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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

#61

Post by blinkingled »

ssmoot wrote: post #59
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…

> You don't go buy an $699 unlocked phone and use it as a Specifically Optimized for Carrier X phone. The point is you don't need to with an iPhone. I bought my 5C used and unlocked. No problems hopping onto AT&T with it. It's not "optimized" because it shouldn't be. The carrier is just "a series of tubes". I don't want to buy an AIO, TMobile or AT&T phone. I bought a MotoX because I wanted a MotoX.

You are constantly asserting that it didn't work - I am telling you voice mail just works on any GSM Android unlocked phone on most carriers in the US. You keep conflating VoiceMail not working with VoiceMail not working visually through the app, like iOS has done since day 1. It clearly is not the case - again VME just works in the way most GSM users use it. "Visual" voicemail doesn't work until you download an carrier specific app if your phone is not carrier branded.

Re: A User Experience Designer Switches from iOS to Android

#62

Post by blinkingled »

mfish wrote: post #60
blinkingled wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It took me forever to realize that I had to download the T-Mobile voicemail app to get my voicemail That's all he says. Nowhere in the post he says voicemail didn't work - he implies he wanted an app to get his Voicemail like iOS. The regular voicemail stuff just works on any stock Android GSM phone - you get a notification for new ones and you can tap that or long press 1 to go to carrier voice mail box for your o…

He never says like iOS. you are inserting that. he says he never realized that, in order to get his voicemail (and i read that as to get it in any way shape or form), he had to download t mobiles app.

>He never says like iOS. you are inserting that.

Nitpicking much? iOS started the Visual Voice Mail thing. No GSM, non-iPhone user is used to using Visual Voice Mail App - they pretty much tap the VME notification or long dial 1 to get to voice mail - that still works on any unlocked Android with any GSM carrier.

Re: A User Experience Designer Switches from iOS to Android

#63

Post by ssmoot »

blinkingled wrote: post #61
ssmoot wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You don't go buy an $699 unlocked phone and use it as a Specifically Optimized for Carrier X phone. The point is you don't need to with an iPhone. I bought my 5C used and unlocked. No problems hopping onto AT&T with it. It's not "optimized" because it shouldn't be. The carrier is just "a series of tubes". I don't want to buy an AIO, TMobile or AT&T phone. I bought a MotoX because I wanted a MotoX.

You are constantly asserting that it didn't work - I am telling you voice mail just works on any GSM Android unlocked phone on most carriers in the US. You keep conflating VoiceMail not working with VoiceMail not working visually through the app, like iOS has done since day 1. It clearly is not the case - again VME just works in the way most GSM users use it. "Visual" voicemail doesn't work until you download an carr…

I mentioned it one time. I guess that's some sort of definition of "constantly". ;-)

I'm not confusing anything though. I just have an expectation that I won't be dialing into some arcane menu system to retrieve just the messages I want. I haven't done so for almost 7 years. I don't pay too much attention to other's habits, but I haven't noticed anyone else do that for almost as long.

Visual Voicemail is the only voicemail I'd bother with. I'd guess that's pretty typical these days. I've even gone months after switching carriers having not even called the carrier to get voicemail set up because who leaves voicemails anyways but telemarketers?

Maybe it's different outside the US or in developing markets with a lot of feature-phones. I wouldn't know. This is just my own experience in DFW.

Re: A User Experience Designer Switches from iOS to Android

#64

Post by youngtaff »

ssmoot wrote: post #30
blinkingled wrote: post #12

[Unreasonable expectations and little knowledge or inclination to try things out] Please don't read the previous bracketed sentence as snarky or insulting - it reflects the fact that he bought an unlocked phone and expected it to work great out of box with T-Mobile (including WiFi calling!) and he wasn't inclined to search the Play Store for TMobile Voicemail - so there is definitely substance to that sentence. But I…

4. The MotoX lock screen sometimes unlocked with a swipe of a dot, and sometimes up from the bottom depending on wether there was an unaddressed notification. Incredibly annoying. You can unlock an iPhone 100% of the time blindly while pulling it out of your pocket. Not so Android. 5. No, it doesn't really. Because on iOS the convention is top-left. If it's not there, then you don't have that functionality in that ap…

> There's some neat things about Android for sure. But it's hard to believe there's people out there who are frequent users of both and think a superior UX is one of those things.

I've got a Nexus 4, iPhone 4S, iPad and a few others beside and I'd argue for me that Android does have superior UX.

There's no way I could use the 4S as my daily phone, and I've put off getting a new tablet until there's a decent 8" Android one out.

Sure iOS has plenty of polished apps but the integration between them is at Apple's whim - to share a webpage from Safari to GetPocket, I have to rely on bookmarklets FFS.

iOSs keyboard is another deal breaker for me, after using Swype hunt and peck for typing on a touch screen is horrible and then there's trying to make sense as to whether shift is on or not!

Re: A User Experience Designer Switches from iOS to Android

#65

Post by youngtaff »

MBCook wrote: post #25
smrtinsert wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This part is funny, app interoperability is a huge feature. Some people should just stay on iOS I guess. I love that I can click a link and have various ways of understanding or consuming it. I guess there needs to be some tweaking around how and when it saves preferences for these intents, but personally this is a big part of the reason I'm on Android.

