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If you're a button, you have one job

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Re: If you're a button, you have one job

#81

Post by RugnirViking »

rowyourboat wrote: post #68
csande17 wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Why? How, even, have they implemented this? This is really common because of two design features that most UI frameworks share: - The code that changes the color of the button is an internal part of the "button" component, so that people don't have to individually implement it on every button. But this means that it's kind of disconnected from the code that actually performs the action. If the "on click" handler ha…

> there's no way for it to tell the button to cancel the color change No, but what should happen in cases like that is that the on-click handler disables the button while it is unresponsive. This will communicate the fact that the button is unresponsive visually to the user and also inhibit the button-was-pressed feedback.

Of course, one can fix these problems. GP was merely saying why this kind of mistake is common; it is definitely a mistake, not an inevitability.

Re: If you're a button, you have one job

#82

Post by bitwize »

Joker_vD wrote: post #10
kazinator wrote: post #5

If you're a button, you have one job: to transmit Morse code from the finger to the machine, Morse code representing a complicated POSIX shell command. And also to power down this entire one-button terminal with a 3 second press, power it up on any button press, with a firmware reset if powered up by a 30 second press.

Now I am imagining a typewriter with just two huge round buttons, next to each other horizontally, and a spacebar bellow them: *-----* *-----* | | | | | ● | | Ω | | | | | *-----* *-----* [================] A press of each round button rotates the typing ball accordingly, pressing the space prints the chosen letter and resets the ball to the neutral state. This whole thing should probably be electric lest you'd have t…

Apple still did it best: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9BnLbv6QYcA

Re: If you're a button, you have one job

#83

Post by xigoi »

hypfer wrote: post #66
xigoi wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m being serious. I find skeuomorphic UIs to be too visually overwhelming compared to flat UIs.

That is a valid opinion to hold, however, the question of "what is wrong with X? Y is outdated and over" is a) a different statement from "I prefer X" and b) pretty low effort, trivially to Google (or ask AI) and generally a bit on the ignorant side A better reply would not just have said what it said but contained actual wonder about the topic. Like this, it's just indistinguishable from engagement bait.

> pretty low effort, trivially to Google (or ask AI) and generally a bit on the ignorant side

I know the most common reason why people prefer skeuomorphic design (the visual metaphor), which is why my original reply directly addressed this complaint by saying that it’s no longer relevant. Some other complaints I’ve found online are about specific bad instances of flat design rather than flat designs in general. Therefore, I am asking about reasons that don’t fall under these two categories, which I haven’t been able to find.

Re: If you're a button, you have one job

#84

Post by sakjur »

xigoi wrote: post #54
Retric wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There’s effectively no universal list of UX warts people agree with. The Flat UX fad was objectively terrible on just about every metric I was taught, but people were actively pushing for such designs.

What’s wrong with flat UIs? Skeuomorphic designs have served their purpose of helping people get used to computers, but now that is no longer necessary.

If you introduce flatness without also adjusting the colors (or worse, making many backgrounds translucent) you end up with really poor contrast.

Re: If you're a button, you have one job

#85

Post by gobdovan »

odyssey7 wrote: post #78

Are there times when, during a call, pressing an iPhone’s screen-on/off button will end the call, but other times when it will just turn the screen off? I still do not know the pattern, but I have on occasion inadvertently ended a call by using that button prior to placing my iPhone in my pocket.

When on Speaker/hands-free mode, it just closes screen. They assume you wouldn't press lock button while against your ear, because it closes the screen automatically. The problem is that there's some bugs that keep the screen open sometimes, or you may use it in a quiet room as if it were on hands-free.

Re: If you're a button, you have one job

#86

Post by karlmedley »

padolsey wrote: post #48
csande17 wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

iOS has an accessibility option called "Ignore Repeats", which seems like a better approach because it's system-wide. So people who need that kind of accommodation can have it in places like the on-screen keyboard too, without needing everyone else to slow down their typing.

That's good. I wonder if it should be opt-in instead of opt-out. Disabled people are arguably less able to find random configuration options than non-disabled counterparts. I get a bit bothered with how undiscoverable these options are. But power-users by their nature don't mind going to the extra mile to get perf out of their experiences.

There are many types of disabilities. If "power user" means "someone who doesn't use defaults", then people with disabilities are actually more likely to be power users.

Being fast does not make you a power user. "The button works when I push it twice" is a reasonable expectation of a device by default. If that weren't the default, then most people would have a worse experience with their phone.

Re: If you're a button, you have one job

#87

Post by Telaneo »

xigoi wrote: post #54
Retric wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There’s effectively no universal list of UX warts people agree with. The Flat UX fad was objectively terrible on just about every metric I was taught, but people were actively pushing for such designs.

What’s wrong with flat UIs? Skeuomorphic designs have served their purpose of helping people get used to computers, but now that is no longer necessary.

New people are born every day.

Re: If you're a button, you have one job

#88

Post by alexdbird »

hypfer wrote: post #46

People often forget that animations serve purely a supportive role and do not exist for the purpose of having animations. They are there to mask loading times and ease from one state into the other. That's why we have them. This knowledge eventually got lost (figuratively speaking) and now we have code that needs to wait on the animation to finish. Another amazing example of cargo culting.

> to mask loading times and ease from one state into the other

I'd expand on this: used well, they show the user than a state change is happening directly because of a particular action of theirs, and hint at how they might reverse or modify it.

In fact I'd disagree with masking. If something appeared instantly with no hint as to why, that is a distinct anti-pattern on a touch screen.

Re: If you're a button, you have one job

#89

Post by CTDOCodebases »

k4rli wrote: post #80
CTDOCodebases wrote: post #74

It's Android stop expecting it to make sense. You have to learn some intricacy of some tool so you can forget it and have to learn it again three months later. iOS is no better. Sure everything is intuitive but it's going to get a redesign so next year you are going to have to learn everything from scratch or a feature you use often will just break.

Using AOSP-based Android roms, I haven't noticed any big changes in years. In current "android 16" and my old "android 10" device one couldn't really tell a difference. Very simple UX, no bloatware apps, no hidden drawers coming out from sides. I've tried the vendor ones by Samsung, OnePlus etc with fresh devices and this Android experience really is awful.

I wish there was more love for more vanilla forms of Android. I would trade more simplicity out of the box and regular software updates over the current situation.

Personally I'm blown away by Motorola options in the budget range. For raw value alone there offerings are hard to beat.

Re: If you're a button, you have one job

#90

Post by jan_Sate »

There's a problem with buffering tho. If the device's slow and unresponsive, and the user tapped the rotation button several times, it would be confusing if the rotation action happens 10 seconds after the user tapping the button. The user'd be left confused like "alright. So, has my input been taken?"

Now that I'm wondering. How does iphone mitigate this problem?

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