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A User Experience Designer Switches from iOS to Android

jacksonfish.com

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Re: A User Experience Designer Switches from iOS to Android

#41

Post by blinkingled »

aaronem wrote: post #39
blinkingled wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> Unreasonable expectations and little knowledge or inclination to try things out - sounds like perfect iOS user to me This you don't recognize as an insult? I'll bet you're a constant delight to your acquaintances.

I replied to a similar comment above. I sincerely wasn't insulting him. I was just pointing out that iOS/iPhone is a perfect choice for people who don't like to be bothered with these type of things. I might just change the wording given how many found it offensive.

Re: A User Experience Designer Switches from iOS to Android

#42

Post by magicalist »

aaronem wrote: post #8
izzydata wrote: post #7

Almost all of this guys problems are the result of giving the user options that simply don't exist in iOS. If you really need your OS to tell you how YOU want to do things then I guess you really should go back to the locked down iOS. Choices are hard. Apparently even choosing what phone was too hard.

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…

This really is a false dichotomy. Being able to set different default apps isn't a huge thing to ask, doesn't alienate huge numbers of non-techies, and doesn't make an OS that does let you do so for tinkerers only or something. Conversely, asking for better UX for selecting which app to use doesn't imply that it's a bad idea that can only be serviced by a million knobs and buttons and so should be abandoned.

Re: A User Experience Designer Switches from iOS to Android

#43

Post by aaronem »

magicalist wrote: post #42
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…

This really is a false dichotomy. Being able to set different default apps isn't a huge thing to ask, doesn't alienate huge numbers of non-techies, and doesn't make an OS that does let you do so for tinkerers only or something. Conversely, asking for better UX for selecting which app to use doesn't imply that it's a bad idea that can only be serviced by a million knobs and buttons and so should be abandoned.

Thanks for pointing out the lack of precision in my preceding comment; by using the phrase "could offer" I erroneously implied a conviction that no such capability was possible. I've edited that comment, replacing "could offer" with "offered", to correct the problem.

Re: A User Experience Designer Switches from iOS to Android

#44

Post by mfish »

blinkingled wrote: post #35
skunkworks wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Unreasonable expectations and little knowledge or inclination to try things out - sounds like perfect iOS user to me Don't play dumb.

Unreasonable expectations - Buying an unlocked, generic, carrier unspecific phone and expecting it to work great out of box on T-Mobile. Little knowledge or inclination - not sure which one, but of course he had either little knowledge not to buy unlocked phone OR little inclination to find out that TMobile Voicemail app in Play store. What's wrong about what I said? And people can be that way - I am hardly insulting…

How is it unreasonable to buy a phone and expect it to work? Anything less than that is either the carrier screwing up a phone that works fine or HTC screwing up by not having a phone that works without the carrier's help. It is bad user experience, which is what his post is all about

Re: A User Experience Designer Switches from iOS to Android

#45

Post by magicalist »

I feel like this whole comments section just fell out of a time machine, which isn't surprising, as this article does as well. This would fit in well with all the 2011 "UX guy roughs it with Android" stories, but it feels weirdly archaic today.

In today's world, it's like writing a story about the time you went to Kmart instead of Target and barely lived to tell about it. They didn't even have price scanners on the end of each aisle! Who cares?

If you're a mobile developer (and do it all, apparently), you should have "lived with" an Android phone years ago. Talk about UX issues (and how about something actually interesting: as a new user, you might have insight on how people should be doing good UX for apps on Android), but leave the drama behind. Talking about it as some horribly broken experience you lived through sounds ridiculous to anyone who actually uses Android[1]

[1] Exception made for the 17.3% of people on Android before version 4. That would be a journey still filled with terrors https://developer.android.com/about/dashboards/index.html

Re: A User Experience Designer Switches from iOS to Android

#46

Post by blinkingled »

mfish wrote: post #44
blinkingled wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unreasonable expectations - Buying an unlocked, generic, carrier unspecific phone and expecting it to work great out of box on T-Mobile. Little knowledge or inclination - not sure which one, but of course he had either little knowledge not to buy unlocked phone OR little inclination to find out that TMobile Voicemail app in Play store. What's wrong about what I said? And people can be that way - I am hardly insulting…

