iPhones are hard to use
October 23, 2018 9:09 AM Subscribe
iPhones are hard to use — Joe Clark takes Apple to task for hiding accessibility features, having even basic features that few people understand, and generally a poor user interface.
This post was deleted for the following reason: Sorry for the delayed delete here -- it'd be fine to have a thread on apple or smartphone accessibility and UI stuff -- but there are some bits of this essay ("autists") and the author's other views that mean this will end up just being a referendum on him and that's not going anywhere good. -- LobsterMitten
I taught an iphone class for seniors, and I can say that it was probably the most frustrating experience I have ever had. My biggest complaint at the time was the inconsistency in how iphone models and and types made teaching the class a minefield of trying to explain where something is on the everyone's phone.
posted by joelf at 9:18 AM on October 23, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by joelf at 9:18 AM on October 23, 2018 [1 favorite]
I have always hated them. I haven't read the essay yet but I'm up for hating it too.
posted by thelonius at 9:18 AM on October 23, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by thelonius at 9:18 AM on October 23, 2018 [2 favorites]
really wish broseph here didn’t use “autist” to mean “someone who makes user interface decisions I disagree with.”
posted by Reclusive Novelist Thomas Pynchon at 9:19 AM on October 23, 2018 [10 favorites]
posted by Reclusive Novelist Thomas Pynchon at 9:19 AM on October 23, 2018 [10 favorites]
Not to criticize the posting, but it would have been really helpful in the framing of the to have something like "technology blogger" (or whatever the guy does or calls himself) in the description, because my mind (like most Canadian MeFites, I'm sure) did the: "What? Former Prime Minister Joe Clark is taking on Apple? What did Apple do to tick Joe off?"
posted by sardonyx at 9:21 AM on October 23, 2018 [5 favorites]
posted by sardonyx at 9:21 AM on October 23, 2018 [5 favorites]
I've had a similar experience using iPhones. My wife uses one. (Android phones are far from perfect too, obviously.)
The essay is an organizational mess, but he makes several strong points.
I'm just curious why people like iPhones so much. They are ridiculously expensive. It is the camera? The Apple ecosystem (I find that hard to believe)? The _____ ?
Honestly, no snark, what makes iPhones good? Or better than your standard $100 smartphone? (My wife has not provided a thoroughly convincing answer - she got hers free from work.)
posted by mrgrimm at 9:24 AM on October 23, 2018 [1 favorite]
The essay is an organizational mess, but he makes several strong points.
I'm just curious why people like iPhones so much. They are ridiculously expensive. It is the camera? The Apple ecosystem (I find that hard to believe)? The _____ ?
Honestly, no snark, what makes iPhones good? Or better than your standard $100 smartphone? (My wife has not provided a thoroughly convincing answer - she got hers free from work.)
posted by mrgrimm at 9:24 AM on October 23, 2018 [1 favorite]
I agree with 90% of the rant but it is a mess of an article. Also it fails to explain why it's like it is now. I think it's entirely because of product age and added features. The very first iPhone was hugely easier to use. But then it didn't do nearly as much. Like copy&paste is super hard on iOS now but it didn't even exist until iOS 3.0. (OTOH some of his criticisms apply to the first iPhone too: the stupid WiFi joining default, the difficulty of setting font sizes.)
A similar thing happened to Google Chrome. The very first version was super clean and easy and infamously only had like 4 settings you could configure. But over time Chrome keeps adding more and more features and user configurations and now it's as bad as MSIE always has been. Also lots of confusing hidden features there; Google is literally buying ads on Twitter to tell you you can hit Ctrl-Shift-T to reopen a closed tab.
Lightroom has the same story of increasing clutter and complexity over its ten year history.
It's very easy to do a clean design when you completely rethink a product and its UI and start new. Then it ages and accretes cruft and becomes crappy. The real challenge is for us to find a way for a product to grow and add features without becoming a hairball.
posted by Nelson at 9:25 AM on October 23, 2018 [2 favorites]
A similar thing happened to Google Chrome. The very first version was super clean and easy and infamously only had like 4 settings you could configure. But over time Chrome keeps adding more and more features and user configurations and now it's as bad as MSIE always has been. Also lots of confusing hidden features there; Google is literally buying ads on Twitter to tell you you can hit Ctrl-Shift-T to reopen a closed tab.
Lightroom has the same story of increasing clutter and complexity over its ten year history.
