A User Experience Designer Switches from iOS to Android

http://jacksonfish.com/2014/05/22/a-user-experience-designer-switches-from-ios-to-android/

by hillel • 12 years ago

36 62 12 years ago

jacksonfish.com

jnks• 12 years ago

It might be more fair if the reviewer also put together a list of UI failings on iOS. It's far from perfect!

npsimons3• 12 years ago

Here's a start: http://blog.codinghorror.com/the-one-button-mystique/

Gracana2• 12 years ago

The two-apps/choose-your-app problems are something that my mother has found very frustrating, and I haven't really been able to come up with a good solution for her. It bothers me as well, but I have enough experience with similar things to be able to deal with it. But for her, it's a bunch of new stuff that all conflicts and interoperates differently. It's a disaster.

spinlock• 12 years ago

Yup. I just cycle through the choices trying a different one each time. Once I find myself using one _all the time_ I set that as the default.

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.

npsimons3• 12 years ago

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.

smrtinsert4• 12 years ago

This part is funny, app interoperability is a huge feature. Some people should just stay on iOS I guess. I love that I can click a link and have various ways of understanding or consuming it. I guess there needs to be some tweaking around how and when it saves preferences for these intents, but personally this is a big part of the reason I'm on Android.

MBCook8• 12 years ago

As an iOS user the concept is great and many people would LOVE something similar in the iOS world. It sounds like the implementation has some interface flaws that cause people problems.

The core idea that I should be able to choose what app to use to manage my photos seems self-evident.

Gracana2• 12 years ago

It's not necessarily the interoperability that's the problem, it's just that sometimes she can't do things that seem sensible (like send a photo to the email app), and why are there two calendars and two galleries and whatnot? Choice can be good, but when there is initially little differentiation between options, making choices becomes a burden.

wdmeldon• 12 years ago

There are some definite valid criticisms here (Photos/Gallery being the least understandable oversight), but you really need to try the Nexus 5. Fragmentation needs to be dealt with and OEM's need to stop "differentiating" themselves into UI hell, but pure Android is definitely worth experiencing. It will mainly make you more upset at HTC.

MBCook8• 12 years ago

Unfortunately those 'improvements' afflict 95+% of Android users.

Just like all the crapware that was/is shipped on every Windows computer by OEMs these decisions are effecting Google's image.

fidotron• 12 years ago

Yep. What's funny about HTC in particular is some of their additional features such as disabling apps and hiding them from the launcher, even if they're uninstallable, exist purely to work around some of the crap they've burdened the system with.

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.

milesskorpen• 12 years ago

The author specifically addressed this defense in his post — basically, Google owns Android. Whatever an OEM does, they're doing it with Google's tacit support. If that makes the experience awful, Google still has responsibility (though certainly not exclusive responsibility).

bdcs• 12 years ago

To underscore your point, there was recently a speed test[1] conducted to compare the Moto E (~vanilla android, 120$ unlocked) vs Samsung Galaxy S5 (TouchWiz, ~700$ unlocked) in user tests (think Google+ load times, not MIPS). The Moto E was faster, despite having roughly 1/3rd the hardware metrics.

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...

izzydata2• 12 years ago

Almost all of this guys problems are the result of giving the user options that simply don't exist in iOS. If you really need your OS to tell you how YOU want to do things then I guess you really should go back to the locked down iOS.

Choices are hard. Apparently even choosing what phone was too hard.

aaronem4• 12 years ago

I often see the same argument made in defense of desktop Linux vs. Windows and OS X. It's a little more justifiable there, I suppose, but a phone is an appliance. Its job is to do the things I need it to do, to do those things well without fail. Otherwise, it's worse than useless, because it complicates my life rather than simplifying it.

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.

izzydata2• 12 years ago

A phone is a computer and a user should be able to configure it however they want. If that isn't for you then don't use it, but that doesn't make customization an inherent flaw because someone doesn't personally want to deal with it.

magicalist2• 12 years ago

This really is a false dichotomy. Being able to set different default apps isn't a huge thing to ask, doesn't alienate huge numbers of non-techies, and doesn't make an OS that does let you do so for tinkerers only or something. Conversely, asking for better UX for selecting which app to use doesn't imply that it's a bad idea that can only be serviced by a million knobs and buttons and so should be abandoned.

