UI Design & Web Usability Blog
-
Mar 1st, 2010
-
Jan 27th, 2010
How Much Time Do We Waste on Badly Designed Apps?
Computer load-time, pop-ups, new apps installation, new user interrelations, lack of intuitiveness, search for drivers, frozen system, reboots, etc. – these are just a few of the things that most of us face on daily basis. Dealing with all these issues takes users up to 30 minutes a day according to Telegraph UK. Read More
-
Jan 5th, 2010
Apple’s Rumoured Tablet to Have 3D Interface?
Apple has filed a patent that describes an interface for manipulating “three-dimensional virtual objects” on a touch screen. The technology may be used in future releases of iPhone or in the rumoured Apple tablet (iSlate?). I doubt that simply porting existed OS to a 10” touch screen may take “you-know-who’s considerable undivided attention”. Having an entire event dedicated to the mobile market Apple will most probably try to set a new standard. 3D User Interface may become just the thing to mark a new step in evolution of UX. Apple has been working on various 3D systems for quite some time now: 3D Projection System, 3D Desktop, 3D Displays, etc.
-
Dec 17th, 2009
Android Market and Apple’s App Store
As Android Market has grown to about the 20,000 apps mark, it is interesting to compare two different approaches to User Experience. While Apple sets up very strict approval rules in effort to assure only well done and polished apps get through to an end-user, Google doesn’t set any approval process at all. Aesthetics have never been Google’s concern although it’s nothing-gets-in-the-users-way approach has became a signature style on its own. And it does work very well on the web, but for mobile apps it may not.
In many cases visual aspects of apps and UI become the very corners that are being cut in order to minimize product-to-market time and expenses. As a result, we see less-than-inspiring graphics, confusing User Interfaces and an overall lack of consistency. One of iPhones’s strong points is the well-designed default UI elements that help to assure some level of consistency across various applications. After all, apps are just tools running on a mobile device and shared layout principals help a great deal in minimizing learning curve for users.
Below is a screenshot of Apple Store’s Movies App that uses default iPhone library elements as well as a very similar app from Android Market.
Movies by Flixster (Android)
Movies (Apple App Store)
-
Nov 25th, 2009
Mobile Traffic at glance (by AdMob)
A few days back, AdMob published a very interesting report on market share of various mobile OS and smartphones. The data suggests that Apple’s dedication to User Experience results in higher apps approval and user adoption rates. The report is a great read but for those that don’t have time here are the highlights:
Smartphone Traffic by Manufacturer – Worldwide
- Apple – 50%
- Nokia – 24% (Mainly from India, Indonesia, Philippines and South Africa markets where Nokia has 89% of the market)
- HTC – 12%
- RIM – 7%
Smartphone Traffic by OS:
- Apple OS 50%
- Symbian OS – 25% (Mainly from India, Indonesia, Philippines and South Africa markets where Nokia has with 89% of the market)
- Android OS – 11%
- RIM OS – 7%
United States Data by Manufacturer
- Apple – 55%
- HTC – 22%
- RIM – 12%
Smartphone Traffic by OS:
- iPhone OS – 55%
- Android – 20%
- RIM OS – 12 %
It is interesting that Apple’s traffic comes from only 2 devices – iPhone and iPod. Android traffic comes from 9 devices currently available worldwide. RIM traffic is a result of their current 11 smartphones and probably some past models.
The full report is available here. http://metrics.admob.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/AdMob-Mobile-Metrics-Oct-09.pdf