Human Interface Guidelines | Hacker News Reader

Human Interface Guidelines

developer.apple.com

165 pointsthecosas47 comments

I haven't played with the latest beta, but I'd like to talk about this particular guideline that has been irking me more and more with recent iOS iterations:

https://developer.apple.com/ios/human-interface-guidelines/i...

iOS:

- Randomly asks me to verify my iCloud password without me initiating anything. It is neither subtle or informs me why it is asking.

- 3D Touch is still inconsistently implemented with varying degrees of feedback. A quick example is that you can "peek" into a music album, but not a photo album. 3D Touch in MacOS uses haptic feedback for a hard press irrespective of an underlying action, but not iOS.

Apple Music:

- No feedback whatsoever when music pauses for various reasons like low signal, bluetooth disconnect, or general playback error.

- With a low cell signal, many times it will just outright refuse to play a song already in my library. How do I know this? If I activate airplane mode, it will play music without a problem. No feedback, just a poor experience.

Sometimes I really wish Apple would heed their own advice. I'm hoping this is fixed in iOS 11

Please file a bug whenever you see this. If you're using betas there's an app called Feedback Assistant to do this, otherwise it can be a lot of work to actually get the sysdiagnose logs.

Tried to file a bug through the online bug reporter for a few things recently only to be unable to submit. The thing just sits there with a loading indicator indefinitely and the bugs just sit in draft mode.

All great points. For me, connecting to wifi networks has been a huge pain with iOS 10. In settings, I'll see a checkmark next to the wifi network name, but no wifi signal icon in the status bar or connectivity. Stays like that for 2-3 minutes before actually connecting.

I'm constantly being harassed to set my iTunes password and to update my iOS on my iPad. I don't want to. Leave me alone, apple. This is my iPad, not yours.

Same here. I don't use my iPad all the time, more as an ebook and paper reader, and the experience is now getting similar to the experience I have with my Windows pc, which I also only use occasionally (for gaming), and which needs half an hour of updates on every start.

My PS3 is terrible for this.

If you think about it, this

> needs half an hour of updates on every start.

is directly caused by this

> only use occasionally

If you want a secure system but this bothers you, just leave the PC on once in a while.

Assuming the version of iOS you're running has significant security flaws, what should Apple's preferred behaviour be here?

Discourage disabling the harassment/auto updates but ultimately make it possible?

Imagine if windows just kinda foisted it upon you. People would be upset.

Android updates are very un-intrusive. It's just a notification and ends up in the same black hole unread emails and facebook friend requests go [1].

I wish Android updates were more aggressive.

---

[1] anecdata: I know 4-5 older people with Samsung phones. 100% of them had received an update notification and had ignored it

> Leave me alone, apple. This is my iPad, not yours.

That's where you're wrong.

"Randomly asks me to verify my iCloud password without me initiating anything"

I'm not 100% sure, but I think that's been improved in a recent iOS 10 update. It's now a section in the settings app and a badge tells you that you need to enter your password.

The first thing in the macOS guide covers how apps should behave in fullscreen mode. Most people I know only use fullscreen mode accidentally; family has had problems figuring out how to get out of fullscreen mode after accidentally entering it.

You know, you just can't win sometimes. Before Mac OS X introduced full-screen mode, people complained that the "maximize button" didn't seem to work correctly.

If you actually follow that link, the first part of how apps should behave in full screen mode is:

---

Enable full-screen windows only when it makes sense. Full-screen mode is useful when a user wants to be immersed in a task. Not all apps require this level of immersion, however. For example, some utility apps like Calculator work better with smaller windows that reside onscreen alongside other apps. When porting an iOS app to macOS, don’t assume the app should support full-screen mode in macOS.

OS X's fullscreen mode baffles me. A few versions ago it switch from just, y'know, fullscreening the app, to forcing fullscreened apps onto a completely different, dedicated desktop for no discernable reason, breaking Cmd-Tab and making it impossible to float another window over the fullscreened one (e.g. if I want to take notes on its content, but without extraneous GUI chrome).

Does anyone know what use case the forced desktop switch is supposed to improve?

(And the maximize button still doesn't work correctly, because maximize is not the same thing as fullscreen.)

The fullscreen button works correctly, because fullscreen is not the same thing as maximize.

I'm not sure what your point is. Forcing a window to a dedicated desktop is neither fullscreen nor maximize.

To clarify, I literally don't understand what point chrisoverzero was trying to make. Could someone please explain instead of downvoting?

I highly recommend Moom:

https://manytricks.com/moom/

I love fullscreen mode (am using it right now) but I agree, if my mum went into fullscreen mode she'd be confused.

I use fullscreen mode for all my apps. Maybe it's because I started using Macs after multiple desktops and fullscreen mode were introduced, so it's just the way I've figured my workflow.

It gives me more screen real estate, and removes icons and menus that I don't need.

I was baffled to find that window snapping only works in fullscreen mode, better touch tool won't be leaving my computer for quite some time...

What's the major diff?

The scrolling in the guide is terrible. Can that not be a guideline?

Scrolling looks fine to me (using Safari).

This says it all to me, Apple tends to themselves rather than the group. One thing that should be concerning for the majority.

I was hoping for Apple to switch it up this year with start of their new backend for Safari, rather I don't expect it to turn out as I have wished.

> This says it all to me, Apple tends to themselves rather than the group. One thing that should be concerning for the majority.

> I was hoping for Apple to switch it up this year with start of their new backend for Safari, rather I don't expect it to turn out as I have wished.

Works fine in Chrome.

I use an Android phone and scrolling seems normal in every browser I have installed. What are you seeing?

>This says it all to me, Apple tends to themselves rather than the group. One thing that should be concerning for the majority.

What's "the group"? This is a guideline page aimed at OS X/iOS targeting developers, not the general public.

Besides, the scrolling works fine in Chrome (where I read it) on OS X.

Maybe you're jumping to conclusions much if this (which others don't even see) "tells it all" to you?

There are 4 different elements that scroll independently using a single scrollbar:

https://developer.apple.com/macos/human-interface-guidelines...

I only see main content (1) and sidebar (2) that tries to retain current section details on screen. Opera. Where are 3 and 4?

The "Developer" heading and the "Human Interface Guidelines" heading. The first disappears, the second scrolls and then becomes fixed.

Hmm?

That is very cool!

(In Firefox on Debian.)

Heh. Ironically they're not using their (non-standard) display: -webkit-sticky; for the sticky sidebar.

Is that a problem?

Scrolling is fine for me. Chrome on a Mac.

I'm getting

    401 Authorization Required

I'm getting a certificate error.

Tagentially related: why is it web apps in iphone safari are still less responsive when run in fullscreen mode? It's very noticeable.

Love the marketing guide, that seems more like a legal document than a marketing guide. Don't do this, don't do that.

And I thought it was some neural pathway...

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