Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
You don't have to be a technophobe to be confused by an unclear design interface. That reality seems to be eluding you.
I think what's eluding YOU is that just because YOU find something to be "unclear design interface" doesn't mean everybody does. In fact, only on this forum have I ever heard such a thing.
In the over-55 community near me, where they offer lots of on-site classes, and in the community college in my town, there are classes that teach you how to use your smartphone. Is that proof that there's a need for exploring the intricacies of these gadgets? It would seem so. The fact that lots of people don't need this help doesn't mean the gadgets are intuitive. The fact that classes are needed to utilize them to their fullest might suggest they are non user-friendly.
In the over-55 community near me, where they offer lots of on-site classes, and in the community college in my town, there are classes that teach you how to use your smartphone. Is that proof that there's a need for exploring the intricacies of these gadgets? It would seem so. The fact that lots of people don't need this help doesn't mean the gadgets are intuitive. The fact that classes are needed to utilize them to their fullest might suggest they are non user-friendly.
A class for how to use a smartphone? Seriously??? They aren't at all hard to figure out if you spend enough time tinkering with them. Every time I get a new smartphone I spend about an hour just looking through everything messing around and quickly learn everything.
I think what's eluding YOU is that just because YOU find something to be "unclear design interface" doesn't mean everybody does.
I repeat: when a person who has decades of experience answering all sorts of phones can't immediately figure out how to answer a new phone when it rings, the problem lies with the phone, not the user. And this is a problem many new users to Android systems have had (and they're not all technophobic old fogies).
No one is saying that this makes your beloved Android system a total failure. But redesigning the screen controls that appears when the phone rings to CLEARLY indicate that a swipe, not a finger press, is needed to answer the phone (and CLEARLY indicating which direction the user needs to swipe to answer versus dismiss a call) makes the problem go away completely. So yes, that's a sterling example of poor interface design.
Quote:
In fact, only on this forum have I ever heard such a thing.
Which only shows that you don't know what you don't know. Creating a clear, easily-understood control interface (on any type of device, not just computers) is a much trickier problem than most people realize. Devices that seem intuitive are only that way because a great deal of care and thought were put into designing them. And it's the lack of such thought that gives us the all-too-common experience of bewildering remotes sprouting a whole forest of never-used buttons, alarm clocks that hotel guests have to unplug because they can't figure out how to shut off the alarm, and all the other such nonsense that's been mentioned in this thread.
You can learn more about user interface design principles here:
The fact that lots of people don't need this help doesn't mean the gadgets are intuitive.
If you stop to think about it, no electronic or even mechanical devices are truly "intuitive." If I brought a person from a primitive society (say a Yamomamo Indian from the Amazon rainforest) home to my condo, do you think he'd understand how the light switches or the ceiling fans work, or how to flush the toilet? But I bet if I sold my condo to you, you wouldn't be asking me to leave you a manual on how to turn on the lights or flush the commode. The only reason we think these controls are obvious is that they are fairly simple AND we learned how to operate these devices as preschoolers (so we usually don't remember that there was a time when we DID have to learn their operation).
A couple of hours' drive from my home there is a great museum which features all kinds of old machines from various ages. It's truly instructive to see the wide range of controls on very early machines such as automobiles, and how long it took to settle on a standardized control system to operate them. Early cars used a huge variety of steering systems: reins (!), joystick-type controls, levers which the driver pushed to the left or right, etc. It took a while before the steering wheel became the standard mechanism for steering a car.
To answer the phone you either tap or slide. It depend if it is "locked" or not.
I just noticed this today after reading this thread. I received a call and noticed the "slide to answer" prompt. It is usually just tap accept in green or decline in red. You can also send a general message.
Weird how I had never noticed this before and I am on my third iPhone.
I had to look up why it had this feature. I usually lock it when it is in my pocket or purse.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
