A User Experience Designer Switches from iOS to Android
jacksonfish.com
jacksonfish.com
Choices are hard. Apparently even choosing what phone was too hard.
Sure, as has been pointed out elsewhere, the iOS user interface is far from perfect. Judging by OP's experience, it's still a lot better than can be expected out of the vast majority of Android phones. It'd be one thing if that platform offered the options you so laud in a fashion which doesn't get in the way of satisfying the essential requirements of a pocket phone. Apparently, though, that platform fails to do so.
You can be just as contemptuous as you like of people who find Android unworthy of their time and money as a consequence. (Certainly nothing I say will change your mind! I've had enough arguments with Linux partisans to have realized that long since.) Your contempt for such people doesn't change the fact that Android has a problem.
But should the phone ship in a configuration that causes users to make a choice they're often unprepared for every time they want to deal with an image?
Part of design is making decisions. Some of these problems seem to exist because the designers (or the OEM who is fiddling with things) can't make a reasonable default decision and is forcing it on the user instead.
If the user is afraid of clicking one icon vs another when presented with the initial decision, I don't know what to say. It's literally explained as you use it.
The issue here is they were both installed OTB (according to the article). If he'd installed Photos himself he'd presumably understand why he did so and be better informed when presented with the choice. Instead he was given a choice of "toe-may-toe" vs "toe-mah-toe" with no explanation.
There is simply no way on iOS to choose another app to be your default web browser, mail client, SMS client, central photo repository, etc. Apps can say "You can send photos here" but there is no way for one app to advertise to another "You can ask me for photos".
It's similar for people using Chrome or a 3rd party calendar or mail client. Any link anywhere in the OS, unless specially setup by the app developer, will open the Apple app. There is no way to tap on someone's email address in Address Book and have it open Mailbox or Sparrow.
Like let's say I'm coming from iOS and now I have a million choices of EVERYTHING that used to be stock, like what SMS App do I go with?
Just like all the crapware that was/is shipped on every Windows computer by OEMs these decisions are effecting Google's image.
I've worked with Android for basically the whole time it's been around, and in that time never saw a single manufacturer led user interface change that represented an improvement. Supposedly the Chinese ones do, but I've never had the chance.
This isn't to say stock is perfect, but people underestimate just how much the OEMs have messed with in their efforts for software differentiation absolutely no one really wants.
Hardware vendors and carriers are to blame for a lot of this UX disaster (e.g., including their own superfluous app, causing the Intents Dialog confusion on day 1 rather than popping up after you choose to install a new app for X). Is Google to blame for not doing a better job of controlling fragmentation? In my opinion, in the past, no. Android might not have taken off without the freedom given to manufactures/carriers. In the future, Google DOES need to wrangle this crapware problem (I think of it as crap icing on a delicious vanilla cake). Google is doing exactly this with Android Silver [2].
Finally, what does Android do wrong? Well, just look at CyanogenMOD's features to see what Android is lacking: privacy and app permissions, data limiting (ads), firewalls, etc.
[1]http://phandroid.com/2014/05/19/samsung-galaxy-s5-vs-motorol... [2]http://www.businessinsider.com/android-silver-launch-date-20...
In today's world, it's like writing a story about the time you went to Kmart instead of Target and barely lived to tell about it. They didn't even have price scanners on the end of each aisle! Who cares?
If you're a mobile developer (and do it all, apparently), you should have "lived with" an Android phone years ago. Talk about UX issues (and how about something actually interesting: as a new user, you might have insight on how people should be doing good UX for apps on Android), but leave the drama behind. Talking about it as some horribly broken experience you lived through sounds ridiculous to anyone who actually uses Android[1]
[1] Exception made for the 17.3% of people on Android before version 4. That would be a journey still filled with terrors https://developer.android.com/about/dashboards/index.html
As for doing good UX for apps on Android, i think that's almost no different than doing good UX for apps on any smartphone platform. Aside from dealing with the back button and a few other platform specific issues, it's the same set of challenges around touch-based devices and limited screen real estate.
If anything, it's a bigger sin today now that Android has been a player for so long. Things have improved. I guess. But the biggest issues (back button, notifications, messaging, the half-baked shovel-ware app store) seem pretty persistent.
