Isn't that the sound the baby makes when he spits all over your shoulder?

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by Galeforce10 July 26, 2010 2:13 AM PDT

Quote from another forum. I apologise because I cant remember the posters name and I don't know if it was original or he copied it from somewhere:

"This is where I think most analysis goes off the rails. It seems logical to think that the person who knows the most about phones (technology) should be the one who can best guide us in buying a phone. But in reality, the opposite is often true.
Tech Geeks are more knowledgable so they can quickly figure out the arcane aspects of a device.
Laymen don't understand or want arcane.
Tech Geeks love nuance. Laymen love simplicity.
Tech Geeks love options. Laymen love clarity.
Tech Geeks love power. Laymen love productivity.
Tech Geeks love features. Laymen love benefits.
Tech Geeks use words like functional, powerful, configurable.
Laymen use words like elegant, intuitive, easy to use.
Tech Geeks may know more, but they often understand less.
Laymen should beware Geeks bearing advice. They?re likely to end up with a device that a Geek would love - and that they don't know how to use "

This looks like a pretty cool idea, if you ask me. I'm going to have to try this when I get home.

* First of all, note the two-line app name. Not a wise design decision for a device with a limited screen size
* Email icon for Text Messagin'
* Different names for the same app: "Text Messagin..." and "Text Mess"
* Replacing a letter with three characters that together take up more space than the one letter: "Text Messagin..." vs. "Text Messaging"
* Inconsistent status bar icon heights
* Music icon looks like a push-button or HAL with it's "eye" closed. Take your pick.

It's poor UI design decisions like these that make certain devices cold and impersonal. It's the oft-maligned attention to fit and finish that makes other devices personal and "friendly."

iPhone and Android Customer Satisfaction

CNN buried the most interesting tidbit in this piece on the results of a Yankee Group survey:

77% of iPhone owners say they’ll buy another iPhone, compared to 20% of Android customers who say they’ll buy another Android phone.

That’s incredible, if accurate.

★ Friday, 23 July 2010

Throwing an OS and device together with a feature list as the ultimate target will give you this. While techies who view form and function as mutually exclusive will continue to love Android, there are a good many of us that expect BOTH.

I wrote, and strongly believe, that iOS does a better job of exposing relevant capabilities when you need them, so you can work more quickly. That's called intuitive interface design.

But the fandroids don't want an easy-to-use OS, and they prefer Android because it requires mastery of arcane usage secrets such as "long presses," a tap-and-hold method that works sort of like a computer's contextual menu. For example, long-tapping on the home screen to get a menu lets you add folders, and then long-tapping the folder's menu bar brings up the editor for the folder name. (Contextual menus are great as time-savers for power users, but when used as the only access means to capabilities, they hide functionality from users -- and that's bad.) These fandroid readers also kept saying that going through a sequence of three or four menu options was no big deal, and they thought my criticism of Android for working that way was simply wrongheaded. That's how an operating system should work, they strongly argued.

Look, there's a place for arcane interfaces -- it does make master users feel superior, and it can be fun to figure out all the hidden tricks, just as it is to find the secret powers, commands, shortcuts, and so on in a computer game. And I can see how Google's young, engineering-oriented, smarter-than-the-average-bear employees would feel the same and thus design an OS for them. I bet they play a lot of computer games, too.

But for the rest of us, a smartphone is a tool, one that is often used in quick breaks or on the go. Not having to figure out the secret sauce is a better paradigm in that context -- or so I believe, and my review reflects that. If you don't agree, then by all means get an Android device; my opinion doesn't determine your purchase options.

This guy's right on the money. Merely creating a touch UI doesn't immediately grant you ease of use on par with iOS. Effective and efficient UI design is something that you have to wrestle with and sometimes struggle with to get right. In the end, it's worth it because you want your users to not just try your app, but to use it over and over and over again. If just one element is too difficult to use, you will lose customers and an opportunity for word-of-mouth marketing.