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What are the most intolerable UX flaws you have found on Android devices?

P

penplotter

macrumors regular
Original poster
Mar 23, 2014
173
0
What are THE most intolerable UX flaws you have found on Android devices?

Note, I am not writing off Android, but even Ron Amadeo (******? Nope) who works for an Android site, is a total realist about the experience and the flaws and inconsistencies.

So... any gripe? Please don't troll, this is, effectively a "bug report", not a reason to "hate" Android.

A few links I have read over the last year, and found insightful:

http://android-gripes.tumblr.com/post/14713228620/5-years-later-and-google-still-cant-get-it-right

http://www.imore.com/android-ui-smooth-ios

http://www.androiduipatterns.com/2011/11/cautionary-example-of-bad-design.html

I've a lot more, but that will suffice :)

Cheers me dears :)
 
0

0000757

macrumors 68040
Dec 16, 2011
3,894
850
I guess it's not a bug or anything, but I hate how Android handles the lock screen.

For example, on iOS, pushing the sleep/wake button will always bring the user to the slide to unlock page, no matter what. From there if you have a password you can enter it, or if you have the password timer set up accordingly, and you have the great notification layout and easy swipe to the camera.

On Android however, the sleep/wake button does not automatically pull you into the lock screen. You either have it set to ALWAYS go to the lock screen, or to literally just turn the display off. The problem with this is that you can't have it always go to the lockscreen AND have your password on a delay. For example, I like my password to kick on after 10 minutes, but if I set my device to always go to the lock screen first, I have to enter my password EVERY. SINGLE. TIME.

I just hate this method.
 
Lloydbm41

Lloydbm41

Suspended
Oct 17, 2013
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penplotter said:
What are THE most intolerable UX flaws you have found on Android devices?

Note, I am not writing off Android, but even Ron Amadeo (******? Nope) who works for an Android site, is a total realist about the experience and the flaws and inconsistencies.

So... any gripe? Please don't troll, this is, effectively a "bug report", not a reason to "hate" Android.

A few links I have read over the last year, and found insightful:

http://android-gripes.tumblr.com/post/14713228620/5-years-later-and-google-still-cant-get-it-right

http://www.imore.com/android-ui-smooth-ios

http://www.androiduipatterns.com/2011/11/cautionary-example-of-bad-design.html

I've a lot more, but that will suffice :)

Cheers me dears :)
Click to expand...

Awesome links... from 2011!

Here are some iOS design flaws, but I will keep these links relevant to the 'current' OS on iDevices and not say, iOS4. Just to keep things balanced.
http://mashable.com/2013/12/08/ios-7-design-tumblr/

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/16/ios-7-problems_n_4453117.html

http://www.theverge.com/apple/2013/6/10/4416726/the-design-of-ios-7-simply-confusing

There are a lot more, but a lot of people will agree that iOS 7 looks like a unicorn puked into Barbies bowl of fruitloops. To me, the entire look of an OS is harder to overlook than a few design flaws. Just my personal opinion. That's not to say that Android doesn't have UI flaws, as it most certainly does.
 
L

Lava Lamp Freak

macrumors 68000
Jun 1, 2006
1,566
618
What bothers me most with Android is inconsistent icon sizes. Yes, I know you can download icon packs to change most of them, but I've yet to find an icon pack that I like better than stock.
 
Lloydbm41

Lloydbm41

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Lava Lamp Freak said:
What bothers me most with Android is inconsistent icon sizes. Yes, I know you can download icon packs to change most of them, but I've yet to find an icon pack that I like better than stock.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I can't for the life of me figure out why Google doesn't force one common size for all icons? It would literally take 30 seconds and a couple line of code to ensure uniform icon size.
 
S

swy05

macrumors 6502
Aug 9, 2008
411
0
Troll post.

Just do a search and look at all this users posts. All he does is create troll posts to bash Android.

Trying to create these so-called discussions. Not fooling anyone.
 
r0k

r0k

macrumors 68040
Mar 3, 2008
3,611
75
Detroit
I'm very dissatisfied with Android on my Moto Razr M. The problem is, I can't tell whether it's Android I am disliking or is it something Motorola did to Android? I have friends who have features they love or hate and again nobody seems to know whether they are from Google or from Samsung without doing further research. I remember a while back, there was a "vanilla" or some other such version of Android released that would allow a user to "de-skin" their Android phone. Mine is a work phone so I'm not interested in making a change that would throw off our IT guys. If I was, I'd certainly give it a try.

