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Confusing UI in iOS7

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Re: Confusing UI in iOS7

#81

Post by andrethegiant »

pseudometa wrote: post #25

The lack of affordance in iOS7 is a real usability killer. People argue that the lack of button borders and inconsistency invites exploration. That's the kind of BS argument bad designers make when their designs test poorly. iOS7 is great in many ways, but is harder to use than ever before. Ugg.

What about when people back in the day argued that links on the web were difficult to use because they were just underlined text instead of buttons? Lots of link styles today have no text decoration but are rather just a different color, and are as easy as ever to use.

Re: Confusing UI in iOS7

#82

Post by melange »

jmcatani wrote: post #68
Pxtl wrote: post #12

I'm actually surprised that there's so little visual consistency there... this stuff usually would be handled by reusable widgets - which, of course, gives you consistency for free. Still, people bag on Apple's design problems because Apple's stuff often feels almost perfect. I tried out a BB Q10 the other day and I couldn't even figure out how the heck you get to the home screen. I got stuck in the voice-search app…

In my UX design classes, we would use the phrase "You can't polish a turd" to describe this situation.

I look forward to seeing your smartphone UI.

Re: Confusing UI in iOS7

#83

Post by melange »

Aldo_MX wrote: post #76

I'm glad I bought my mother an iPhone 3GS, why? because it won't upgrade to iOS7 and she won't have to relearn how to use it again.

My mother in law barely noticed the upgrade to her 4s, but she did like the iOS7 version of the app 'teevee2'.

Re: Confusing UI in iOS7

#84

Post by [deleted] »

hippee-lee wrote: post #66
vvhn wrote: post #55

The next Apple statement placating congress about jobs created can probably also include " With iOS 7, we have also created the largest number of design critics, UI designers and UX experts in history - Everybody is now an expert and we believe the world will be a better place for it. "

Hopefully those said experts will also out their money where their mouths are and get busy making a competitive alternative that addresses the issues identified. As bad as the critics make it out I wonder if they have seen it used in the wild by someone non-technical. My mother in law asked me about upgrading her iPad on Sunday. She did so and I expected a bunch of confusion and questions re: photo's and email; the t…

[deleted]

Re: Confusing UI in iOS7

#85

Post by masklinn »

andrethegiant wrote: post #81
pseudometa wrote: post #25

The lack of affordance in iOS7 is a real usability killer. People argue that the lack of button borders and inconsistency invites exploration. That's the kind of BS argument bad designers make when their designs test poorly. iOS7 is great in many ways, but is harder to use than ever before. Ugg.

What about when people back in the day argued that links on the web were difficult to use because they were just underlined text instead of buttons? Lots of link styles today have no text decoration but are rather just a different color, and are as easy as ever to use.

> Lots of link styles today have no text decoration but are rather just a different color, and are as easy as ever to use.

They're not, and their relative ease of use is only because users have learned over years that a few words looking markedly different (but not emphasized) might just be links.

Re: Confusing UI in iOS7

#86

Post by angkec »

robterrell wrote: post #80

My biggest gripe with iOS 7 is how I can't predict that a UI element is tappable. With every new app (i.e. every app I already have that has been updated for iOS 7 and automatically upgraded by the iOS without me really knowing) I find myself having to tap various bits of UI stuff to figure things out. What's fascinating to me is seeing how my 2 year old does with it.

Sounds exactly like the problems for WP: can't figure out which is tappable just by looking at it. Maybe that's one of the inevitable pitfalls of flat design?

Re: Confusing UI in iOS7

#87

Post by simonholroyd »

andrethegiant wrote: post #81
pseudometa wrote: post #25

The lack of affordance in iOS7 is a real usability killer. People argue that the lack of button borders and inconsistency invites exploration. That's the kind of BS argument bad designers make when their designs test poorly. iOS7 is great in many ways, but is harder to use than ever before. Ugg.

What about when people back in the day argued that links on the web were difficult to use because they were just underlined text instead of buttons? Lots of link styles today have no text decoration but are rather just a different color, and are as easy as ever to use.

This doesn't seem like a very fair comparison. Most browsers account for this (by default) by using a different cursor symbol for linked text vs. non-linked text. Some also show the linked url in the browser UI also.

A web developer can override both those conventions and when they do, their links become less recognizable and their apps become less usable. Since there's no cursor on iOS touch screens, losing the visual cues is a similar problem.

[edit] You might argue that just tapping on something serves as the way to discover if a visual element is tappable on iOS. But it doesn't, as the original article states, it just makes the user wonder if something might be broken.

Re: Confusing UI in iOS7

#88

Post by melange »

Alexx wrote: post #10
samnardoni wrote: post #4

Everything is confusing if you pretend to be an idiot.

That's really not true or fair. I'm in the process of giving my ~70 year old mother my old iPhone so I can send her photo messages and such. The teaching experience I've had running through how to use applications is almost exactly the same as here. (Though I must say that this is on IO6). Simple things like the way you 'Add' or 'Edit' something being inconsistent really do throw her off. I'm sure anyone who has guid…

Nobody is saying users are idiots or that there is no learning curve for some older people using iOS (I have introduced it to people in their 70s and 80s too).

The assertion is that the author is pretending to be an idiot in the way he is claiming the iOS7 is somehow worse than iOS6.

There are faults in iO7, but there is no evidence that it is harder for people to learn, and plenty of evidence that it is basically more usable.

Re: Confusing UI in iOS7

#90

Post by LarryMade2 »

liquidise wrote: post #64
LarryMade2 wrote: post #19

Apple lost intuitive when it went to OSX. Things were just there, and worked, menus had understandable names dialogs were terse and to the point. Sometimes it was messy but you never felt lost.

Just to be clear: you are seriously suggesting the intuitive usability of went down in OS X? As opposed to the label-less icon buttons in the control strip that you had to click/drag to get it to show and hide? The release of OS X, and the subsequent program rewrites to support it, put apple back on the tech map. I find it hard to believe this doubled as their usability death sentence.

Im not saying it was less "Usable" using BSD saved them from years of pain transitioning from MacOS to something that was more network/internet savvy.

But there was a price was a hit to the UX and UI. which were actually pretty sensible. All the fancy graphics and lack of helpful text labels and assistance has become more a pain for new users.

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