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Why is the X home-screen badly designed?

roeiz

roeiz

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Sep 13, 2010
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I now see that the real estate could be orginized much better to feel wider.
Firstly, the top icons can be lifted up a few mm to fit nicer at the top and save more space below.
But the major thing is having more space between the apps icons and have them all placed wider to the sides edges so the home screen would feel less squeezed and narrow. I don’t think there’s anything preventing it.

The good thing it could still be fixed i guess.

Thoughts?
 
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roeiz said:
Yea i know he talked about evolving and i fully believe it,
But i suspect their homescreen elements placement design will not be changed that easily with an update. Otherwise it was very basic to do it already. I wonder why they didn’t.
Click to expand...

Software development isn't like flipping a switch. In a company the size of Apple it could take a long time for design changes like that to come through the pipeline.

You have to get your changes approved. It needs to be included in a SCRUM or software build plan. The code needs to be checked out. New code has to be written. Graphic assets need to be created. The changes has to be committed it and testing begins. Assuming testing doenst find anything otherwise the process starts all over again... so yeah. even a little feature like moving a graphic element can take a lot of people, time, resources and money.
 
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Vermifuge said:
Software development isn't like flipping a switch. In a company the size of Apple it could take a long time for design changes like that to come through the pipeline.

You have to get your changes approved. It needs to be included in a SCRUM or software build plan. The code needs to be checked out. New code has to be written. Graphic assets need to be created. The changes has to be committed it and testing begins. Assuming testing doenst find anything otherwise the process starts all over again... so yeah. even a little feature like moving a graphic element can take a lot of people, time, resources and money.
Click to expand...
And all of that would happen after a lot of product and UX decision making and back and forth would happen.
 
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Vermifuge said:
Software development isn't like flipping a switch. In a company the size of Apple it could take a long time for design changes like that to come through the pipeline.

You have to get your changes approved. It needs to be included in a SCRUM or software build plan. The code needs to be checked out. New code has to be written. Graphic assets need to be created. The changes has to be committed it and testing begins. Assuming testing doenst find anything otherwise the process starts all over again... so yeah. even a little feature like moving a graphic element can take a lot of people, time, resources and money.
Click to expand...

Yea i know.
I just wonder what was the logic that made them release that design when it is very easy to see it can be improved.
Maybe there is a reason that prevents it?
 
roeiz said:
Yea i know.
I just wonder what was the logic that made them release that design when it is very easy to see it can be improved.
Maybe there is a reason that prevents it?
Click to expand...

Probably just a matter of opinion. maybe design constraints.
 
I think it’s nice the way it is. Also having that small gap at the top makes the difference of whether I can reach those apps one handed or not
 
roeiz said:
Yea i know.
I just wonder what was the logic that made them release that design when it is very easy to see it can be improved.
Maybe there is a reason that prevents it?
Click to expand...

When it comes to things like this, it always comes down to cost vs benefit. As is the system works and for a minor change like that would cost Apple a lot of money, time and resources for no gain really. Even if someone mentions such things it gets quickly dismissed in design and financial meetings for obvious reasons.

Ps. Making an entire OS function differently for a specific model is not a minor work.
 
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akash.nu said:
When it comes to things like this, it always comes down to cost vs benefit. As is the system works and for a minor change like that would cost Apple a lot of money, time and resources for no gain really. Even if someone mentions such things it gets quickly dismissed in design and financial meetings for obvious reasons.

Ps. Making an entire OS function differently for a specific model is not a minor work.
Click to expand...

There’s no such thing as cost ba benefit for Apple, they are worth nearly $1 trillion and have $350,000,000,000 in the bank. It’s sloppy and rushed even though they had 4 years between designs.
 
