Experience

Experience is how the whole thing works and feel. You have your apps, your email accounts, you’re receiving your text messages, the thing is connected to the internet and your cellular network… now what? How is everything integrated together, what does it feel like to use the OS in your everyday? Experience is the key thing here. It’s great to have apps and it’s awesome if you can modify everything, but you’ll be using this phone every day, so it all needs to be tied up together pretty well in both the way it looks and feels! Before we start, I just want to say that there’s a big debate about Skeuomorphic design and Realistic design and what exactly is Flat design and honestly I’ll try to use none of those terms here. This way we’ll all be sure we get to understand what I’m talking about and your maybe wrong preconceived idea/definition about, let’s say what Skeuomorphic is, won’t affect what I’m trying to explain here.

iOS has a pretty solid experience. You have your list of apps, you open it, have fun with it, press the single button on the device to go back to the menu and open another app. It is a solid experience… because there isn’t anything else to do. iOS is extremely straightforward. Swipe from the top and you have all your notifications and upcoming events. Swipe from the bottom and you have a couple of quick options and shortcuts. Thank Android for that though. In terms of design, this is where it starts to go south. Since the beginning of iOS, the platform reflected a lot your everyday life in an aggressive way in the way it looked. You could see wood, leather, paper, gradients, stiches, shadows and even little reflections on every button or corner. iPad apps pushed that idea even more to the point that you really had the little wire that holds the pages of the wood/leather book with the shadows and textures actually showing that it is open –on your digital screen. Taste is extremely subjective, and for devices that wanted to show people that high technologies is accessible and useful, I actually think that it helped the masses to approach the scary and complicated idea of having a full computer in your pocket or a full computer that is basically just one big screen. Say what you want, but it worked. It worked and it was extremely well executed; that was the key here. Everything looked the same, felt the same and had the human touch and the rich textures. Even if as a UX Architect I did not like it in terms of taste, objectively it was extremely well executed and uniform. With iOS 7, Apple took the big step forward it needed with a more modern design overhaul of the platform. They unfortunately left behind their precise design execution and took two more backwards. Before, iOS represented the world as you know it in your pocket. Now, you have a weird blend of minimalism with flat colors, semi-weird web 2.0 design with gradients and inverted gradients and still some uses of pre-iOS 7 realistic design with floating 3D bubbles. There’s a lot of bright colors… next to some grayish icons and full flat black ones. Things fly from every direction with huge animations. There’s even blurred see-though glass. This does not feel uniform at all. Before it was a matter of taste only and even if the whole world would hate the way it looks like, nobody could say that it didn’t work and feel the same way throughout the platform. I read a funny mention somewhere on the web saying “When you don’t have any idea what to do, you use see through glass-like transparency.” Guess what, that’s what Microsoft did with Windows Vista and now Apple has done the same with iOS. The experience is bland and straightforward for a supposedly smartphone and the same is now reflected on the interface itself. On the iPad side, you basically have a stretched iPhone and technically the iPhone is a stretched iPod Touch that can call. Apps are good, yes, but you can make a crappy experience around them especially if you’re selling a tablet that can’t even let me talk to someone while browsing the web for 500$. iOS needs some “more” and some polish.

Android has been the star of the show. Not because it has a perfect experience, far from it, but because of the speed at which Google are improving it! Android has been a mess without any true personality in the beginning. A lot of companies, unfortunately, still think that it’s the case and that they need to differentiate their product more by changing the way Android looks and works. This may have been the case with HTC improving Android with Sense on the HTC Hero back then, yet doing so today is a different story. The Android team have Matias Duarte on-board, one of the best UX Architects I know of. He’s the one who designed WebOS including the multitasking card paradigm. This is one of the main reason why Android passed from a lifeless, unorganized mess to the Android we know of today. If you want to use Android at its best you need a Nexus, Google Play Edition or Cyanogen phone, otherwise you can’t really call that Android. The interface is cleaner, faster, refined and gets better every year. And that’s a problem. As much as the interface gets better at every iteration, they come up with new design guidelines that a lot of developers can’t follow at a fast enough pace. Add to that the ridiculous number of resolution, screen sizes, device format and button layout and you’re in the right track to confuse and limit the creativity of your developers. So you end up with a lot of apps that don’t feel and work the same way, and this can create some confusion. Widgets, however awesome they might be, are not an integrated experience either. There isn’t really any true and respected guidelines on how to build Android widgets and it shows. On top of that a Widget is mostly independent from your main app which breaks the experience even more. I’ve been using a red Nexus 5 for months now and however awesome widgets might be, I don’t use them at all because I’m an idiotic excessive design purist. Another part of the broken experience is the integration of basic applications. iOS and Windows Phone have excellent integrated first-party apps for all. Email and texting and camera works all well, but Android disappoints if you’re out of Google’s world. Every application is becoming a Google specific version and if you’re not plugged in to Google with, let’s say Gmail, the basic email apps really sucks and didn’t even sync my emails correctly. Yes there are third-party apps that are excellent like CloudMail for my emails and EvolveSMS for my text messages… but they aren’t as integrated and always have a couple of weird things about them that hinders your experience. Nonetheless, Android is rapidly evolving and the experience is simply getting better every year, especially if you live in the Google world.