It's very easy to do a clean design when you completely rethink a product and its UI and start new. Then it ages and accretes cruft and becomes crappy. The real challenge is for us to find a way for a product to grow and add features without becoming a hairball.
posted by Nelson at 9:25 AM on October 23, 2018 [2 favorites]
I spent probably an hour today trying to figure out how to transfer mp3s from Dropbox to my iPhone in such a way as to allow me to play an album. I walked away convinced that it's impossible, and that it's impossible on purpose because Apple wants me to pay for iCloud hosting (no thanks, I have Dropbox) and only play music that I bought on the iTunes store. It was an immensely irritating experience.
posted by Anticipation Of A New Lover's Arrival, The at 9:25 AM on October 23, 2018 [5 favorites]
posted by Anticipation Of A New Lover's Arrival, The at 9:25 AM on October 23, 2018 [5 favorites]
Joe Clark is also the author of Building Accessible Websites
posted by RobotHero at 9:25 AM on October 23, 2018
posted by RobotHero at 9:25 AM on October 23, 2018
There was one line that annoyed me, and demonstrates the problem with the essay:
posted by NoxAeternum at 9:28 AM on October 23, 2018
Yet sometimes people just need to learn the basics. There are people who Google “Facebook” to go to Facebook.In fact, using Google to go to websites is a recommended practice because of the risk of malicious websites preying on misspelling addresses. And yeah, his not knowing this colored how I viewed the rest of the essay.
posted by NoxAeternum at 9:28 AM on October 23, 2018
Many of these complaints are not really about Apple or iPhones but generally people's poor knowledge of the internet in general. It's just that the iPhone or equivalent is their first and probably fastest computer. And Apple is loathe on making sweeping changes that would annoy everyone know already knows how to use their products.
He also thought he had to use the Gmail app to read his Gmail.
It doesn't help that most of the __Internet__ is now very user-unfriendly.
It's probably a good thing that people aren't trying to use unreliable and flaky voice controls and go by reliable text buttons. I would think a usability person would know this.
posted by meowzilla at 9:29 AM on October 23, 2018
He also thought he had to use the Gmail app to read his Gmail.
It doesn't help that most of the __Internet__ is now very user-unfriendly.
It's probably a good thing that people aren't trying to use unreliable and flaky voice controls and go by reliable text buttons. I would think a usability person would know this.
posted by meowzilla at 9:29 AM on October 23, 2018
Dude is clueless about Apple's MO when it comes to these things. Even the Mac OS as far back as forever was chock full of hidden functions. I'm not sure why they still do this, seeing as we are far removed from the "check out the cool easter egg I found!" days of nerdgasms.
There's also this bit...
posted by Thorzdad at 9:30 AM on October 23, 2018 [5 favorites]
There's also this bit...
What was obviously an itinerant Filipina nanny or maid on the way to a temp gig...I mean...WTF did that characterization have to do with anything? White guy much?
posted by Thorzdad at 9:30 AM on October 23, 2018 [5 favorites]
The WiFi joining issue is part of a bad practice that continues to get encouraged - having people join random hotspots for connectivity. Given the risks this has, you'd think that it would have been killed off long ago.
posted by NoxAeternum at 9:32 AM on October 23, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by NoxAeternum at 9:32 AM on October 23, 2018 [2 favorites]
Also lots of confusing hidden features there; Google is literally buying ads on Twitter to tell you you can hit Ctrl-Shift-T to reopen a closed tab.
Ctrl-Shift-Tab moves left one tab.
Ctrl-Shift-Q closes all Chrome tabs without confirmation.
I hate Chrome so very, very much.
posted by Pope Guilty at 9:33 AM on October 23, 2018 [2 favorites]
Ctrl-Shift-Tab moves left one tab.
Ctrl-Shift-Q closes all Chrome tabs without confirmation.
I hate Chrome so very, very much.
posted by Pope Guilty at 9:33 AM on October 23, 2018 [2 favorites]
I think the problem here is more "smart phone UI is terrible" than "iPhones are hard to use." They need to be able to do an incredibly broad range of things while necessarily hiding lots of those because "most people" won't need them.
Add in the mental cruft of workarounds learned in previous OS versions and even for people who've been using one for years, simple tasks seem inaccessible. (My wife categorically refuses to access her photos any way besides opening the camera -- from the app icon, naturally -- and then tapping the photo library. It drives me batty.)
Honestly, no snark, what makes iPhones good? Or better than your standard $100 smartphone?
It just works pretty well, for the most part. I do like the Apple ecosystem, mostly. I use it as a transport controller to run my DAW (Logic) when I'm tracking drums. There's not a dazzling array of phone choices, some of which are low-rent garbage that doesn't support the latest OS version and comes with pre-loaded bloatware; if I buy an iPhone in the last two generations, it's going to be pretty good, no surprises.
posted by uncleozzy at 9:36 AM on October 23, 2018 [2 favorites]
Add in the mental cruft of workarounds learned in previous OS versions and even for people who've been using one for years, simple tasks seem inaccessible. (My wife categorically refuses to access her photos any way besides opening the camera -- from the app icon, naturally -- and then tapping the photo library. It drives me batty.)
