It honestly baffles me how people can say this with a straight face. Iphone’s UX is abysmal.
You open something, and to go back from it you… Look around the screen for clues! Sometimes, you have to swipe down. Sometimes swipe left. Sometimes tap the background. Sometimes tap the top-left corner. Other times, the top-left corner. Unless it’s not just the top-left, it’s the “toppest-leftest”, a small little indicator on the very edge of the screen.
Whereas on Android you go back by tapping the “back” button, or swiping left/right from the edge of the screen (making the gesture ambidextrous). The only exception to this rule is when you’re using an app that was lazily ported from iOS…
Using one of the imacs circa 2000 (the ones with the colourful transparent plastic cases that housed both monitor and comupter) was easily the worst experience I’ve ever had on a computer. One of the worst things was the mouse. Macs always had shitty mice around then, these ugly one button things. Well, with the imac they managed to make it even worse by trying to address just the “ugly” part. And sure, it looked better, but you had to look at it every single time you took your hand off it because it was perfectly round, so you couldn’t tell the orientation just from feel.
And personally, I just hate the “simplicity over everything” approach to UX. It’s like training wheels on a bike. Sure, it’s harder to fall (though these imacs were unstable af and did fall often), but they also prevent you from taking tight turns. “Good for newbies” is not “good in general”.
The target user doesn’t understand that file heirarchy exists. They’ve never opened a folder. They need to put their mouse in the corner because they have 5 million files on the desktop. They prefer the charging port to be on the bottom because it looks prettier that way. That is the target user.
Yeah the Human Interface Guidelines were the precursor to design systems, and for a little while, design/ux really was front and center and that influence and patterns that worked spread through software projects and products. Nowadays sadly UX always takes a back seat to capitalizing on attention, and capitalism in general.
Edit: It’s important to remember that Apple was writing 350 page interface books in 1992. They pioneered “look and feel.”
haha I saw the downvote and wanted to explain further, figuring that someone thought I meant that recent iPhone design was good, rather than the pattern apple had started with but had fallen off from
I think I was butthurt about “oh, the UX these days is neglected” with general positivity for apple, but pointing out internal emphasis on UX ahead of its time, and comparing the concrete “good ideas/intentions” of the past to current uses of UX (which is still emphasized…) to the detriment of the user makes your point concrete, any praise of apple is actually factual , and thus, hating on them in this context for differences in taste is futile.
You can’t ruin what was never good.
apple was known for making excellent UX, that’s the main reason their products are successful. It Just Works™. (well, that and status symbol)
the problems started before version 26, but i don’t think there’s been an apple software release that botched in a while
It honestly baffles me how people can say this with a straight face. Iphone’s UX is abysmal.
You open something, and to go back from it you… Look around the screen for clues! Sometimes, you have to swipe down. Sometimes swipe left. Sometimes tap the background. Sometimes tap the top-left corner. Other times, the top-left corner. Unless it’s not just the top-left, it’s the “toppest-leftest”, a small little indicator on the very edge of the screen.
Whereas on Android you go back by tapping the “back” button, or swiping left/right from the edge of the screen (making the gesture ambidextrous). The only exception to this rule is when you’re using an app that was lazily ported from iOS…
He’s talking about before the iPhone
Using one of the imacs circa 2000 (the ones with the colourful transparent plastic cases that housed both monitor and comupter) was easily the worst experience I’ve ever had on a computer. One of the worst things was the mouse. Macs always had shitty mice around then, these ugly one button things. Well, with the imac they managed to make it even worse by trying to address just the “ugly” part. And sure, it looked better, but you had to look at it every single time you took your hand off it because it was perfectly round, so you couldn’t tell the orientation just from feel.
And personally, I just hate the “simplicity over everything” approach to UX. It’s like training wheels on a bike. Sure, it’s harder to fall (though these imacs were unstable af and did fall often), but they also prevent you from taking tight turns. “Good for newbies” is not “good in general”.
I think he’s talking about how Meta was never good.
I also don’t think Apple was ever good.
Interesting to look at the votes on this thread. Especially on Lemmy.
I dont have a meaningful takeaway.
Taking your files and randomising where they go is not good UX.
Having all your windows explode because you moved your mouse to the corner is not good UX.
Having a mouse be completely unusable when charging is not good UX
But see, you are obviously not the target user.
The target user doesn’t understand that file heirarchy exists. They’ve never opened a folder. They need to put their mouse in the corner because they have 5 million files on the desktop. They prefer the charging port to be on the bottom because it looks prettier that way. That is the target user.
sure. you see all the enshittification? it’s because the companies are catering to “the target user”.
Yeah the Human Interface Guidelines were the precursor to design systems, and for a little while, design/ux really was front and center and that influence and patterns that worked spread through software projects and products. Nowadays sadly UX always takes a back seat to capitalizing on attention, and capitalism in general.
Edit: It’s important to remember that Apple was writing 350 page interface books in 1992. They pioneered “look and feel.”
https://dl.acm.org/doi/book/10.5555/573097
Nowadays those questions are like
“Did the user make a purchase? How many ads did they see in 15 seconds? Are they still scrolling? How much data have you collected?”
that edit turned a downvote to an upvote, good work.
haha I saw the downvote and wanted to explain further, figuring that someone thought I meant that recent iPhone design was good, rather than the pattern apple had started with but had fallen off from
I think I was butthurt about “oh, the UX these days is neglected” with general positivity for apple, but pointing out internal emphasis on UX ahead of its time, and comparing the concrete “good ideas/intentions” of the past to current uses of UX (which is still emphasized…) to the detriment of the user makes your point concrete, any praise of apple is actually factual , and thus, hating on them in this context for differences in taste is futile.