Battery life is marginally better. Most of the benefits eaten up by bigger screens (I'm not complaining much as long as it gets me through a whole day: I just bought a 6.4" Android). Getting rid of the dedicated Search button was a step in the right direction. Swapping the "Options/Menu" or whatever button for an "Open Apps" button was definitely a win. Some wins in some of the OTB apps (Camera). But some noteworthy losses as well (Messages).
It should feel like an alternative. Not a compromise. And too often that's not the case IME.
One of my favourite things about an old HTC phone I had running a 2.x version of Android was that the back button worked very consistently everywhere. It made using the native apps feel like navigating around websites: just what you'd expect from Google.
On literally every Android device I've tried to use since then it's been a complete horror show. This should have been the best thing about the Android UI and it's ended up being the worst.
I think the thing that might be worse than back button behaviour is the horribly broken app permissions system.
I go to Flow (reddit app) and find an article I like. I am in the car at the moment, waiting at the traffic sign. I open the article in a TTS reader that does article extraction and automatically starts reading to me. The voice is separately installed from a choice of vendors. Some of the voices are high quality (I still love Alex from Mac OS better, but I can't find it anywhere on mobile - read back to be in the voice of Alex for text proofing - lol). So now I can drive while my mobile reads my press to me like a radio station.
I couldn't do that on my iPhone. The apps aren't able to combine like that on iOS. I have just used 3 apps I found in the Play Store to improvise a functionality that didn't exist and probably most people don't care about.
1) Two Apps / Choosing Apps - This is why many people prefer Android over iOS. If you are bugged by it - select the one you like and choose "Always" the next time. Done. (If you are a UI designer at least shed some light on what is the way to do a better UX on this feature - simply saying you don't know which one to pick is not really adding any value. You have to try Hangouts, Gallery, Photos and then choose them as "Always" - that's the idea and I find it as intuitive as it can be.)
2) Hardware differentiation - yeah just install a launcher once and be done with it - oh you will have to choose the default once after you install it, but yeah after that it's even easier. Oh and Google autocompletes HTC disable blinkfeed - first result tells you how in two steps.
3) Fine print of an unlocked Android phone - he is troubled because WiFi calling isn't available on _all_ Android phones whether or not the carrier is T-Mobile - and if it was there he would be sure to complain about what's that WiFi calling thing that I don't understand on my Verizon HTC One. Hardly a UI problem and since it requires special firmware support it's hardly fair to have everyone put it in.
4) Unlocking - it's a HTC thing. Stock Android and even Samsung phones just swipe and unlock - plus you can thank slide to unlock patent for some of the differentiation there.
5) Back button - as much as inconsistent it is, having it still beats not having it altogether. But yes it can be a little annoying at times.
6) Navigation bar - he complains about there being differences in Samsung and HTC phones! I can't figure out why that is relevant as his target audience generally will stick to one phone.
7) He even complains about the Notification bar! (For crying out loud everyone pretty much copies this from Android - including iOS!) "I clear my notifications periodically, but inevitably a pile of tiny incomprehensible turds appear at the top of my screen, uglifying it to no end." Ugh, what? Does iOS magically know which ones you like and shows only those?
8) Copy/Paste - this is one point I agree with him on. It just isn't as elegant as iOS and neither is it consistent.
But I stopped reading past that - too much personal preference stuff rather than valid points and being on a "User Experience Designer"'s blog I thought there would be insights on doing this right - I only saw "iOS is right" in some places.
Just because you think the interface to something isn't designed well doesn't mean the underlying feature is worthless.
It's clear he's referring to the apps themselves, and he views the choice iteself as intrinsically worthless. So yeah, he completely missed the point.
I thought he was arguing a consequence of that (and the interface) and not the intrinsic value of Intents, but that may be my reading.
If I choose Photos to view images in Messaging, it's not made clear that only Gallery is an option to attach images. If it were, why would anyone choose Photos unless Gallery were somehow flawed? And even if it were, why should you have to use two different apps for each side of what to a user is basically the same operation?
