Galaxy S4: This Really Says It All
daringfireball.net
daringfireball.net
Sorry, but she is not very computer-literate, but i have never, ever been that much of a help-center-agent via phone (we live some distance apart), then after she got her iPad.
No, for a normal person, there is no such thing as an iDevice-easy mode. After she got the hang of it, after she understood the logic behind doing things the apple-iDevice way, she did not need my support that often. But till then, it was very eye-opening to see a normal person use a device like this.
Perhaps iOS is easiest for those who never really cared about or understood desktop/WiMP paradigm in the first place?
I recently considered "upgrading" to an iPhone and it's inability to be customized really confused me. I was so used to having shortcuts on my "desktop" screens, a separate apps list, a task manager, back button/home button, power buttons in the pull down menu that I found the iPhone incredibly difficult to use.
But each to their own, people who want the "simplicity" of an iPhone should not buy the S4. Simple right.
I guess that "really says it all" if you've got some pre-concieved notions about something that you desperately need re-inforced.
edit: Googled it. Both were called "Simple Finder".
There is however a difference between a simple mode designed for children and a simple mode added simply because the original UI design is poor.
I'd point out that this is a lesson for anyone creating a new idea, but that lesson is taken for granted in our industry. Not really sure why anyone is bothering to defend Samsung's poor UI.
"Simple Finder, an option which reduces Finder menus to basic operations, in order to avoid overwhelming new users."
I don't know about Mac OS X, a Mac OS X Tiger guide suggests that "The Simple Finder would be fine for most kindergartners, if it allowed them to delete the files they created. In its current state, it is almost worthless. It should not be confused with the far more valuable Simple Finder UI that was introduced in Mac OS 8."
1. No easy way I could open a document in iCloud on my main computer, in an application not made by Apple. iCloud is completely opaque, which I think makes it harder to use. 2. No way to attach a file to an email you're already begun composing on iOS (which is not a picture or video). Do I need to do 3 emails to send 3 documents? 3. No easy way to share from one app to another without having to use the unofficial iOS filesystem (Dropbox). 4. No way to change the default email or web app to something else. 5. No way to find out what is using up all my iCloud storage in the 'other' category, so I don't need to purchase expensive iCloud storage. 6. No way to allow an app to run in background, for example so it can periodically sync and doesn't have to waste my time doing that when I launch it (Pocket is much better on Android for this very reason).
There was more but these were the things which stuck out in my mind. Also, my family who pretty much all use iPhones and iPads would disagree that it is easy. My mum doesn't use the notifications pane, she hates the email because of the attachment issue, she hates the text selection and copying. I can't find any fault with her issues.
Gruber: ..The iPhone has an easy mode too. It’s called “Using the iPhone”
Gruber admits the iPhone is for beginners. Nuff said.
Perhaps this is a philosophy issue. Do you want a project you can sink lots of time and effort into, or a tool that gets out of your way for the most part?
There is simple and then there is too simple.
Apple fans can ramble all they want about how everything is simple and easy in Apple products, but eventually products get complicated. That's why Macs grew those awful hidden bits of complexity called Context Menus and you find them all over in OS X apps now, and that's why features like multitasking on iOS are hidden behind increasingly arcane and obscure actions. Double-tap the home button? Shake to undo? Yeah, defend that stuff all you want: Sometimes good UX design still involves compromises.
This is incorrect. For example, many pro-Apple commenters have discussed how the "home" button on iOS devices is a horror show of modality which performs about at least five different actions.
You also dismiss arcane and obscure actions too easily. There is nothing wrong with providing an obscure action as a "keyboard accelerator" so long as there is also an obvious way to perform the same action too. You're examples of "double-tap the home button" and "shake to undo" are good examples where this principle is not obeyed: there is no simple alternative and is, as you say, a UI compromise.
I don't disagree with your thoughts on the difference between scenarios where a bad verb is chosen as a shortcut and scenarios where a bad verb is the only way to do something. However, that still isn't relevant to my core point, which is that the iPhone has been and continues to be a place where important actions can only be performed with poorly chosen, confusing, undiscoverable verbs.
This is hardly unique to Apple, to be sure, but again, I was responding to the original article's smug assertion.
My iPhone also has a "sitting in the drawer while the Geniuses work on IMAP IDLE" mode.