As an iOS user the concept is great and many people would LOVE something similar in the iOS world. It sounds like the implementation has some interface flaws that cause people problems. The core idea that I should be able to choose what app to use to manage my photos seems self-evident.

Biggest issue I have with it is there's no way of saying "No I don't ever want to see this intent again" i.e. control the sharing options so I can see a subset

Re: A User Experience Designer Switches from iOS to Android

#66

Post by ssmoot »

youngtaff wrote: post #64
ssmoot wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

4. The MotoX lock screen sometimes unlocked with a swipe of a dot, and sometimes up from the bottom depending on wether there was an unaddressed notification. Incredibly annoying. You can unlock an iPhone 100% of the time blindly while pulling it out of your pocket. Not so Android. 5. No, it doesn't really. Because on iOS the convention is top-left. If it's not there, then you don't have that functionality in that ap…

> There's some neat things about Android for sure. But it's hard to believe there's people out there who are frequent users of both and think a superior UX is one of those things. I've got a Nexus 4, iPhone 4S, iPad and a few others beside and I'd argue for me that Android does have superior UX. There's no way I could use the 4S as my daily phone, and I've put off getting a new tablet until there's a decent 8" Androi…

I wouldn't call the iOS keyboard "hunt and peck". You only need the visual for alignment. Otherwise your touch-typing skills seem to transfer pretty well. I mean, I don't have to wonder where the T key is before my thumb is moving towards it.

Calling the lack of Swype a deal-break seems perfectly reasonable to me though. To each their own. I saw my typing speed go through the floor on the MotoX, but that was due to two issues mostly:

1. Different key spacing. Which is entirely justified. I'm just not used to what I'm not used to. I imagine I'd have a similar frustrating re-training curve on the iPhone 6.

2. The lack of an easy apostrophe. You can tweak the stock keyboard a little bit, but mostly this one was nearly unforgivable to me. I try to get punctuation right and it drives me crazy that the stock Android keyboard seemed to be working against me there. Some alternative keyboards looked a little better, but they were almost universally tacky IMO and could've seriously used a few hours from an actual designer.

As a developer whose experience with designers is generally pretty frustrating (XHTML or Go Home! ... a few years later ... CSS for mobile first, and Desktop with media-queries, who cares if it breaks IE8 for no reason and has 0 advantages? It's Mobile-First to an extreme and you're a joke if you don't put the latest fad ahead of maintenance/functionality!) that almost hurts to say. ;-)

I haven't been able to make "Swyping" a habit. I've got no muscle memory for it. But almost everyone else I've met that's tried it loves it so I'm sure that's just me.

I'd be curious what parts of Android's UX you consider superior though. I could understand not wanting to make the 4S your daily phone just because of the screen size if nothing else. Plus iOS7 is pretty (IMO), but generally a step back in actual UX IMO with all the lagging issues (which seem to have improved a lot, but still occasionally annoying).

On the other hand the 4S's battery will be going well into the next day while the Nexus 4 would be on at least it's second charging cycle IME. The line where hardware issues qualify as UX is a bit fuzzy though I suppose.

I don't know what GetPocket is. But generally you can just hit the share/arrow button and copy if you're just interested in an address. I've found that to be a really comfortable workflow personally. I'm always pasting URLs, Images, etc into Hipchat.

Anyways, thanks for the respectful disagreement/comments. Certainly refreshing. Hopefully my end of the conversation holds up as well.

Re: A User Experience Designer Switches from iOS to Android

#67

Post by Gracana »

smrtinsert wrote: post #17
Gracana wrote: post #4

The two-apps/choose-your-app problems are something that my mother has found very frustrating, and I haven't really been able to come up with a good solution for her. It bothers me as well, but I have enough experience with similar things to be able to deal with it. But for her, it's a bunch of new stuff that all conflicts and interoperates differently. It's a disaster.

This part is funny, app interoperability is a huge feature. Some people should just stay on iOS I guess. I love that I can click a link and have various ways of understanding or consuming it. I guess there needs to be some tweaking around how and when it saves preferences for these intents, but personally this is a big part of the reason I'm on Android.

It's not necessarily the interoperability that's the problem, it's just that sometimes she can't do things that seem sensible (like send a photo to the email app), and why are there two calendars and two galleries and whatnot? Choice can be good, but when there is initially little differentiation between options, making choices becomes a burden.

Re: A User Experience Designer Switches from iOS to Android

#68

Post by visarga »

What I like is the fact that I could combine 2 or 3 apps to obtain a new functionality - this composability of Android. Example:

I go to Flow (reddit app) and find an article I like. I am in the car at the moment, waiting at the traffic sign. I open the article in a TTS reader that does article extraction and automatically starts reading to me. The voice is separately installed from a choice of vendors. Some of the voices are high quality (I still love Alex from Mac OS better, but I can't find it anywhere on mobile - read back to be in the voice of Alex for text proofing - lol). So now I can drive while my mobile reads my press to me like a radio station.

I couldn't do that on my iPhone. The apps aren't able to combine like that on iOS. I have just used 3 apps I found in the Play Store to improvise a functionality that didn't exist and probably most people don't care about.

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