iPhone App Directory

When a new interface isn't always such a good thing

When I hear that a developer is bringing a new interface to their app I often wonder what the reasoning is behind the change. Is it that lots of users have complained, or is it that the developer has decided that this would be a great new way to use their app?

On occasion when this happens I hear users bemoaning the new interface and wishing that they could go backwards and use whatever new features have been added but with the older interface.

So would it be so hard to give users the option? Allow them some choice over what they want in terms of interface? I know some developers do put in the 'use classic interface' option or similar, and I think that's a good plan.

Old is not always bad, and new is not always good, at least in my book anyway.

What do you think?

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5 comments:

Jake said...

There's a lot of things from traditionnal computer interface that I miss in this new "touch computing" era.

There's a desperate need for more consistence and uniformity in touch interfaces, in one app, undo is a button, in another app its a 2 finger swipe, and its different again in other apps. It would be great to have one unified gesture that brings up a clear menu of everything you can do in that app.

But then you have Apple saying app devs can't do something that looks too much like their apps or else they will be rejected from the appstore, and other people who patents concepts that nobody can ever use.

Eventually I believe we'll get somewhere, but right now a vast majority of apps works like a video game menu or tries to emulate a piece of hardware (like VA synths), it looks great but its not very efficient.

Anonymous said...

We're not talking about Apples iOS 5s Music app are we?

Nononymous said...

"We're not talking about Apples iOS 5s Music app are we?"

Yes,.. apps, we are talking about apps.. good thing you asked...

Anonymous said...

Ashley was there an app(s) you had in mind when writing this?

Anonymous said...

LOL, Sean, I was wondering the same thing. Common Ash, name names!