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

Jony Ive’s Mistakes: When Beautiful Design Is Bad Design

onezero.medium.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

81–90 of 301 posts

Re: Jony Ive’s Mistakes: When Beautiful Design Is Bad Design

#81

Post by pm »

Glyptodon wrote: post #7

In my opinion the hated puck mouse is far and away better than the current Magic Mouse, which will will pretty much destroy your hands and give you carpal tunnel guaranteed. The puck mouse had an orientation trough on the button that was easy enough to get used to and, more importantly, was huge enough to be substantive and supportive under a hand. As far as I'm concerned the magic mouse is a class action lawsuit in…

I've been using Magic Mice for ten years without any problems. Was there a model that had different ergonomics than the rest? I think I've used all models. It's been my favourite mouse since I started using it (mainly for the touch functionality).

Re: Jony Ive’s Mistakes: When Beautiful Design Is Bad Design

#82

Post by acdha »

ThrowawayR2 wrote: post #49
ct520 wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm curious when you say less functional than existing offerings you mean .... exactly what? Those java apps you could download from your cell phone carrier that ran incredibly slow? Or the robust ecosystem windows mobile <6 had at the time?.. Because Android wasn't out... I agree with foolfoolz, iphone raised the bar both functionally and visually, regardless of having a app store at launch.

> Or the robust ecosystem windows mobile Huh? Windows CE and, later, Windows Mobile had quite a large number of apps for its era since the programming model was similar to desktop Windows (pre .NET) meaning that there was a ready-made base of developers for it. They weren't necessarily easy to find since the idea of an app store (and Apple/Google eating 30% of your revenue) didn't exist yet but they were there.

They had apps but the quality was low and prior to the Apple App Store’s standard terms discoverability was basically paying baksheesh to the the carriers – our clients were quoted a minimum of $50k per carrier just to be in the store, scaling up based on your perceived ability to pay.

Re: Jony Ive’s Mistakes: When Beautiful Design Is Bad Design

#83

Post by logicprog »

milemi wrote: post #38

I don't understand how Apple TV remote ever came into being, let alone how it still exists. Even when you somehow break the symmetry, in my case by sticking an ugly address label on the bottom part, skating around the screen with the touch pad is a game of skill that you are forced to play when all you want to do is just select a damn thing on the screen. Not to mention having to undo whatever I've done by touching t…

Ok, granted it is slippery, hard to orient, unergonomic, and the buttons are mistake prone, but I actually really like using the touchpad on the occasional time I actually pick up the remote with the correct end forward. It's really nice to be able to move with decent speed around a UI instead of using crappy and hard to press arrow keys.

Note: I've actually perfected a flick-of-the-wrist so that I can reorient the remote quickly when I pick it up wrong.

Re: Jony Ive’s Mistakes: When Beautiful Design Is Bad Design

#84

Post by paranoidrobot »

samstave wrote: post #75
paranoidrobot wrote: post #35

The article points out some very high visibility things that Ive was either responsible for, or at least signed off on. The author though misses what I think is the one that has had the most impact on people - Apple's insistence on removal of strain relief on cables. Apple's cables have for generations now been fraying and cracking all because someone decided that strain relief was an unsightly and unnecessary thing.…

This was completely intentional. As they make a fuck-ton on resale of these accessories. (planned obsolescence)

Perhaps. I'd be inclined to believe more if it wern't for Apple and Ive's focus on the beauty of their products at the expense of everything else, including usability. The article itself goes over a bunch of examples of this.

Strain relief is, or can be, somewhat ugly. More angles, thicker cables, varying widths - it all adds up to muddying the lines of their product.

Compared to how much they make on device sales - selling a few more adapters is peanuts. How many people do you know that have downright dangerous cables which they persist in using? I'm sure I know dozens.

Re: Jony Ive’s Mistakes: When Beautiful Design Is Bad Design

#85

Post by product50 »

I really like the Apple TV remote. It takes some time getting used but once you are, you can navigate within any app so very quickly. Even in this comment thread, I can see this is a polarizing topic - but I am going to disagree that it is a terrible design.

Re: Jony Ive’s Mistakes: When Beautiful Design Is Bad Design

#87

Post by cavisne »

Glyptodon wrote: post #7

In my opinion the hated puck mouse is far and away better than the current Magic Mouse, which will will pretty much destroy your hands and give you carpal tunnel guaranteed. The puck mouse had an orientation trough on the button that was easy enough to get used to and, more importantly, was huge enough to be substantive and supportive under a hand. As far as I'm concerned the magic mouse is a class action lawsuit in…

The magic mouse is certainly painful to move, however it would be interesting to see the actual impact on people's hands from it. Since getting one my behaviour has changed to move the mouse with a few fingers, and basically never move my hand. The sensor is very accurate so you can really crank up the movement in settings. This seems similar ergonomically to a trackball so i wonder if there is similar benefits.

Re: Jony Ive’s Mistakes: When Beautiful Design Is Bad Design

#88

Post by nathantotten »

pkamb wrote: post #69

I for one quite like the Apple TV 4 remote. It has one major issue in that it's symmetrical and you sometimes pick it up the wrong way. But other than that I love it. The touchpad is great with the Apple TV, especially once you figure out that you can single-tap the edges like a D-Pad for precision. It lays flat, so you can tap the play/pause button on your coffee table rather than picking up the remote. There are ju…

Completely agree. With HDMI-CEC and moving off of old Campos it is the only remote used in our house and nobody ever asks me how to do X. They click it, everything turns on and the navigate to the thing they want.

A bit of rubber on the lower half so could feel up from down would be my only change.

Re: Jony Ive’s Mistakes: When Beautiful Design Is Bad Design

#89

Post by rocky1138 »

jeswin wrote: post #55
tachyonbeam wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've owned multiple Thinkpads, and have a MacBook Air at home. I'm a pragmatist, so I don't mind that my work Thinkpad is all black and looks like it's from the 1990s. I enjoy that it has a built-in Nvidia GPU (which I use for machine learning). What makes me sad that with a fresh Ubuntu 18.04 install, my work Thinkpad can't even do two hours of battery life. My MacBook Air at home is 3 years old, but it's thin and l…

> What makes me sad that with a fresh Ubuntu 18.04 install, my work Thinkpad can't even do two hours of battery life. This has everything to do with the unresolved problems of Linux power management. I use Ubuntu on Thinkpads too, and battery life is decent after a bit of configuration. Windows meanwhile gives all day battery life on Thinkpads.

There is definitely an opportunity for a distro directly aimed at laptops and/or providing the maximum battery life.

Re: Jony Ive’s Mistakes: When Beautiful Design Is Bad Design

#90

Post by buzzerbetrayed »

pkamb wrote: post #69

I for one quite like the Apple TV 4 remote. It has one major issue in that it's symmetrical and you sometimes pick it up the wrong way. But other than that I love it. The touchpad is great with the Apple TV, especially once you figure out that you can single-tap the edges like a D-Pad for precision. It lays flat, so you can tap the play/pause button on your coffee table rather than picking up the remote. There are ju…

It drives me crazy that you can’t hold the Apple TV remote while watching tv for fear of accidental input. As soon as I turn something on, I set it down. Then, when I need it, I slowly reach for it, being careful not to inadvertently hit any buttons or swipe the touch pad.

When you’re using it, it’s fine. No complaints. But any time you’re not using it, it feels like a ticking time bomb waiting to mess up your show.

Post reply on HN