1) It's fair to let people choose a different app (I know many people really want this on iOS), but I think his complaint is valid. There are many situations where it's completely unclear to a new user why they should use app X over Y for photo management/SMS/etc. To ask them before they've even used the app the first time nearly ensures they're not ready to make that decision. Sensible defaults and perhaps delaying the prompting until the device notices the user uses an alternate app a couple of times may be a better way to handle this.
3) Why should it matter if my HTC One came from a T-Mobile store or not? The fact that they behave differently (and especially that T-Mobile's support isn't prepared for that) is clearly an issue. I think the voicemail note is telling. How many people, upon buying a new phone, would think "I need to go download a special app to get my voicemail working"?
4) HTC took something that worked fine and made it more confusing. That's clearly a design mistake.
5) If something doesn't work reliably, that's a design issue. Especially if it used to work.
> But I stopped reading past that [...] I only saw "iOS is right" in some places.
That's not what I saw. Rorschach test for your preference for Android/iOS perhaps?
1) No his complaint isn't valid. There are sensible defaults - it only becomes a choice if you install another app that does the same things. In this case Gallery is built in and Google Photos is well Google's. It's not as if every app has a choice on launch. And how exactly are you going to solve the problem of user not having tried one or the other if the user isn't willing to choose one? Throw him a training video for both apps? That sounds even worse.
3) The whole idea of Android is different things for different people. You don't go buy an $699 unlocked phone and use it as a Specifically Optimized for Carrier X phone. It is an unlocked phone designed to run on many carriers as possible. If you need to download an app or two for further customization that's not really a big problem. If it is, then you should've bought something from T-Mobile store that they've customized for you. Wanting it both ways while pretending to be a simpleton user doesn't warrant any discussion.
4) If you need a certain type of lock screen and aren't willing to install one - you should at least look at the phones in a retail store and pick the one with the right lock screen - you can find a lot I bet. Complaining about HTC having confusing lock screen is contradictory to entire point of how Android works.
5) Yeah, sure - but at least it works. What other better options do you have - not having it? That's a worse solution. But yes, Google can do some tightening up on both Copy/Paste and Back button.
> That's not what I saw
So you saw him giving a solution or two that is not "do it iOS way - including don't have a back button"?
Don't play dumb.
no, he wanted voicemail. T-Mobile decided to require a different app.
That's all he says. Nowhere in the post he says voicemail didn't work - he implies he wanted an app to get his Voicemail like iOS. The regular voicemail stuff just works on any stock Android GSM phone - you get a notification for new ones and you can tap that or long press 1 to go to carrier voice mail box for your old VMEs.
Nitpicking much? iOS started the Visual Voice Mail thing. No GSM, non-iPhone user is used to using Visual Voice Mail App - they pretty much tap the VME notification or long dial 1 to get to voice mail - that still works on any unlocked Android with any GSM carrier.
I don't think it's unreasonable to expect that a core feature (like voice mail) should work out of the box with no additional installations on my part.
This you don't recognize as an insult? I'll bet you're a constant delight to your acquaintances.
The point is you don't need to with an iPhone. I bought my 5C used and unlocked. No problems hopping onto AT&T with it. It's not "optimized" because it shouldn't be. The carrier is just "a series of tubes". I don't want to buy an AIO, TMobile or AT&T phone. I bought a MotoX because I wanted a MotoX.
I'm not confusing anything though. I just have an expectation that I won't be dialing into some arcane menu system to retrieve just the messages I want. I haven't done so for almost 7 years. I don't pay too much attention to other's habits, but I haven't noticed anyone else do that for almost as long.
Visual Voicemail is the only voicemail I'd bother with. I'd guess that's pretty typical these days. I've even gone months after switching carriers having not even called the carrier to get voicemail set up because who leaves voicemails anyways but telemarketers?
Maybe it's different outside the US or in developing markets with a lot of feature-phones. I wouldn't know. This is just my own experience in DFW.
5. No, it doesn't really. Because on iOS the convention is top-left. If it's not there, then you don't have that functionality in that app/area (obvious right?). On Android? Who knows what it does before you try it within a given app? Is it going to go "back"? Is it going to goto another app? The home screen? No idea.
