How iOS7 Stacks Up : Smartphone OS User Experience Shootout [pdf]

http://www.pfeifferreport.com/v2/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/iOS7-User-Experience-Shootout.pdf

by hokkos • 13 years ago

25 38 13 years ago

pfeifferreport.com

timmillwood• 13 years ago

Nice to see they pick Samsungs version of android, the worst one going.

poolpool7• 13 years ago

Yes and its the one most people know?

Let's compare user experience. One phone is straight out of the box. The other we will just take a minute to gain root and reinstall the entire OS. Just to keep things fair.

SifJar• 13 years ago

But it means they're not comparing iOS (and WP and BB10) to Android, they're comparing them to TouchWiz (or whatever Samsung are calling their skin these days). In that case, they should also include HTC Sense and Motorola Blur etc. The fact that TouchWiz is most popular is irrelvant; pretty much any Android skin is probably more popular than BB10, and many are more popular than WP as well.

pablisco2• 13 years ago

There is no need to root or reinstall the entire system. You can just install a new launcher app. I think it would be better to have tested against vanilla Android (The one that comes with the nexus). Probably more people has that system than a Windows Phone.

epo• 13 years ago

The overwhelming majority of buyers use it as it comes out of the box so an out of the box comparison is the only fair one.

k-mcgrady4• 13 years ago

It's also one of the most popular versions. Everyone I know that owns an Android device owns a Samsung or a cheap device that can barely be classified as a smartphone. TouchWiz IS Android to these people.

Oletros5• 13 years ago

When one of the negative points is the number of icons and widgets it says a lot about that report.

briandear• 13 years ago

Like what? Things that clutter the user experience are certainly valid points. Otherwise we might suggest that the old godaddy website was well designed because it had lots of "features."

Oletros5• 13 years ago

Number of apps installed is not what defines clutter.

poolpool7• 13 years ago

No you can't compare iOS 7 to android until you install my bespoke launcher and remove all the default icons and widgets and customize the phone!

It's not fair picking both up out of a box and comparing the user experience.

Oletros5• 13 years ago

You're joking, don't you?

poolpool7• 13 years ago

Yes but unfortunately there are people making that argument quite seriously.

k-mcgrady4• 13 years ago

Is more customisation really better? I would have left that out of the report as it can be argued either way. High levels of customisation mean you can tailor the device to your needs. On the other hand a device might be designed to work perfectly for 90% of the users and offering customisation options will just lead to confusion and people not getting the best experience.

Oletros5• 13 years ago

Who defines what is "best experience"?

k-mcgrady4• 13 years ago

What I mean is the setup that works for the majority of users. For example on my iPhone I don't feel I need to customise anything. It's setup well out of the box so lack of customisation options isn't a problem. In fact if given the options I'd probably mess with them and negatively influence the experience. On my Android device I customise it lots. The OOTB experience isn't bad but not perfect and so lack of customisation options would be a problem.

rimantas• 13 years ago

I really liked someone's observation: Android is about what you do to your phone, iPhone is about what you do with your phone.

Oletros5• 13 years ago

Nice, but wrong

Tyrannosaurs• 13 years ago

I think that's slightly unfair.

The reason a lot of people like Android is that they can customise it to remove even the slightest friction from the things they want to do. They have to make a bit of an investment in time to do that but to them that's a good thing because it will pay off.

Android is absolutely more about what you want to do to your phone than iOS, but I'm not sure it's fair to suggest that it's not about doing things with your phone. That feels a bit like someone just trying to find a comparison to make it into a nice phrase.

poolpool7• 13 years ago

Can the experience being behind a wall garden buddy buddy with the NSA ever be truly good, ignoring superficial things like icons and launchers?

pilsetnieks• 13 years ago

Indeed, you make a good point for avoiding the Google Android ecosystem.

kalleboo2• 13 years ago

This seems like such an arbitrary report. Looking at the "analysis" for UXF it just reads like a list of random annoyances their testers came across.

Joeri• 13 years ago

Strange how trying to make something objective can make it inaccurate. For example, I deliberately changed from android to windows phone because I much prefer the windows phone user experience, but it scores the worst in their objective comparison.

All the complaints about windows phone are mostly accurate, but largely irrelevant for me personally. For example, I don't want a background image for the live tiles screen, so I don't care that I can't configure one.

I do agree with their final conclusion that windows phone is a strange mixture of careful user-centric design and complete disregard for actual user needs. There are things which are incomprehensible that they haven't been fixed over the past few years, like not having a separate ringer volume. If, like me, you are lucky to have needs which mostly align with the intended design, then it beats even iOS in usability. But if you are only slightly out of alignment, it is a long fall down the usability ladder.

MartinMcGirk• 13 years ago

I only just picked up a Lumia 1020 two days ago after using an iPhone for the last 2 years, so the jury is still out for me on whether I prefer it or not and how well it suits my particular set of needs. I'm not even sure I can accurately define what my particular needs are right now (except that I wanted the 1020's great camera). I wonder if you could elaborate on what needs it is that you think Windows Phone suits so well?

gafdlo• 13 years ago

the fundamental flaw of these kinds of survey: if you have enough time to participate then you're not majority, you will never value time-saving features as highly as people who matter will, for example. lots of other things. I never regard experiments using accidental sampling seriously.

Systemic33• 13 years ago

There is a really interesting comment on reddit regarding this survey, specifically about how dodgy its methods was.

"This is not me saying that this is a bad study because I'm a Microsoft fanboy. This is me saying this is a bad study because I'm a scientist.

The "study" says that "cognitive load is the sum of elements a user needs to be familiar with in order to use the operating system." That's actually a good thing to look at, and would be interesting. Unfortunately, they counted the number of pre-installed applications and decided that was somehow linked to the cognitive load? I don't even begin to see a connection between the two.

In the "efficiency and integration" section, they do not actually run a study to see how quickly different tasks can be done (which would be efficiency) -and I don't see anything about integration at all- instead they simply talk about how many short cuts there are- except on Android, which is docked for having too many short cuts.

The customization section showcases 2 problems. 1. They assume that more customization is always better and 2. If what you're going for is customization, than you better make Android a 10 and the next highest operating system a 2. The fact that they have Android and iOS7 anywhere close together shows they did not use any methodology for assigning score.

And finally, the UFX score. I don't even know where to begin. First, he claims that you can close applications on iOS7 and Android to "free up resources," but in reality both camps have said explicitly that their app launcher does not control resource use. He claims that iOS 7 can fit 24 application shortcuts, while Windows Phone can barely fit 12. In reality, if all you want is icons with counters (which is all iOS 7 offers you) then you can fit 28 icons on Windows Phone. He also complains about not having a background image on Windows Phone, never once mentioning how you wouldn't be able to see it (he also lists this under UFX- not sure how this causes any friction. Anyway, he also list this under customization (which makes more sense) and double counts this as a negative). And the oddest one- he claims that the Lumia 920 has "sponsored links on the homescreen." I don't have a Lumia 920- so I can't speak from personal experience, but none of my Google searches reveal anything about this and it is something that I am quite sure would be railed against frequently if true. So in that case, I'm pretty sure it is a lie.

Now, that being said- there are of course problems with Windows Phone. However, I really don't think this article captured any of them." - Weed_O_Whirler

rubidium• 13 years ago

It's probably worth noting that Pfeiffer, the consulting group which makes this report, seems to be a consultant for marketing departments.

One shouldn't read these reports as a scientific publication (b/c their methods are certainly suspect at best), but rather a way to try and translate product differences into things for the marketing department to emphasize.

How iOS7 Stacks Up : Smartphone OS User Experience Shootout [pdf]

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