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What are there, 1B Android users? I'm sure Google would like that to be 7B. I'd wager the complaints of the sort of people who frequent lobste.rs or HN are not

What are there, 1B Android users? I'm sure Google would like that to be 7B. I'd wager the complaints of the sort of people who frequent lobste.rs or HN are not representative of the majority of current users and almost certainly not of the next 6B potential users. Overall, it's everything Google said they would do with material [1]. It's fine to dislike these things, I don't necessarily like them myself, but claiming they're simply wrong or "for no reason" is somewhere between angry and lazy. Just a glance at the new vs old keyboard or gmail shows a direction - moving / duplicating interactions toward the bottom right (logical as screens get bigger), breaking out punctuation into discrete keys (presumably logical given the way most people actually type). The overall restyling is adding consistency between apps and particularly between mobile and the desktop. Animations are really valuable anytime someone doesn't come to the table with a complete mental model of how something fits together already. Basically, they're not for you Mr. Programmer. 1: http://www.google.com/design/ http://www.google.com/design/

lost_name 12y ago
I agree with you, but it seems the train has already left the station. I don't use my tablet all that much, but I don't find myself questioning how something is done (that stuff didn't really change), or why things look different (I don't really care). It's just... different, nothing else.
pbhjpbhj 12y ago
When I help people out with their computers and I run updates (pretty much everyone I go to stay with!) they always complain if there's been a change in the UI at all - "why's that button moved?" "where's my favourites?" "how do I access my inbox now?" "why does it keep popping up that thing?" ... I'd really like to see some respect for this from people like Firefox - "we won't move any major UI elements or update the default skin more than once every 2 years". Of course the marketing is all about the novelty at the moment - steadfastness doesn't count for much in tech circles it seems. With stable UI you can have a less rapidly changing system for users to comprehend; running updates for security fixes shouldn't mean you have to face a new menu paradigm or new default screen or new tab shape or new whatever every few weeks. Seriously. I don't enable auto-update on supported users apps for this reason.
- jobu 12y ago
  This is why I won't recommend Android to any friends or family. Being the most technically literate person most of them know, they all come to me for help fixing problems with their computers or phones. The UI changes in iOS7 caused a whole bunch of questions and problems with my "support network", but with Android it would be like that every year with every OS update.
  - general_failure 12y ago
    The reason I don't recommend iOS is because Apple keeps changing their policy on apps and their stuff works only with products they make. I like my friends and family to not live in Apple's world view / walled garden. So, it's not about Apple designing great products; i recommend android because it's a better choice for freedom (which usually always ends up having to make more effort).
- gpvos 12y ago
  One solution might be to keep supporting the previous two or three layouts, and provide an easy way to switch back and forward between them.
- cmder 12y ago
  Same here. The technical folks will immediately update, discover the UI annoyances and find means to overcome them. But I notice that non-technical family and friends become very much annoyed when they are continuously pushed to update their software and almost everything changes within the UI. Companies have switched from introducing new features and backend improvements (what the technical folks used to care about) to what they feel everyone can see, the UI. As a result, the software has not fundamentally changed, minus a few small new features, but it looks like a brand new product.
- rmc 12y ago
  Non-techy people aren't good at tech. They don't grok it. Usually they operate it by learning it by rote. "Click the button there, then click/tap this". To them working a piece of tech is like learning off spells. When you change the UI, it's like someone changed the language you're trying to work in. They have to relearn from scratch.
apetrovic 12y ago
> Animations are really valuable anytime someone doesn't come to the table with a complete mental model of how something fits together already. Basically, they're not for you Mr. Programmer. Yeah, whenever I see sentence like "as a user, I don't care about animations" I just stop reading the rest. I appreciate the fact that you, the article/comment writer, have good mental model about what is going on and you want to be as fast as possible, but that comment also shows that you aren't a typical user and you don't have a clue how common people thinks.
- andybak 12y ago
  Well thought out animation is also something that should improve usability. It directs user focus and can give hints as to what just happened. I actually think most of the animation in Lollipop is rather well thought out from a UX perspective. It might be a teensy bit showy but I rather like it.
billmalarky 12y ago
Exactly. Not to mention, these changes make many users feel like they are getting something new (for free even). Even if it just a style change, my girlfriend really enjoys seeing the new look of the phone. I actually purposely let her do the updates on my android phone because I'm not overly excited about the changes but I know she is (she is an apple user so can't experience new android stuff otherwise).
shanemhansen 12y ago
> Animations are really valuable anytime someone doesn't come to the table with a complete mental model of how something fits together already. This argument conflates the problem (lacking a mental model) with a solution (animations). This Mr Programmer is confused by elements flying around in front of them. Maybe regular users get confused too?
- andybak 12y ago
  > This Mr Programmer is confused by elements flying around in front of them. Try it out for yourself and see if you find it confusing. In many places it's designed to enhance ease of use and does a fairly good job of it.