MBCook8• 12 years ago

Giving people a choice isn't always better. The photos app is a perfect example. It's fine that Android lets you have/use multiple photo apps. Many people think that's better than iOS.

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.

smrtinsert4• 12 years ago

Again, you've missed the point. If you want a monolithic experience in the One True Way, that appears to be the iOS main feature. The photos app is NOT the perfect example because there's plenty times I want a full gallery since I'll want to share something else and sometimes when I want just a preview. eReaders are also great examples for when you need choices.

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.

ssmoot8• 12 years ago

iOS has choices in Photos believe it or not. The iOS7 "intents"-alike screen is pretty ubiquitous.

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.

MBCook8• 12 years ago

That's the share screen, and it's quite different from intents.

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".

wcfields• 12 years ago

Is there a vetted list of "good" apps for Android for basic tasks?

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?

robert_tweed• 12 years ago

I keep finding myself agreeing with the author whenever an encounter with the back button is mentioned.

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.

npsimons3• 12 years ago

What's interesting is that other people have commented on the back button; see http://blog.codinghorror.com/the-one-button-mystique/ which I also find highly amusing for its link to the state diagram of what the one button does - simplicity? I think not!

blinkingled9• 12 years ago

[Unreasonable expectations and little knowledge or inclination to try things out] Please don't read the previous bracketed sentence as snarky or insulting - it reflects the fact that he bought an unlocked phone and expected it to work great out of box with T-Mobile (including WiFi calling!) and he wasn't inclined to search the Play Store for TMobile Voicemail - so there is definitely substance to that sentence. But I merely wanted to point out that he is a user who is perfect fit for iOS/iPhone design goals. And not all people fall into that bucket. And neither should simplicity at all costs be a universal design goal for every product. Obviously if he is inflexibly tuned to the iOS way of doing things it's no wonder he's going to have issues with anything else.

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.

smrtinsert4• 12 years ago

He completely missed the entire point of Intents which isn't surprising since he's not experienced in Android (better said, he's just an iOS guy).

MBCook8• 12 years ago

I don't think he did, I think he was commenting on the UI implementation.

Just because you think the interface to something isn't designed well doesn't mean the underlying feature is worthless.

ssmoot8• 12 years ago

"the point" is that it's not explained what the consequences are.

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?

MBCook8• 12 years ago

Insulting iOS users is not a productive way to start a discussion.

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?

blinkingled9• 12 years ago

Insulting iOS users? Where do you get that from? Users are users - they have preferences. Some prefer simple and not having to think and some prefer tweaking, suprises and flexibility. If I had said "stupid" iOS users then it would be an insult.

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"?

ssmoot8• 12 years ago

4. The MotoX lock screen sometimes unlocked with a swipe of a dot, and sometimes up from the bottom depending on wether there was an unaddressed notification. Incredibly annoying. You can unlock an iPhone 100% of the time blindly while pulling it out of your pocket. Not so Android.

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...

fleitz• 12 years ago

Just keep in mind that the people who are downvoting you are the people who have been proclaiming the year of the linux desktop since 1998.

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.

youngtaff2• 12 years ago

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.

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!

magicalist2• 12 years ago

I feel like this whole comments section just fell out of a time machine, which isn't surprising, as this article does as well. This would fit in well with all the 2011 "UX guy roughs it with Android" stories, but it feels weirdly archaic today.

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

hillel4• 12 years ago

I would have thought this experience to be anachronistic as well as I thought Android had plenty of time to polish their experience since those stories 2-3 years ago. That's part of the reason I jumped into trying Android. I thought it would be a good experience - just different from iOS, which I welcomed.

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.

ssmoot8• 12 years ago

This doesn't actually address any of his points. I feel like you could change the "4" in your comment to a "5" in a couple years and feel equally justified.

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.

visarga• 12 years ago

What I like is the fact that I could combine 2 or 3 apps to obtain a new functionality - this composability of Android. Example:

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.

A User Experience Designer Switches from iOS to Android

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