<story><title>Apple&apos;s products are getting harder to use, ignore principles of design (2015)</title><url>https://jnd.org/apples_products_are_getting_harder_to_use_because_they_ignore_principles_of_design/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>Razengan</author><text>The iPad was my gateway into the Apple orchard. I had never purchased an Apple product until about a decade ago, when I got the first Retina iPad as a gift for someone who didn’t use computers. I was so impressed by how intuitive the device and OS was for them, that I installed macOS in a VM on Windows to try iOS development. I fell in love with macOS (back during Lion) shortly before getting my first MacBook and leaving Windows forever behind, never to return.&lt;p&gt;Fast forward to a month ago. I purchased one of the newer low-end iPads as another gift for someone else who didn’t use computers.&lt;p&gt;It was depressing.&lt;p&gt;The setup process was kinda annoying. No, we don’t want Apple Pay, thank you. I had to enter the Apple&amp;#x2F;iCloud account credentials multiple times at different points before it stopped asking me to sign in again.&lt;p&gt;There were a lot of bugs in the system UI and the preinstalled apps.&lt;p&gt;I had to disable the multitasking gestures because they would be confusing for a new user.&lt;p&gt;They have removed labels for the Dock icons with no way to restore them, so I had to keep apps with less obvious icons out of the Dock, so they could have labels. Because a flower for photos is not a connection that many people can intuitively make.&lt;p&gt;I had to explain that dragging down from the right corner of the top edge brings up the brightness control.&lt;p&gt;Dragging down from anywhere else on the top edge brings up the notifications.&lt;p&gt;Dragging down on a blank part of the home screen’s background, away from edges, brings up the search bar.&lt;p&gt;Fuck.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>neor</author><text>I fully agree, there is a steady decline in usability and its a bloody shame because for years the usability is what set Apple apart from the others.&lt;p&gt;A few things which hugely annoy me;&lt;p&gt;- Saving a photo from iMessage.... the option has disappeared. I get a popup to airdrop the file, interact with some apps and a huge copy button. In fact, I can scroll down in this menu but there is not a single visual indicator that I can scroll. No scroll bar, no icon... nothing. I&amp;#x27;ve had to read somewhere online that I could scroll there, and I work in IT. How is this usable for people who don&amp;#x27;t work in IT.&lt;p&gt;- After updates I&amp;#x27;m frequently asked to provide my Apple ID password, and yet iOS doesn&amp;#x27;t allow me to interact with Password Managers at this moment. I&amp;#x27;ve got a 36 random character password, and it is a pain in the ass to enter this.&lt;p&gt;- 3D touch has been removed in newer iPhones. Fine, but why cripple older phones which still have the hardware to use 3D touch... Now it takes me an extra action to re-arrange my icons.</text></comment>
<story><title>Apple&apos;s products are getting harder to use, ignore principles of design (2015)</title><url>https://jnd.org/apples_products_are_getting_harder_to_use_because_they_ignore_principles_of_design/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>Razengan</author><text>The iPad was my gateway into the Apple orchard. I had never purchased an Apple product until about a decade ago, when I got the first Retina iPad as a gift for someone who didn’t use computers. I was so impressed by how intuitive the device and OS was for them, that I installed macOS in a VM on Windows to try iOS development. I fell in love with macOS (back during Lion) shortly before getting my first MacBook and leaving Windows forever behind, never to return.&lt;p&gt;Fast forward to a month ago. I purchased one of the newer low-end iPads as another gift for someone else who didn’t use computers.&lt;p&gt;It was depressing.&lt;p&gt;The setup process was kinda annoying. No, we don’t want Apple Pay, thank you. I had to enter the Apple&amp;#x2F;iCloud account credentials multiple times at different points before it stopped asking me to sign in again.&lt;p&gt;There were a lot of bugs in the system UI and the preinstalled apps.&lt;p&gt;I had to disable the multitasking gestures because they would be confusing for a new user.&lt;p&gt;They have removed labels for the Dock icons with no way to restore them, so I had to keep apps with less obvious icons out of the Dock, so they could have labels. Because a flower for photos is not a connection that many people can intuitively make.&lt;p&gt;I had to explain that dragging down from the right corner of the top edge brings up the brightness control.&lt;p&gt;Dragging down from anywhere else on the top edge brings up the notifications.&lt;p&gt;Dragging down on a blank part of the home screen’s background, away from edges, brings up the search bar.&lt;p&gt;Fuck.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>hellomyguys</author><text>As someone who does product design for a living and has used an iPad for almost 10 years now, I still get so confused with the Slide Over multitasking. There&amp;#x27;s no discoverability at all for this. You have to read the manual and memorize the gestures. Absolutely mind-blowing that they&amp;#x27;ve made something this confusing.&lt;p&gt;I know when people say &amp;quot;it&amp;#x27;s like they don&amp;#x27;t even use their products&amp;quot; it is usually hyperbolic, but I don&amp;#x27;t know how they can explain the seemingly random continual prompting of Apple&amp;#x2F;iCloud login on OS X I see a few times a year.</text></comment>