Windows is, again, the balance of the two. The Windows experience is, I think and with some pretty good observation, the best of the bunch. That is with what Microsoft can control because otherwise everything around it becomes problematic. Since my move to Android to get to know the platform for this piece, I’ve started to use a Pebble and a Google Glass. I’m waiting for the Lumia 930 to be released, yet I’m so afraid to go back to Windows Phone because there isn’t any support from the Pebble team and I can forget any kind of support from Google. That’s the problem with Windows: Apps. I’m not so much of an app person. In fact I pretty much hate apps. Yet, the situation with Windows affects me with third-party devices. I don’t care about Snapchat, I have Facebook Messenger (that yes, gets always updated the last) where all my actual friends are and even text messages; what’s the use? But I’m screwed if I want to use a smartwatch like the Pebble or the upcoming Moto360, I’m screwed if I want to use a Nest thermostat and yes, I’m screwed if I want to use my Square scanner without keeping an iOS or Android device with me. Is that Microsoft’s fault? Of course not, they did a fantastic job with Windows Phone and Windows for tablets, ut it’s a burden for consumers and nonetheless affects the overall experience of the platform. If you look outside of the apps problem the platform is pretty amazing, especially with 8.1 onboard. Everything is nicely polished, performance is incredible, buttons are standard on all devices and the platform just feels like one very integrated thing. Live Tiles are of course the star of the show here being front and center on the devices and with reason. Compared to widgets they have a standard look and feel, you know that they will always open the application and fits nicely in a grid on your Start screen. They may be nicer than widgets, but unfortunately you can’t do a lot more with them, each Live Tile is just a shortcut for inside an application; they just show you information and open to where the full info is.

iOS is falling apart and lacking any kind of distinctive organization/innovation. Android is improving extremely fast and has widgets that let you do things without launching anything, but can be a bit of a mess sometimes. Windows is extremely integrated and refined with their design language and Live Tiles, although you can’t interact with them and the apps/support might be an issue for you if you can’t look past it.

Phew, that was a lot of analysis. Now that we’re done with the others, let’s focus on iOS.





Note

This research project or I are not affiliated with Apple in any way.





UNDERSTANDING iOS

Usually I have my set of rules when trying to redesign, fix, push, improve or analyze anything, but we need to go deeper first.

I highly recommend you read my previous post called “The Competition” so you get a better picture of the current market and products. It’s a quick analysis that can give you a good additional insight for this analysis and proposal.

Even with everything I have described on top, iOS is still a widely used mobile OS.

Why? How is it still successful? Let’s just get into this one last time for a second…..

You are paying a huge price for a phone that is thin by sacrificing the battery and forces form over function by using extremely delicate materials like glass on the back so you end up buying an ugly giant battery case cover ruining the whole thing. Everything you do on iOS is locked in Apple’s world. Bought a book on the iBookstore and want to do anything outside Apple with it? … nope. Buy it on the Amazon app and you can use it on every single platform on the world… while paying less and having more and this same problematic is throughout the OS. iOS 7 is a design nightmare by Apple’s own standard with hundreds of inconsistencies and bugs. Your tablet is just a stretched out iPhone with no better features or function whatsoever with the bigger screen on top of an interface that does squat more than your phone. You are paying a ridiculous amount, for a fragile inefficient phone locked in an extremely closed world all with battery issues and design inconsistencies and an expansive tablet that does not bring anything more to the table and can’t even stand straight by itself on a table requiring an ugly huge case again or a very annoying magnetic cover. You can’t even do two things at the same time (although the rumors say Apple is working on that). Why on earth are people still buying the iPhone and iPad? If we put the obvious “because there’s a fruit on it” answer aside, it all comes down to one big reason.





