There are 2 reasons why it's bad for usability: 1. It draws your attention from the center of attention (the icons and widgets) to the background. I remember when I first saw this feature, I didn't know of the background was really moving or I'm too tired. I swiped several times looking at the edges of the background. A GUI that takes your center of attention to something unimportant and lets you waste time with trying what happens is a very good design for a game, but a very bad design for a GUI (to cite J. Raskin).
2. When you don't like it, you search, where to turn this off. I was sure, if somebody implements this feature, there is somewhere the option for turning it off. I wasted time to find this, because this option simply doesn't exist. Again wasted time and attention drawn from what you want to do to something else. So: these scrolling backgrounds are bad design! But even if some people want to keep this, it should be an option, that you can turn on (and off). The way it is today is very bad usability. Greetings, Jonas On 13 Jan., 22:46, Tim Mensch <[email protected]> wrote: > On 1/12/2012 6:54 AM, JonasW wrote: > > > If someone wants to > > know more about usability for the first reading I suggest: > ... > > Designing the User Interface - Donald A. Norman, The Design of > > Everyday Things (not about GUIs, but more about some principle > > questions, but a classic book) ... > > Funny you should mention this. I majored in Cognitive Science at UC San > Diego at the end of the '90s when Don Norman was the head of the > department, and took classes from him (and of course still have his > book) directly. I think I can say I got a good sense of his outlook on > UI design. > > There is absolutely nothing wrong with a parallax scrolling background > from a UI design perspective. It doesn't add directly to the UI, but > neither does pretty graphics; both are orthogonal to usability, though > without attractive graphics most people won't want to use it. In fact > I'd say that it arguably enhances the UI, as the dragging of icons in > the "near" layer is reinforced by a background moving in a similar > direction. As such it creates an illusion that you're looking around in > a larger area. > > I get that you don't like it. It's your right. But it's aesthetics, and > trying to claim otherwise is false; there's nothing about it that should > confuse users. Being a slave to aesthetics can harm usability (his > oft-cited example about doors with no handles, or with ambiguous > handles, comes to mind) [1], but nowhere does he argue for doing away > with all aesthetics. > > Considering I learned directly from one of the top experts, I've haven't > read many other opinions on UI design, but I would have a hard time > understanding how any "expert" could claim that such an easily > cognitively mapped action as a parallax background could possibly harm > usability. > > Tim > > [1] This page has a summary that references the anecdote I'm thinking > of:http://www.situatedgaming.com/CISHCIExam/norman.html -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Android Discuss" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/android-discuss?hl=en.