7. iOS notifications are just better. I unpacked my MotoX. After following the first couple tasks in the Notifications list I wondered what that weird misaligned stack icon did. So I hit it. No more task list! Whatever Motorolla wanted me to see there and follow up on was just gone for good with no way to retrieve it. The universally praised "Active Notifications" on the MotoX? Never could figure out what's so "Active" about them. They don't seem to do anything iOS doesn't do except limit you to taking action on only the latest one (that's bad), and changing up how you unlock the phone (that's 0 for 2 bad).
I'll toss another one out there: The 90's called and they want their SMS App back. ;-)
I go back and forth between iOS and Android. Had a Nexus One. It was stolen. Got a 4S. Traded in an iPhone 5 for the MotoX. Traded in the MotoX for a 5C. This time I've kept my 5C and ordered a Sony Z Ultra GPE.
There's some neat things about Android for sure. But it's hard to believe there's people out there who are frequent users of both and think a superior UX is one of those things.
edit: Side note: I'm not sure I've ever seen such a down-vote brigade in effect on HN before. No replies, just down votes? If that doesn't scream fan-boy brigade I don't know what does...
You're never going to convince them that the cut and paste mechanism in X is borderline mental, it's awesome cuz it's open and you could fix it if you wanted to, but it's now 2014 and no one has, but we have 8 more broken ways to do it since 1998.
I've got a Nexus 4, iPhone 4S, iPad and a few others beside and I'd argue for me that Android does have superior UX.
There's no way I could use the 4S as my daily phone, and I've put off getting a new tablet until there's a decent 8" Android one out.
Sure iOS has plenty of polished apps but the integration between them is at Apple's whim - to share a webpage from Safari to GetPocket, I have to rely on bookmarklets FFS.
iOSs keyboard is another deal breaker for me, after using Swype hunt and peck for typing on a touch screen is horrible and then there's trying to make sense as to whether shift is on or not!
Calling the lack of Swype a deal-break seems perfectly reasonable to me though. To each their own. I saw my typing speed go through the floor on the MotoX, but that was due to two issues mostly:
1. Different key spacing. Which is entirely justified. I'm just not used to what I'm not used to. I imagine I'd have a similar frustrating re-training curve on the iPhone 6.
2. The lack of an easy apostrophe. You can tweak the stock keyboard a little bit, but mostly this one was nearly unforgivable to me. I try to get punctuation right and it drives me crazy that the stock Android keyboard seemed to be working against me there. Some alternative keyboards looked a little better, but they were almost universally tacky IMO and could've seriously used a few hours from an actual designer.
As a developer whose experience with designers is generally pretty frustrating (XHTML or Go Home! ... a few years later ... CSS for mobile first, and Desktop with media-queries, who cares if it breaks IE8 for no reason and has 0 advantages? It's Mobile-First to an extreme and you're a joke if you don't put the latest fad ahead of maintenance/functionality!) that almost hurts to say. ;-)
I haven't been able to make "Swyping" a habit. I've got no muscle memory for it. But almost everyone else I've met that's tried it loves it so I'm sure that's just me.
I'd be curious what parts of Android's UX you consider superior though. I could understand not wanting to make the 4S your daily phone just because of the screen size if nothing else. Plus iOS7 is pretty (IMO), but generally a step back in actual UX IMO with all the lagging issues (which seem to have improved a lot, but still occasionally annoying).
On the other hand the 4S's battery will be going well into the next day while the Nexus 4 would be on at least it's second charging cycle IME. The line where hardware issues qualify as UX is a bit fuzzy though I suppose.
I don't know what GetPocket is. But generally you can just hit the share/arrow button and copy if you're just interested in an address. I've found that to be a really comfortable workflow personally. I'm always pasting URLs, Images, etc into Hipchat.
Anyways, thanks for the respectful disagreement/comments. Certainly refreshing. Hopefully my end of the conversation holds up as well.
I think a great solution for this would be to let power users distribute their own versions. That way, you could just find a designer you trust and install their version. It's still fragmented but at least you could go with people like the author who have thought through it rather than an awful corporate designed by committee mess.
Some people would argue that's what Apple is doing with iOS. Not that I agree (I'd never trust Apple, and I don't think their offerings are superior in any way, shape or form), but there are those who believe it.
The core idea that I should be able to choose what app to use to manage my photos seems self-evident.