Archiving in the trash: The Instapaper UI

http://www.virtualpants.com/post/31802630265/archiving-in-the-trash-the-instapaper-ui

by jharrier • 14 years ago

58 39 14 years ago

EngenZerO• 14 years ago

+1. Better UI design = win!

randallu2• 14 years ago

Twitter for iPad (at least prior to today, I haven't updated) uses the same "Share" icon at the top of an embedded webview and at the bottom (so the same icon on the screen in two places at the same time) and they also summon different menus.

I always forget which one I want when I want to email a link to a page...

randallu2• 14 years ago

Ok, so I upgraded Twitter for iPad, and I don't think I'll ever use it again. So that's one annoyance taken care of!

rendezvouscp2• 14 years ago

> Imagine if Android’s Gmail app made you click the trash to save something. We would certainly see complaining blog posts and snarky tweets all over the place. So why does Instapaper get a free pass?

I’m not sure that we would. There are some great designers working on Android apps, but I don’t get the feeling that the UIs get the same critical eye, especially because there is less consistency throughout Android.

Marco should probably have the Archive box and the trash icon in the main list view instead of the trash icon that does both. However, I get the feeling that he doesn’t care as much about the polish of Instapaper as some people do. Last year I sent him an email with a list of adjustments to bring Instapaper in line with how iOS apps should behave (e.g. table view cells should fade out with the back-navigation transition instead of after it), but months later, most of the issues aren’t fixed. It’s the little things that really show polish and he doesn’t seem to be responsive to fixing the little things.

kennywinker4• 14 years ago

Have you considered that he might care a great deal, but disagree with your specific suggestions?

rendezvouscp2• 14 years ago

Yes, but when it comes to suggestions about standard UI features, I’d be surprised if he disagreed. Apple sets a fairly clear precedent for how standard iOS UIs should work, and whether or not it’s in the Human Interface Guidelines, going against the standard Apple sets feels sloppy.

I would find it more likely that, even though (IIRC) the guy handling Instapaper’s support said he would pass it off to Marco, he simply didn’t see my suggestions or ever do anything with them.

ja272• 14 years ago

Or that he might want to change it but knows that changing it will result in complaints and negative reviews because something changed?

tmoretti• 14 years ago

In Build and Analyze #50 ( http://5by5.tv/buildanalyze/50 ), starting at around 22:30, Marco describes why he made these decisions.

molecule• 14 years ago

"share w/ /dev/null"

samroesch• 14 years ago

I'm actually a little surprised that this passed apple's App Store screening. Clearly not in compliance with the infamous "Human Interface Guidelines".

Also irks me every time I use the app, as there is no quick way to archive and move onto the next item.

As a paid app, and a pricey one at that, one expects a little polish.

Grrrrrr make it better Marco!

tptacek5• 14 years ago

Instapaper costs $2.99.

smackfu5• 14 years ago

It was $4.99 for a very long time, and $9.99 before that. I guess people remember you as an expensive app even after you drop the price.

http://appshopper.com/news/instapaper-pro

smackfu5• 14 years ago

To be honest, I think the HIG standard would be to just have the rightmost action icon, that has options for "Delete", "Archive", "Move to Folder", etc. So it wouldn't really be nay faster.

Also, the App Store review certainly doesn't enforce the HIG.

kennywinker4• 14 years ago

Apple doesn't enforce the HIG like this. App review will catch big, ugly, user-confounding violations (some times) but not these little fiddly bits around the edges.

mikeevans2• 14 years ago

Speaking of unintuitive archive icons, I think Android's Gmail one is terrible. http://www.google.com/help/hc/images/android/android_ug_40/i...

jonursenbach• 14 years ago

Why? It's a file cabinet; a place where you archive things.

mikeevans2• 14 years ago

I don't think it looks enough like one. I know it's anecdotal evidence, but I've had many people ask me what it is or what it does.

smackfu5• 14 years ago

It's two cyclop smiley faces on top of each other.

tptacek5• 14 years ago

Imagine if Android’s Gmail app made you click the trash to save something. We would certainly see complaining blog posts and snarky tweets all over the place. So why does Instapaper get a free pass?

As we can all plainly see, it doesn't.

jasomill• 14 years ago

Imagine if you could "safely remove" a disk from Apple's own file management app by dragging it to the trash.

Instapaper's UI is discoverable and forgiving, which seems far more important than its particular choice of "iconography" when actually interacting with it.

jharrier• 14 years ago

Actually, when dragging a disk to the trash in OSX the trash can turns into an eject button.

smackfu5• 14 years ago

Last time I tried to archive something, I hit the leftmost button, since a down-arrow on a folder kind of seems like an archive function. Then I hit the rightmost button, since it seemed like an action. Finally I hit the trash, because it was the only one left.

One interesting thing about this design is that if there were separate trash/archive icons, they would probably have confirmation popups, and so the number of taps is the same either way.

Bro_Merch• 14 years ago

In gmail if you don't archive something it goes away on its own and it's lost. I've been using Instapaper daily for about 3 years and have always considered it one of my favorite iOS apps. I use the 'read later' folder for exactly what it is. A dumping ground. A sort of limbo. When I want to save things for an extended period I just move them into a different (non-readlater) folder. They stay there. Not only that, but they are categorized.

There are a lot of stories/comments on HN that I disagree with, but in this case I really don't understand what the problem is at all. Maybe I am missing the point because I'm not using a designated "archive" function and don't realize how much better it is. Is there a reason archiving is better?

quanticle• 14 years ago

>In gmail if you don't archive something it goes away on its own and it's lost.

Er, what? You don't need to explicitly archive anything in GMail. You can leave everything in your Inbox if you want to. The only folders that get auto-purged are Spam and Trash, where items older than 30 days get deleted.

bobthedino• 14 years ago

The button he's calling the "share" button is in fact called the "action" button in iOS. It's supposed to bring up a context-sensitive list of actions that you can perform at a particular point in an app. The article says "same button, completely different uses in the same app" - well, that's how it's meant to be used.

http://bit.ly/OXvSyw

kennywinker4• 14 years ago

That said, performing an action on the same object (an article) from the detail view or the list view should probably give you the same list of options... unless there is a very good reason not to... which there doesn't appear to be.

ja272• 14 years ago

I once had the same confusion, even as an iOS developer. That makes me try to offer individual buttons for actions that don't fit into a "share" metaphor I at least until I run out of space.

Archiving in the trash: The Instapaper UI

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