I guess for me the two things that bother me most about Android are the lack of updates because we are at the mercy of the carrier and the skinning which is done by both carriers and phone OEMs.

As for the intentions of the OP, there is no reason not to use this thread for constructive discussion. And while there are mistakes in iOS and OSX as well, I prefer my iThings and OSX.
 
M

mclld

macrumors 68030
Nov 6, 2012
2,636
2,048
swy05 said:
Troll post.

Just do a search and look at all this users posts. All he does is create troll posts to bash Android.

Trying to create these so-called discussions. Not fooling anyone.
Click to expand...

Well some people are taking the bait

----------
r0k said:
I'm very dissatisfied with Android on my Moto Razr M. The problem is, I can't tell whether it's Android I am disliking or is it something Motorola did to Android? I have friends who have features they love or hate and again nobody seems to know whether they are from Google or from Samsung without doing further research. I remember a while back, there was a "vanilla" or some other such version of Android released that would allow a user to "de-skin" their Android phone. Mine is a work phone so I'm not interested in making a change that would throw off our IT guys. If I was, I'd certainly give it a try.

I guess for me the two things that bother me most about Android are the lack of updates because we are at the mercy of the carrier and the skinning which is done by both carriers and phone OEMs.

As for the intentions of the OP, there is no reason not to use this thread for constructive discussion. And while there are mistakes in iOS and OSX as well, I prefer my iThings and OSX.
Click to expand...

Your IT guys are not worth a crap if they cant figure a change to your android
 
r0k

r0k

macrumors 68040
Mar 3, 2008
3,611
75
Detroit
mclld said:
...

Your IT guys are not worth a crap if they cant figure a change to your android
Click to expand...

It could be. Or it could be the policies they are given by "management" are the problem. I'm not their boss. I'm their customer. But their boss is telling them to lock everything down and the sheer number of restrictive policies seems to increase every day.
 
Espeonia

Espeonia

macrumors member
Sep 10, 2013
80
1
r0k said:
It could be. Or it could be the policies they are given by "management" are the problem. I'm not their boss. I'm their customer. But their boss is telling them to lock everything down and the sheer number of restrictive policies seems to increase every day.
Click to expand...

I totally feel you on that :(

As for Android UX flaws, I don't really have many gripes. I used to dislike the inability to have the lock screen (like in the first reply), but there's a setting for that in gravitybox now fortunately now. I think the only thing I dislike now is the right-aligned clock; I can't really get used to that. It seems so wrong to me.
 
hallux

hallux

macrumors 68040
Apr 25, 2012
3,437
1,005
r0k said:
I'm very dissatisfied with Android on my Moto Razr M. The problem is, I can't tell whether it's Android I am disliking or is it something Motorola did to Android? I have friends who have features they love or hate and again nobody seems to know whether they are from Google or from Samsung without doing further research. I remember a while back, there was a "vanilla" or some other such version of Android released that would allow a user to "de-skin" their Android phone. Mine is a work phone so I'm not interested in making a change that would throw off our IT guys. If I was, I'd certainly give it a try.

I guess for me the two things that bother me most about Android are the lack of updates because we are at the mercy of the carrier and the skinning which is done by both carriers and phone OEMs.

As for the intentions of the OP, there is no reason not to use this thread for constructive discussion. And while there are mistakes in iOS and OSX as well, I prefer my iThings and OSX.
Click to expand...

I think all of that is pretty much covered by the manufacturer "skinning". Updates are often delayed because of development of the "skin" as the phone manufacturer will use the OS update as a reason to do a new version of their skin (Sense for HTC, TouchWiz for Samsung, and whatever Motorola was using). With Motorola's move to "stock" Android on the Moto G and Moto X, we're seeing MUCH improved update times for those models. The manufacturer also needs to wait for drivers for the OS for the chips in the device, which is not something controlled by the phone manufacturer.

As for the complaints you and your friends have had, not knowing what those specific complaints were, it's hard to say if they were skin-related.

See this HTC page related to updates and how they come to be.. http://www.htc.com/us/go/htc-software-updates/
 
rtomyj

rtomyj

macrumors 6502a
Sep 3, 2012
812
753
Lloydbm41 said:
Awesome links... from 2011!