It is simple. Dead fricking simple.

No really… that’s it.





Everyone from every age can use iOS and understand iOS. It is so dumb simple and straightforward that it is beautiful. Not just the way it works, but the whole story around it.

You have a problem with the phone or tablet? You go to an Apple Store. They made the device, they sell the device and they support the device; good luck with your Android phone. Simple.

You want an app even if I personally find them pointless? Well you can tell me to go something myself because it’s most certainly in the App Store and you’ll enjoy every second of it. Simple.

You want an accessory or anything for your iPhone or iPad? Boy believe me that you’ll find a shitload of accessories for them. Hell, they even release some accessories before the device itself! Simple.

You may be locked in a prison cell with the Apple ecosystem, but it’s quite a nice prison if you accept that you’ll spent all your time only inside of it with all of the media and communications you can imagine. It sucks, but simple nonetheless.

Simplicity. Stability. Confidence. These are the reason iOS is still popular. Of course there’s a huge brand loyalty factor in there, but that’s because Apple is still a reflection of those 3 big things.

Let me tell you a secret… I used to be an Apple user (fanboy would be more appropriate). I had a MacBook Air, an iPhone 3GS an iPad; the whole package. Yet, like many others, I left. This is where we cross the streams.

Apple is still king because users have a strong loyalty in Apple and for reason. Yes, time have changed and Google and Microsoft are really in a good position to beat Apple, but users don’t even look at the others; they go in the store and ask for the latest iPhone or iPad, they don’t care about the others.

But this is slowly, yet dangerously, changing.





THE "PROBLEM"

iOS is a winner because it is the simplest OS on the planet. It has worked the same way since its first day of existence. This is the reason people stay. This is also the reason why people leave. We need to improve and push iOS to new grounds and fix some shortcomings with the platform while making sure it stays the same for people who like it. It also needs to be a gradual change to avoid useless changes that can alienate users.

We need to get the best elements from the other platforms, things that might convince people to switch from iOS, and bring them to the fruity world to push the platform forward. Apps are totally fine. The leak is clearly around the Customization and then Experience department, especially if we compare iOS to what the competition is offering.

I don’t want to change iOS entirely and that’s super important. Some users say that iOS should have widgets and should let you change the interface and the default app and bla bla bla. You know what? At that point go get an Android phone. We need to push it forward, but make sure it stays true to what Apple and iOS is.

So I’m going to propose two things here to begin with. A minor change and a major feature.





WHO'S iOS?

First of all, iOS needs some visual direction; a proper design language. If you look at those icons you clearly see that the mix of gradients, inverted gradients, 3D, flat and grayish content does not blend well. Here’s the catch though… we can’t change the icons.

For a designer, it makes sense. The icons don't look good, let’s change the icons. In the real world, especially on a UX perspective, that is a critical and bad move. iOS is known for its simplicity and stability. iOS is used by so many different kind of people from all ages. iOS 7 was already a big design move, you can’t do another one this close. This is far from stability, especially as your users are getting used to the new style, so changing all the icons –yes, even if they kinda suck- is a bad idea.

What is iOS’ personality? I may have an idea.

iOS is about simplicity with a touch. iOS should be modern and sleek. Extremely simple, and gives you a familiar perspective. There shouldn’t be any textures, so that tiny paper-like texture still present on the Notes icon should be gone. There shouldn’t be grayish icons, iOS is fun and engaging, dark gray should be used as it is close to black to get your attention. There shouldn’t be anything flat, minimal gradients to give it the little personality and extra depth. This is not Windows with Metro, this isn’t flat territory. But this isn’t 3D either, so those bubbles don't work at all, at least not looking like that. Killing the bubbles would mean radical change and we can’t do that yet as this design exploration is a first pass. iOS is colorful and bold. Gray on gray, dark on dark, whitish on white does not work. It should always be very clear, contrast-y and very visual. Fun and engaging also means no unnecessary details. Sorry, but that settings button looks horrific. It looks like a crappy stove. Yes I know that it’s supposed to represent a bike chain/cog wheel whatever system, but when a lot of people call it a stove, grow some guts, know your mistake and change it, especially when it’s not an important change. Learn to do 180 degrees turn Apple. Don’t push things because “you’re Apple” and people should just live with that and keep forcing that they should like it. You remember the “You’re holding it wrong” incident right?