Comments | parkrrrr: I just started using an iPhone...

parkrrrr

I just started using an iPhone...

May 16, 2011 13:31

... and boy does it make me miss my Nokia dumb-phone. How do I hate Apple? Let me count the ways!
( cut so you don't get any spittle on ya )

incoherent rants

Comments 6

parkrrrr May 16 2011, 17:34:04 UTC

On the plus side, I guess I can finally give FFG money for the AH toolkit. (See previous entry.)

jojomojo May 16 2011, 18:34:06 UTC

I'm sort of surprised you didn't pick something more Android-y...

parkrrrr May 16 2011, 19:24:23 UTC

Note that I didn't say I bought an iPhone. I've still got a few months before I can get a smartphone at the new-contract price, so I'm using Julie's old iPhone 3 until then. When I have my own choice of phones, I will almost certainly be getting something more Android-y, if only because I intend to eventually write some of my own software for it and you can't do that for an iPhone if all you own is real computers.

roane May 16 2011, 18:48:03 UTC

While you're waiting for the kids to get off your lawn... ;) Do you have any examples of UI that you like? I'm curious to see what you find useful in a UI.

parkrrrr May 16 2011, 19:53:48 UTC

Sadly, examples of UI that I like are getting less and less common, because everyone thinks that Web 2.0 style-over-substance is the next big thing. I can tell you what I like in a UI, though. Keep in mind that this is biased toward software design, not web design, as I don't really do web design.

Affordances. That's a word from the excellent book The Psychology of Everyday Things (aka The Design of Everyday Things) by Donald Norman. If your thing works like a button, it should look like a button. If it works like a menu, it should look like a menu. Obviously, what something "should look like" varies from environment to environment, but designers should strive for consistency within any given environment. The example Norman uses is a door handle. If the handle is horizontal, you push. If it's vertical, you pull. If you think about the last door you accidentally did the wrong thing with, chances are the handle was oriented in such a way as to give you the wrong impression.
Discoverability. You should be able to see all of the knobs, and ( ... )

parkrrrr May 16 2011, 19:58:31 UTC

Specific to web design, you should design in such a way that the user can override your stylesheets with his own, and still have a functional if not necessarily aesthetically optimal experience with your website.