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0 pointsalanh15y ago0 comments

> talent to catch up to Apple on that

With the exception of the better-than-Apple notifications, isn’t Android just attempting to copy lots of UI idioms from iOS in a slightly less usable manner? This is a Mac → Win GUI situation again, is it not? With engineers and programmers driving Android as essentially a Google side project, what’s to actually instill serious quality control and innovation for interfaces?

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dieterrams15y ago· 2 in thread

I agree that Android up till now has been as you describe, but I've no idea what they're planning for Android 3.0. I assume that part of the reason why Android's UI idioms have been a less usable copy of iOS's so far is because they were rushing to rework what previously resembled BlackBerry into something more iPhone.

I get the Mac/Win analogy, but Microsoft never really grokked UX, while Google generally does. Given that UI is their focus for 3.0, I'd assume their UX people will have more input this time around.

alanhOP15y ago

I hope you’re right.

If we may dive into a tangent, I am quite interested in why you say Google "generally groks UX." Their search home page is a great example, sure, and Gmail for the most part (certainly not their Contacts organizer). But then I think to Buzz, where I think the UX was terrible (I wrote about this here: http://alanhogan.com/buzz-is-already-dead, HN discussion: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1125126). I’d love to hear your thoughts on Google and UX.

dieterrams15y ago

Nice critique. I never really used Buzz, because my first instinct was to turn it off, but what little experience I have with it seems to match up.

I've never worked at Google, but I know someone who interned for the UX team, who complained that UX wasn't as involved with design as they could be. I'm guessing that the usability of non-core Google projects depends a lot on whether the engineers who start them seek input from their UX people. If you're doing a 20% project and want other people to work on it with you, you've got to find and convince those people yourself. So at least initially, the involvement of UX people outside of core Google projects depends on whether their involvement is sought.

Buzz in particular appeared to have been launched with little forethought, so there's a good chance it didn't get much of a UX pass, either.

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