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maka344 said:
There’s no such thing as cost ba benefit for Apple, they are worth nearly $1 trillion and have $350,000,000,000 in the bank. It’s sloppy and rushed even though they had 4 years between designs.
Click to expand...
Yup, that's exactly how they got to be a company like that, by not even knowing about such a fundamental business concept as a cost/benefit analysis. So many random internet users know so much about the inner workings of hugely successful companies it's quite amazing they are posting on random online forums rather than running mega successful companies with all that acumen.
 
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maka344 said:
There’s no such thing as cost ba benefit for Apple, they are worth nearly $1 trillion and have $350,000,000,000 in the bank. It’s sloppy and rushed even though they had 4 years between designs.
Click to expand...

If you think iOS is sloppy, that's your opinion. But when you're making the claim that it's "Rushed", how do you know that? Are you aware of the amount of time that Apple software engineers invested into iOS? Where did you come up with that it's rushed? Genuinely curious.

What I like about iOS, is that it simplistic and straightforward. And it just works.
 
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Relentless Power said:
If you think iOS is sloppy, that's your opinion. But when you're making the claim that it's "Rushed", how do you know that? Are you aware of the amount of time that Apple software engineers invested into iOS? Where did you come up with that it's rushed? Genuinely curious.

What I like about iOS, is that it simplistic and straightforward. And it just works.
Click to expand...

Actually, i could be wrong but i think Tim Cook himself said it was released early.
 
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Vermifuge said:
Actually, i could be wrong but i think Tim Cook himself said it was released early.
Click to expand...

He may or may not have said that, I don't know for sure. But does that translate into being "Rushed"? But regardless, I don't feel the home screen is sloppy or any other Avenue in that aspect. I do think iOS 11 in general had some issues, which have been slowly rectified. But I don't think there's anything sloppy about what Apple does in the sense of executing simplicity.
 
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Relentless Power said:
He may or may not have said that, I don't know for sure. But does that translate into being "Rushed"? But regardless, I don't feel the home screen is sloppy or any other Avenue in that aspect. I do think iOS 11 in general had some issues, which have been slowly rectified. But I don't think there's anything sloppy about what Apple does in the sense of executing simplicity.
Click to expand...

I agree and honestly i can't even remember the source. Something along the lines of Apple felt pressured to release the iPhone X early to appease the investors. In any case, theres a growing number of people who seem to echo what
Chris Pirillo is preaching.
 
I think the phone was rushed and you can tell with some issues with the software with the X than im not sure are there on the 8's.
I bet apple is working on a systemwide update for the OS in the next year. If they release the plus size version next year im hoping ios 12 is made for the X design and im sure they have plenty of software engineers working on this. For now its nice and works but it will get better.
[doublepost=1511605886][/doublepost]
sunapple said:
This phone very clearly was supposed to launch next year.
Click to expand...
I think it was smart to push it out this year because apple wants developers our the next year to update their apps for their better released OS hopefully with 12. Makes sense to me why they pushed it out this year.
 
sunapple said:
This phone very clearly was supposed to launch next year.
Click to expand...
Agreed but Apple ‘thinks different’. They apparently don’t have balanace and loss sheets per department.

They have the resrouses to do more and it’s poor. I love Apple, I’m a die hard Apple fan and most of my products are Apple but people are now starting to expect more given the price tags.
 
Another example of how bad iOS is on the X:

I had to force close mail to resolve.
 

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roeiz said:
Yea i know he talked about evolving and i fully believe it,
But i suspect their homescreen elements placement design will not be changed that easily with an update. Otherwise it was very basic to do it already. I wonder why they didn’t.
Click to expand...

#1 They plan to release the X+ next year, which is going to better utilize that screen real estate. This years phone has "filler" space, since it was never meant to have the + phone's usable screen space.

#2 They could eventually evolve it further down the line, better utilizing the layout. Apple basically seems to release every feature with like a 3 year plan nowadays. Expect a new feature to be fully fleshed out 2-3 years after it's implemented.

iOS 11 was a redesign, in some ways. I don't expect it to be fully fleshed out until iOS 13 or so. As an example, I bet they add features to, or reorganize the lockscreen soon.
 
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