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All iPads iPad UI dated?

ZBoater

ZBoater

macrumors G3
Original poster
Jul 2, 2007
8,498
1,325
Sunny Florida
I've been messing with the Dell Venue Pro 8, and the Modern UI has impressed me. I recall some discussions about how widgets were useless, but the tiles are very elegant. It makes the iPad UI seem very dated.

What do you think? Apple likes to keep things simple, but is it time for the old icon and folder arrangement to get refreshed? How would you change it without copying Android or Windows? Or does it need changing at all?
 
ZBoater said:
I've been messing with the Dell Venue Pro 8, and the Modern UI has impressed me. I recall some discussions about how widgets were useless, but the tiles are very elegant. It makes the iPad UI seem very dated.
Click to expand...

Out of curiosity, since I haven't had a chance to play with the Dell...

What does "dated" mean in terms of a UI, particularly in terms of enhancing vs impeding workflow?

Also, what did you find about the Dell that impressed you from a true functionality standpoint? Looking past any bells and whistles, what aspects of that UI enhanced the users ability to "get things done" -- especially in context of John and Jane User. Propeller-heads are certainly a vocal group, and a not insignificant market force, but IMHO any device that ignores non-techie usability will not succeed.
 
The User Interface we are using now in iOS pretty much came out 7 years ago, and in basic terms it has not moved forward since then.

Even the iPad is just the same thing enlarged onto a bigger screen.

Anyone think you cannot after 7 years have a re-think?
 
deeddawg said:
Out of curiosity, since I haven't had a chance to play with the Dell...

What does "dated" mean in terms of a UI, particularly in terms of enhancing vs impeding workflow?

Also, what did you find about the Dell that impressed you from a true functionality standpoint? Looking past any bells and whistles, what aspects of that UI enhanced the users ability to "get things done" -- especially in context of John and Jane User. Propeller-heads are certainly a vocal group, and a not insignificant market force, but IMHO any device that ignores non-techie usability will not succeed.
Click to expand...

I guess by dated I mean it has been the same for years. In terms of functionality, the ability to arrange icons and change their size and position in any way I want, plus have the icon itself give me some useful information, like when the calendar icon gives me the actual date or the weather icon gives me the temperature. The larger tiles give more information.

You are correct in that the average user probably won't care, but it's those same users that will like pretty colors and shapes. The iPad UI seems like a carryover from the iPhone, and while on a small screen that arrangement is functional, and iPad provides such a large canvas on which to get more creative. I think it's possible to provide users more ability to personalize without increasing complexity too much. Maybe not?
 
deeddawg said:
Out of curiosity, since I haven't had a chance to play with the Dell...

What does "dated" mean in terms of a UI, particularly in terms of enhancing vs impeding workflow?

Also, what did you find about the Dell that impressed you from a true functionality standpoint? Looking past any bells and whistles, what aspects of that UI enhanced the users ability to "get things done" -- especially in context of John and Jane User. Propeller-heads are certainly a vocal group, and a not insignificant market force, but IMHO any device that ignores non-techie usability will not succeed.
Click to expand...

The Dell Venue Pro uses Windows 8 Pro.. So the UI is Windows 8 UI... The good thing about Metro UI is that the live tile reflect the most recent update.

For example: The people's tile will have all then new updates on the people's tile. You can customize the tile the way you want and make it fell personal
 
For me, the tiles in Metro are too much like each other, and it's hard to distinguish one from the other. In terms of quickly finding the app I am looking for, iOS 6 was the best. Each icon, for better or worse, looked very different from other icons. Since the icons got flatter in iOS 7, I keep confusing them a lot. For instance, Find Friends, Pages and iBooks icons are all now orange squares with white designs in the middle. In iOS 6, they each had a distinct design and color combination. This is even worse with Metro -- I keep squinting to distinguish the icon designs from each other.

I really don't care if the UI is 7 years old, or 20. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
 
Dated, classic, retro, forward thinking are for the most part different for each person. For me I prefer a Ui that gets out of the way and lets me get to the app I want. iOS works for what I want to do.

I have JB each of my phones, for some additional functionality (BiteSMS, Infinidock & Lock Info), but most of that was to improve the app I use or to make access to them quicker.

I played around with Windows 8 on my son’s laptop and I did not like the tiles at all, but that is just me YMMV.
 
Night Spring said:
I really don't care if the UI is 7 years old, or 20. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
Click to expand...

Imagine if car manufacturer started changing up the core UI. Hey, let's put the accelerator on the left and the brake on the right! That whole steering wheel is pretty stale, let's change the direction so turning it clockwise makes turns the car to the left!

Just kidding, of course.

Good comments above. I honestly haven't used Win8 enough to make any judgments about its UI, more from a lack of interest than anything else, but I should probably play around with it sometime.

Personally, I don't care so much for colors/graphics/visuals as much as being able to quickly/easily/efficiently access what I want. Whether the UI is new or the same as it's been for years is immaterial relative to it being out of the way.
 
If by outdated you mean it's functionally the same as the first iPhone OS? Yes, not much has changed. But if you look at OS X, there's really not that much change through the UI from 10.0 to 10.9. And if we go further, OS X is pretty much functionally the same as the first Macintosh OS.

You can always say: Oh, it's time for change because it's always been the same and it's starting to get boring. I hear a lot of Android folks say that about iOS. But what matters is if it works. If something was conceived very good, it will stand the test of time. I hate change for change sake. Many times, change makes things appear more beautiful, but the gloss can also make things functionally complicated and abstract to many users.

Oh, but it's so pretty! And it's got so many features! :D Personally I like things simple. My brain likes simple. Customization is fun for a short time, then it gets in the way because you're always customizing and optimizing things. I let Apple do the optimizing for me so I don't have to.
 