lost_name 12y ago

I agree with you, but it seems the train has already left the station. I don't use my tablet all that much, but I don't find myself questioning how something is done (that stuff didn't really change), or why things look different (I don't really care). It's just... different, nothing else.

pbhjpbhj 12y ago

When I help people out with their computers and I run updates (pretty much everyone I go to stay with!) they always complain if there's been a change in the UI at all - "why's that button moved?" "where's my favourites?" "how do I access my inbox now?" "why does it keep popping up that thing?" ... I'd really like to see some respect for this from people like Firefox - "we won't move any major UI elements or update the default skin more than once every 2 years". Of course the marketing is all about the novelty at the moment - steadfastness doesn't count for much in tech circles it seems. With stable UI you can have a less rapidly changing system for users to comprehend; running updates for security fixes shouldn't mean you have to face a new menu paradigm or new default screen or new tab shape or new whatever every few weeks. Seriously. I don't enable auto-update on supported users apps for this reason.

jobu 12y ago
This is why I won't recommend Android to any friends or family. Being the most technically literate person most of them know, they all come to me for help fixing problems with their computers or phones. The UI changes in iOS7 caused a whole bunch of questions and problems with my "support network", but with Android it would be like that every year with every OS update.
- general_failure 12y ago
  The reason I don't recommend iOS is because Apple keeps changing their policy on apps and their stuff works only with products they make. I like my friends and family to not live in Apple's world view / walled garden. So, it's not about Apple designing great products; i recommend android because it's a better choice for freedom (which usually always ends up having to make more effort).
gpvos 12y ago
One solution might be to keep supporting the previous two or three layouts, and provide an easy way to switch back and forward between them.
cmder 12y ago
Same here. The technical folks will immediately update, discover the UI annoyances and find means to overcome them. But I notice that non-technical family and friends become very much annoyed when they are continuously pushed to update their software and almost everything changes within the UI. Companies have switched from introducing new features and backend improvements (what the technical folks used to care about) to what they feel everyone can see, the UI. As a result, the software has not fundamentally changed, minus a few small new features, but it looks like a brand new product.
rmc 12y ago
Non-techy people aren't good at tech. They don't grok it. Usually they operate it by learning it by rote. "Click the button there, then click/tap this". To them working a piece of tech is like learning off spells. When you change the UI, it's like someone changed the language you're trying to work in. They have to relearn from scratch.

apetrovic 12y ago

> Animations are really valuable anytime someone doesn't come to the table with a complete mental model of how something fits together already. Basically, they're not for you Mr. Programmer. Yeah, whenever I see sentence like "as a user, I don't care about animations" I just stop reading the rest. I appreciate the fact that you, the article/comment writer, have good mental model about what is going on and you want to be as fast as possible, but that comment also shows that you aren't a typical user and you don't have a clue how common people thinks.

andybak 12y ago
Well thought out animation is also something that should improve usability. It directs user focus and can give hints as to what just happened. I actually think most of the animation in Lollipop is rather well thought out from a UX perspective. It might be a teensy bit showy but I rather like it.

billmalarky 12y ago

Exactly. Not to mention, these changes make many users feel like they are getting something new (for free even). Even if it just a style change, my girlfriend really enjoys seeing the new look of the phone. I actually purposely let her do the updates on my android phone because I'm not overly excited about the changes but I know she is (she is an apple user so can't experience new android stuff otherwise).

shanemhansen 12y ago

> Animations are really valuable anytime someone doesn't come to the table with a complete mental model of how something fits together already. This argument conflates the problem (lacking a mental model) with a solution (animations). This Mr Programmer is confused by elements flying around in front of them. Maybe regular users get confused too?

andybak 12y ago
> This Mr Programmer is confused by elements flying around in front of them. Try it out for yourself and see if you find it confusing. In many places it's designed to enhance ease of use and does a fairly good job of it.