On Feb 10, 2:35 pm, Moandji Ezana <[email protected]> wrote: > Why are hardware buttons so much more complicated than software buttons?
I'm not a UI expert, but I think it's important how much you have to learn to use the app. With the iPhone, all the UI is on the screen, so you see what's active (e.g., search, back) and what's not and you typically know what common UI element does by looking at it (the back button by default is always shaped like an arrow to the left and sits in the top left corner), the search field has a magnifier glass in it and the text "Search"). With Android, the search and back button are not always active, and at least the search button, as you mentioned, switches between "in-app search" and "device search (like it does in Windows Mobile 7). I think this is what makes it less simple than iOS. Now "makes it harder" doesn't mean harder for the crowd in this newsgroup - it's harder for "your mom" (mine, after many years of XP and Windows 7 usage, still doesn't know when to single / double / right -click, but I love her nevertheless :-) and "your prototypical three-year old". What you trade in with this simplicity is power / features for advanced users: In the iOS address book, for instance, the search field is at the top, so you always need to scroll there, whereas on Android you can probably press the search button everywhere. But from what I've seen, Apple is determined to keep things as simple as possible with iOS (see this explanation by part- time CEO TIm Cook: http://www.asymco.com/2011/01/17/the-cook-doctrine/), probably fed up with tall the cruft that the Mac accumulated over the years. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "The Java Posse" 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/javaposse?hl=en.