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Imagine today's iPod with the original iPod interface. The original iPod interface was very functional, but this is not cars or buildings we are talking about. It is personal electronics. And for better of for worse, something that doesn't change over the years tends to be regarded as stale or dated even if it is still functional.

This hasn't had any impact on Apple's ability to keep selling tons of iPads, so one must assume they've done their research, and their target market still regards the iPad UI highly. The iOS 7 refreshed the look but functionality remained the same. They've added a little bit with the new app search, the new control panel, etc., so there have been some improvements. But I am guessing any major change to the UI itself is unlikely given their desire to keep it simple and consistent.

Just thought I'd throw it out there. When I played with Windows 8 originally it was on a laptop, and their Metro (now called Modern) UI is not well suited for laptops. But playing with it on a tablet was a very pleasant surprise. And hiding a full blown OS behind that pretty interface makes for a very compelling device.

Imagine an iPad with an iOS interface where you could swipe and get OS X under the covers..... Yum.
 
ZBoater said:
Imagine today's iPod with the original iPod interface.
Click to expand...

Original iPod was operated with a click wheel. iOS devices are operated with touch screens. Of course they have a different interface!

Imagine an iPad with an iOS interface where you could swipe and get OS X under the covers..... Yum.
Click to expand...

While I do get that some people find this desirable, I personally think that a desktop UI on a tablet would be too small to use comfortably. This is the very reason I haven't tried a Windows tablet, and probably won't until Microsoft comes out with a Metro version of Office.
 
Night Spring said:
While I do get that some people find this desirable, I personally think that a desktop UI on a tablet would be too small to use comfortably. This is the very reason I haven't tried a Windows tablet, and probably won't until Microsoft comes out with a Metro version of Office.
Click to expand...

Yes, the average user will find is hard to operate. And that is Apple's target market.

But as a techie, having a full blown OS and a USB port on a tablet so small is heaven....
 
I personally love the Apple UI, but with that said, I do think a change might also bring good things.

I haven't had the chance to use the Dell Venue Pro, but I have Windows 8 on my laptop and I can't stand it frankly. I'm sure on a touch device it would be more intuitive though. I considered getting one when they dropped the price and I'm still interested, but I ended up getting a Nexus 7.2. Mainly because I wanted to use game apps on the google play store.
 
I have windows 8 on my laptop and on my phone. It's just okay on my laptop, and much more friendly on my phone. I'm not as impressed with the apps though. Since apps are what you're looking at most the time, I prefer an OS with better app selection.
 
As Jony Ive said in the iOS 7 intro...."this is just the beginning". Im sure iOS 8 will just build upon what we have now. Yes the whole icon thing seems a little dated, but the rest of the OS has been spruced up a lot.
 
Night Spring said:
I personally think that a desktop UI on a tablet would be too small to use comfortably.
Click to expand...

Not at all. I simply set the UI scaling to 125% in Control Panel and have no problems on a 8" screen of Dell Venue 8 Pro. Especially, with Active Stylus, which I prefer to fingering.

OneNote (handwriting app) with Active Stylus is un-F-believable. There's absolutely no lag and I can move the stylus as fast as I can and it's like digital ink flowing from the tip.

Overall, desktop UI is quite useable, and the tinkering possibilities are infinite. I installed Visual Studio for developing both desktop and metro apps and can't wait to make something on this amazing tablet that compiles and runs on the same tablet. :)
 
ZBoater said:
I've been messing with the Dell Venue Pro 8, and the Modern UI has impressed me. I recall some discussions about how widgets were useless, but the tiles are very elegant. It makes the iPad UI seem very dated.

What do you think? Apple likes to keep things simple, but is it time for the old icon and folder arrangement to get refreshed? How would you change it without copying Android or Windows? Or does it need changing at all?
Click to expand...
I think live tiles are a nice bridge between icons w/notification flags and full-on widgets. Something that would be unique would be for Apple to utilize some kind of live tile-like setup with the ability to configure individual colors/images.

The thing that I like about live tiles on a phone (picked up a no-contract Lumia 520) is that "customizing" it is as simple as arranging and sizing the tiles to fit on the first screen's worth of tiles.
 
Personally, I think it would be great of Apple added the Dashboard to iOS like there is in OS X. They could retain the current layout and just add a screen dedicated to widgets. It would probably be relatively easy to implement, too.
 
ZBoater said:
Yes, the average user will find is hard to operate. And that is Apple's target market.

But as a techie, having a full blown OS and a USB port on a tablet so small is heaven....
Click to expand...

I was thinking of getting one myself.... So, how does it feel? I had a Tablet PC years ago and all I remember is constant lag.
 
I love the Apple UI too and I love iOS 7 even more. I was on Android for about a year and while it's good, app quality stinks compared to Apple. So I sold all my Android stuff and I'm back to Apple and it's the best thing I've done for a long time. Of all my Android stuff, the 2013 Nexus 7 was my favorite and us probably still the best 7" tablet out. I also had a Nexus 4 phone for nearly a year. I am so glad to be back on the iPhone because of the apps I missed plus it feels more like a media device than the Nexus did. Sorry I strayed so far off topic. Apple's OS is great and I'm sure we'd all be shocked to see a screenshot of the iPhone 1 screen and the iPhone 5s screen. Sure it's not as customizable as Android but I think Apple does that to make the device more stable.
 
A change might be nice, not that it bothers me though. I'd like to at least see some Apple made themes for the iPad to add some variety.
 
Ios is completely outdated, it looks like a poor Android ROM. Personally I think that Windows 8 is by far the best tablet OS while Android dominates on phones.
 
Hahaha.

They just refreshed the UI this year with iOS 7. This is the new look the iPad will have for the next couple of years, so forget about a new UI next year.
 
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