible and it's extremely difficult to understand how the hell to navigate anything. Part of this is the obsession over gestures in place of buttons, the size of the screens and distance of the swipes also makes it difficult to use with one hand (I can't use my thumb to unlock the device), apps are completely uni…

> The new iOS UI/UX is horrible and it's extremely difficult to understand how the hell to navigate anything Meta comment. It's interesting to see the debate on HN between optimizing for power users versus lay users. For the latter, we cryptic settings and/or hidden functionality. For the latter, we get a limited set of communicated functions.

What's weird is that Apple products used to be for lay users (and still pretty much market themselves that way), but their UX design is now much more power-user-friendly. Personally I'm mostly fine with it, it's just a weird source of dissonance.

Re: Perfectly Cropped

#399

Post by thaumasiotes »

gowld wrote: post #333
fragsworth wrote: post #266

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it's partially due to stack ranking. You have to justify your position to your peers (most of whom don't even use the application) and show everyone metrics of people using your crap. If you don't make any "improvements" to the app, you can't get any promotions. If an app is already perfect, then these "improvements" can only ruin the application. It should come as no surprise that if you ruin your UI, "engag…

Sure, that's the incentive. But then why aren't their managers laying off or reassigning the staff who have nothing to do but fiddle with things that were already fine? The problem goes right to the top of product development leadership.

> why aren't their managers laying off or reassigning the staff who have nothing to do but fiddle with things that were already fine?

A manager who loses all his staff isn't a manager.

Re: Perfectly Cropped

#400

Post by andrewla »

fragmede wrote: post #217
Zelphyr wrote: post #194

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.

I'm not sold on the new volume and silent mode controls on iOS 13. I can see where the designers are coming from, but it's harder to see and use. The bigger issue is that there's no setting to go back - the new way is just supposed to be better, for everybody.

Have the controls changed? I've only noticed changes in how it gets displayed -- what is harder to see and use? I mostly use the switch and the volume buttons.

The only thing that I've noticed is that when I use Sonos, it hijacks the volume button (so that the volume on my phone controls the volume of the Sonos speaker), but when I stop using Sonos (like leaving the network or doing something else that uses sound), the Sonos setting is sticky. I usually have my volume muted, but after selecting a song on Sonos my local device volume is adjusted to match whatever the Sonos volume was.

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