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Stop Changing UIs for No Good Reason

lobste.rs

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Re: Stop Changing UIs for No Good Reason

#91

Post by protonfish »

The fact that we are discussing this generically as UI Design shows the immaturity of the concept. I can see at least two clear ideas needed to discuss this in a more detailed and rational manner.

1. We need to clearly separate the difference between UI design and UI decoration. Design should be driven by user testing that measures speed and rate of completion of tasks. If every feature of the latest UI is not measured to be a quantitative increase, then it is not a design improvement. Decoration is about being fashionable and has nothing to do with usable, efficient, elegant UI. I see no reason they cannot exist side by side, but today the prevailing policy seems to be that decorating UI in a trendy fashion trumps usability.

2. There needs to be thought about the adoption and transition of users from an old interface to a new one. Right now the philosophy seems to be "Stop whining and suck it up - our designers are smarter than you." This is not reasonable or professional. New designs should be measured not just for usability of new users, but also against users that are used to the previous interface. There are probably many techniques to improve the user experience of UI upgrades but we'll never discover them until we recognize that it is important and spend some time and effort studying this phenomenon.

Re: Stop Changing UIs for No Good Reason

#92

Post by robodale »

edw519 wrote: post #72

Sadly, this meme is universal through time and space and shows no likelihood of abating. I once had a customer who told vendors, "I don't want maintenance, and I don't want the software I just bought to change, ever." At the time, most of us thought he was crazy. Now I'm not so sure. I'm still sitting shivah for Classic Google Maps, Palm Graffiti, and Windows XP. Sigh.

Windows XP - I was most productive on this OS...BY FAR. Everything since has been less optimal. This includes IOS.

Re: Stop Changing UIs for No Good Reason

#93

Post by throwawayaway »

protonfish wrote: post #91

The fact that we are discussing this generically as UI Design shows the immaturity of the concept. I can see at least two clear ideas needed to discuss this in a more detailed and rational manner. 1. We need to clearly separate the difference between UI design and UI decoration. Design should be driven by user testing that measures speed and rate of completion of tasks. If every feature of the latest UI is not measur…

Think they are too tightly coupled to use HN parlance. Would like to see stylesheets or backwards compatible skins becoming de riguer. Particularly when the program does nothing new.

Re: Stop Changing UIs for No Good Reason

#94

Post by untog »

paganel wrote: post #73
untog wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it depends on what your complaint is. This article has a mix of solid complaints (they keyboard has been rearranged) and bad (transitions are gross!).

> and bad (transitions are gross!). Serious question, why is this a "bad" complaint? Personally I hate transitions, I think they bring nothing of value and they're wasting my time, had the impression that there must be other people who thought exactly like me.

(IMO, of course) because it's a very broad complaint. You dislike absolutely every transition? It's been proven that they are helpful for users, so what is the request that comes with your complaint? Because if it's "remove transitions", that's not realistic. The majority like them.

You might be surprised at the hints they give you subconsciously about where UI elements are going and what they're doing. Google's Material Design actually does a good job showcasing this - I had no idea the lock screen had a 'double swipe' motion to bring down quick toggles, but the transition of my first swipe made it clear that the extra motion was available to me.

Re: Stop Changing UIs for No Good Reason

#95

Post by delinka »

I'm starting to think that this constant change is what will prevent Software Creation from becoming mature (and finally accepted as Engineering.) We don't dwell on a thing long enough to truly explore it's pitfalls and potential.

Then again, perhaps that's just the perception from taking a look from too high an altitude. Personally, I'm focusing on the tools I like using; cautiously evaluating newer tools but not the bleeding edge (I like to avoid scabs); making careful decisions about the stack for my latest creation, and then sticking to those choices; in the last five years, I've felt more like I'm doing a Serious Engineering. If other individuals do similar things, perhaps there's hope for industry maturity after all.

Re: Stop Changing UIs for No Good Reason

#97

Post by iamben »

k-mcgrady wrote: post #70
mattmanser wrote: post #52

Argh, lollipop's driving me up the wall! Vent time, woo! The thing I'm hating is that they've managed to completely screw up Chrome by getting rid of tabs and mixing them all in with your other apps, in an attempt to force you to use the bloody useless app switcher button instead of making it do something vaguely useful. And the lock screen, what the hell were they thinking? The amount of times I've opened the phone…

>> "And the new calendar app only allows you to see 6 hours at a time, so you can't get an overview of your day." Try the 'agenda' view which does exactly that. I was also going to debunk most of your other complaints because I know they're false but I don't have my Lollipop device with my at the moment.

Yup, agenda view is great for a full day. Settings in Chrome turns off the tab integration. On the lock screen you can slide up from anywhere on the screen (which then takes me to the slide code screen). The rest of the stuff - I guess some personal preference comes into it? But I'm thoroughly enjoying 5.0. Made a few tweaks to the default settings and it's great. Feels soooo much faster.

Re: Stop Changing UIs for No Good Reason

#98

Post by incision »

What are there, 1B Android users? I'm sure Google would like that to be 7B.

I'd wager the complaints of the sort of people who frequent lobste.rs or HN are not representative of the majority of current users and almost certainly not of the next 6B potential users.

Overall, it's everything Google said they would do with material [1].

It's fine to dislike these things, I don't necessarily like them myself, but claiming they're simply wrong or "for no reason" is somewhere between angry and lazy.

Just a glance at the new vs old keyboard or gmail shows a direction - moving / duplicating interactions toward the bottom right (logical as screens get bigger), breaking out punctuation into discrete keys (presumably logical given the way most people actually type).

The overall restyling is adding consistency between apps and particularly between mobile and the desktop.

Animations are really valuable anytime someone doesn't come to the table with a complete mental model of how something fits together already. Basically, they're not for you Mr. Programmer.

1: http://www.google.com/design/

Re: Stop Changing UIs for No Good Reason

#99

Post by c0brac0bra »

zecg wrote: post #51
TeeWEE wrote: post #2

I thinks this guy is missing the point. Google did uix research and come up with a more usable design philosophy, which makes all apps more consistent. They are now executing those grand-design rules. In the end, apps should be more familiar, and easier to use. The change itself is always frustrating, people who are used to an uix (by learning it), hate change, even if the new uix is simpler.

Well, they can go back to the drawing board and do some more research. This was an example posted here a few weeks ago, by a heavy Calendar user. Look at the old and new app and see if you can answer a common question for a calendar user, like when do I have some free time in the next month: http://imgur.com/a/Qo91p Also, not that it matters, but the old app is 2 MB and works flawlessly, the new one is more than 20 a…

It's also become incredibly difficult to scroll properly in the new calendar. I constantly find myself scrolling horizontally when I want to scroll vertically, or vice-versa; it is maddening.

Re: Stop Changing UIs for No Good Reason

#100

Post by throwawayaway »

robodale wrote: post #92
edw519 wrote: post #72

Sadly, this meme is universal through time and space and shows no likelihood of abating. I once had a customer who told vendors, "I don't want maintenance, and I don't want the software I just bought to change, ever." At the time, most of us thought he was crazy. Now I'm not so sure. I'm still sitting shivah for Classic Google Maps, Palm Graffiti, and Windows XP. Sigh.

Windows XP - I was most productive on this OS...BY FAR. Everything since has been less optimal. This includes IOS.

Well think about it, now that you have to air gap it to keep it secure it's probably even more productive than before - no time wasted on HN for example!
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