Honestly, no snark, what makes iPhones good? Or better than your standard $100 smartphone?
It just works pretty well, for the most part. I do like the Apple ecosystem, mostly. I use it as a transport controller to run my DAW (Logic) when I'm tracking drums. There's not a dazzling array of phone choices, some of which are low-rent garbage that doesn't support the latest OS version and comes with pre-loaded bloatware; if I buy an iPhone in the last two generations, it's going to be pretty good, no surprises.
posted by uncleozzy at 9:36 AM on October 23, 2018 [2 favorites]
White guy much?
Sadly: https://www.lifesitenews.com/opinion/straight-talk-from-a-gay-guy-bill-28-is-nonsense
posted by meowzilla at 9:38 AM on October 23, 2018 [2 favorites]
Sadly: https://www.lifesitenews.com/opinion/straight-talk-from-a-gay-guy-bill-28-is-nonsense
posted by meowzilla at 9:38 AM on October 23, 2018 [2 favorites]
Honestly, no snark, what makes iPhones good? Or better than your standard $100 smartphone?
I'm just me and can't speak for everyone but I like my iphone better for phone functions than my Android device by far. The volume control band is not wide enough such that the headphone volume is too loud and eventually gives me a headache. I hate swipe to answer a call and prefer the apple way for taking phonecalls. Swiping to answer while you are moving is nearly impossible on my phone. Swipe to reject a call is even worse. I have also helped many people with Android phones because there never seems to be a dedicated accessible button for settings. It's buried.
Other than those (and for me they are major) I find them pretty similar. I actually agree with his complaints about SIRI, and find it crazy that apple hasn't set up SIRI to allow you to do nearly everything through it, including opening apps and changing settings (at least opening the correct screen).
posted by The_Vegetables at 9:39 AM on October 23, 2018
I'm just me and can't speak for everyone but I like my iphone better for phone functions than my Android device by far. The volume control band is not wide enough such that the headphone volume is too loud and eventually gives me a headache. I hate swipe to answer a call and prefer the apple way for taking phonecalls. Swiping to answer while you are moving is nearly impossible on my phone. Swipe to reject a call is even worse. I have also helped many people with Android phones because there never seems to be a dedicated accessible button for settings. It's buried.
Other than those (and for me they are major) I find them pretty similar. I actually agree with his complaints about SIRI, and find it crazy that apple hasn't set up SIRI to allow you to do nearly everything through it, including opening apps and changing settings (at least opening the correct screen).
posted by The_Vegetables at 9:39 AM on October 23, 2018
re: “itinerant Filipino nanny or maid”:
I dislike this man intensely and the knowledge that he exists and presumably gets paid to do things fills me with fear and loathing.
The internet was a mistake. Computers are a mistake. Internet computer phones were a mistake.
I am angry that this man gets so worked up about little errors and perpetrates big errors. I am angry that so many men like him get paid to be like him. I am angry.
I’m so tired of being angry. I don’t like me when I’m angry.
posted by Reclusive Novelist Thomas Pynchon at 9:40 AM on October 23, 2018 [6 favorites]
I dislike this man intensely and the knowledge that he exists and presumably gets paid to do things fills me with fear and loathing.
The internet was a mistake. Computers are a mistake. Internet computer phones were a mistake.
I am angry that this man gets so worked up about little errors and perpetrates big errors. I am angry that so many men like him get paid to be like him. I am angry.
I’m so tired of being angry. I don’t like me when I’m angry.
posted by Reclusive Novelist Thomas Pynchon at 9:40 AM on October 23, 2018 [6 favorites]
If somebody told you your Home button was going to wear out, hence you turned on AssistiveTouch, you were lied to.
I'm using assistive touch because my lock button wore out.
(actually it may have mysteriously started working again a couple days ago?)
posted by atoxyl at 9:40 AM on October 23, 2018
I'm using assistive touch because my lock button wore out.
(actually it may have mysteriously started working again a couple days ago?)
posted by atoxyl at 9:40 AM on October 23, 2018
Yeah, for someone so concerned about things like this he sure throws around a lot of ableist language and racist assumptions.
posted by Ampersand692 at 9:41 AM on October 23, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by Ampersand692 at 9:41 AM on October 23, 2018 [1 favorite]
In my experience with iProducts, It just works means as long as you do it our way.. As a user of technology I like to be in control of what it's doing, and every OS is moving in the opposite direction. And in the direction of always selling to me. Apple pushes everything to the iTunes store. I just uninstalled an applet on my laptop that MSoft uses to push phone plans. Fuck every little bit of that.
posted by theora55 at 9:42 AM on October 23, 2018 [3 favorites]
posted by theora55 at 9:42 AM on October 23, 2018 [3 favorites]
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posted by Johnny Wallflower at 9:16 AM on October 23, 2018