How is it unreasonable to buy a phone and expect it to work? Anything less than that is either the carrier screwing up a phone that works fine or HTC screwing up by not having a phone that works without the carrier's help. It is bad user experience, which is what his post is all about

It worked - I have always used unlocked phones and you do get voicemail notifications without doing anything further. (There are still possibilities of issues if you bought European model it won't have US Carrier's APN Settings etc. but that's hardly reasonable to expect.) He wanted T-Mobile VoiceMail app to be bundled with it and also WiFi calling - both are carrier specific features which would have worked fine if he would have bought the right phone -T-Mobile HTC One. Expecting that to work on an unlocked, carrier unspecific phone designed to be LCD on as many GSM carriers is nothing but unreasonable.

Re: A User Experience Designer Switches from iOS to Android

#47

Post by ssmoot »

MBCook wrote: post #36
ssmoot wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

iOS has choices in Photos believe it or not. The iOS7 "intents"-alike screen is pretty ubiquitous. The issue here is they were both installed OTB (according to the article). If he'd installed Photos himself he'd presumably understand why he did so and be better informed when presented with the choice. Instead he was given a choice of "toe-may-toe" vs "toe-mah-toe" with no explanation.

That's the share screen, and it's quite different from intents. There is simply no way on iOS to choose another app to be your default web browser, mail client, SMS client, central photo repository, etc. Apps can say "You can send photos here" but there is no way for one app to advertise to another "You can ask me for photos".

Ah. You're right. I stand corrected. I could see how that could be useful if I were, for example, an Instagram user.

Re: A User Experience Designer Switches from iOS to Android

#48

Post by hillel »

blinkingled wrote: post #41
aaronem wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Unreasonable expectations and little knowledge or inclination to try things out - sounds like perfect iOS user to me This you don't recognize as an insult? I'll bet you're a constant delight to your acquaintances.

I replied to a similar comment above. I sincerely wasn't insulting him. I was just pointing out that iOS/iPhone is a perfect choice for people who don't like to be bothered with these type of things. I might just change the wording given how many found it offensive.

My issue is not that I abhor choice. Choice is fine and sometimes good. My issue was that I was confronted with these choices out of the box. And the impetus for this was Google's business choices at the expense of a seamless user experience.

Re: A User Experience Designer Switches from iOS to Android

#49

Post by mfish »

blinkingled wrote: post #35
skunkworks wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Unreasonable expectations and little knowledge or inclination to try things out - sounds like perfect iOS user to me Don't play dumb.

Unreasonable expectations - Buying an unlocked, generic, carrier unspecific phone and expecting it to work great out of box on T-Mobile. Little knowledge or inclination - not sure which one, but of course he had either little knowledge not to buy unlocked phone OR little inclination to find out that TMobile Voicemail app in Play store. What's wrong about what I said? And people can be that way - I am hardly insulting…

>He wanted T-Mobile VoiceMail app to be bundled

no, he wanted voicemail. T-Mobile decided to require a different app.

Re: A User Experience Designer Switches from iOS to Android

#50

Post by hillel »

blinkingled wrote: post #35
skunkworks wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Unreasonable expectations and little knowledge or inclination to try things out - sounds like perfect iOS user to me Don't play dumb.

Unreasonable expectations - Buying an unlocked, generic, carrier unspecific phone and expecting it to work great out of box on T-Mobile. Little knowledge or inclination - not sure which one, but of course he had either little knowledge not to buy unlocked phone OR little inclination to find out that TMobile Voicemail app in Play store. What's wrong about what I said? And people can be that way - I am hardly insulting…

Voicemail shouldn't be a carrier specific experience. Is there something so differentiated about the t-mobile voicemail experience vs. the verizon voice mail experience? Shouldn't there just bean android voice mail experience that the carrier can direct at their back end as appropriate?

I don't think it's unreasonable to expect that a core feature (like voice mail) should work out of the box with no additional installations on my part.

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