Here are some iOS design flaws, but I will keep these links relevant to the 'current' OS on iDevices and not say, iOS4. Just to keep things balanced.
http://mashable.com/2013/12/08/ios-7-design-tumblr/

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/16/ios-7-problems_n_4453117.html

http://www.theverge.com/apple/2013/6/10/4416726/the-design-of-ios-7-simply-confusing

There are a lot more, but a lot of people will agree that iOS 7 looks like a unicorn puked into Barbies bowl of fruitloops. To me, the entire look of an OS is harder to overlook than a few design flaws. Just my personal opinion. That's not to say that Android doesn't have UI flaws, as it most certainly does.
Click to expand...

Isn't 4.4 on 5% of devices and 4.1 and below on >30% of devices?
Anywho, the thread doesn't try to insult android. Don't get defensive kido

I kinda don't get the thread though. Many people have differing opinions. Yea I hate some stuff, but trying to justify it as bad is odd and needing to be fixed is odd if it works. Could it be better? Of course. Does the dev think so? Who knows.
:D

----------
swy05 said:
Troll post.

Just do a search and look at all this users posts. All he does is create troll posts to bash Android.

Trying to create these so-called discussions. Not fooling anyone.
Click to expand...

People aren't insulting android though so...

----------
Lloydbm41 said:
Yeah, I can't for the life of me figure out why Google doesn't force one common size for all icons? It would literally take 30 seconds and a couple line of code to ensure uniform icon size.
Click to expand...

Problem isn't Googles. It is the OEMs. Devs have the option of putting different sizes of drawables/images. This images are then paired up to the screen size and screen quality. Many screen sizes with different aspect ratio and different resolution. Can't really write a couple lines of code for it. The way it is is probably the best solution.
 
Lloydbm41

Lloydbm41

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rtomyj said:
Problem isn't Googles. It is the OEMs. Devs have the option of putting different sizes of drawables/images. This images are then paired up to the screen size and screen quality. Many screen sizes with different aspect ratio and different resolution. Can't really write a couple lines of code for it. The way it is is probably the best solution.
Click to expand...

Incorrect. This has nothing to do with OEM's. Go straight to the Android code from Google and you will find the stock icons for Android are different pixel sizes. 3 different sizes to be exact. Ask me how I know this. ;)
 
mKTank

mKTank

macrumors 68000
Jul 2, 2010
1,537
3
iOS used to have the upper hand in design years ago. But now that KitKat and iOS 7 are the current designs being compared? It's not even close. Android has surpassed iOS in a pretty massive way, starting with Jelly Bean. Not just design-wise either.
 
spinedoc77

spinedoc77

macrumors G4
Jun 11, 2009
11,391
5,254
A decent personal assistant. I don't want Google Now because it always pushes me into an internet search. I don't want utter garbage like S-Voice because it's garbage. Just give me something straight from Google that will let me do phone functions, make phone calls, make memo's, reminders, calendar entries, read out my to do list and daily events, etc etc. I know Siri gets a bad rap on here, but it does all these things and more and without shoving an internet search down my throat.
 
rtomyj

rtomyj

macrumors 6502a
Sep 3, 2012
812
753
Lloydbm41 said:
Incorrect. This has nothing to do with OEM's. Go straight to the Android code from Google and you will find the stock icons for Android are different pixel sizes. 3 different sizes to be exact. Ask me how I know this. ;)
Click to expand...

Which I said. Point is, there are many different resolutions, many different sizes, and different aspect ratios. Which are all problems caused by OEMs. Putting a simple line of code is not as simple as people think and the way they have it now is the best way for now.
 
Lloydbm41

Lloydbm41

Suspended
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4,019
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rtomyj said:
Which I said.
Click to expand...
No you didn't.
rtomyj said:
Point is, there are many different resolutions, many different sizes, and different aspect ratios. Which are all problems caused by OEMs. Putting a simple line of code is not as simple as people think and the way they have it now is the best way for now.
Click to expand...

Point is, you have never typed a single line of code in your life, nor do you understand scaling. The stock Android icons are different sizes for one reason; laziness.
 
U

unibodydesign

macrumors member
Apr 10, 2014
73
0
mKTank said:
iOS used to have the upper hand in design years ago. But now that KitKat and iOS 7 are the current designs being compared? It's not even close. Android has surpassed iOS in a pretty massive way, starting with Jelly Bean. Not just design-wise either.
Click to expand...

Ha ha ha ha ha ha... erm, nope.
 
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