Thursday, February 03, 2011
Android Honeycomb is no iPad
A few weeks ago, I wrote a post about the Home button of the iPad, what I call "The Panic button" (the one you press when you are in panic, that brings you home). Someone told me the post was Zen, even too Zen... "How can you write an entire post on a single button?".
The answer is "Just because I can ;-)".
Jokes apart, I still believe it is a little detail that makes all the difference in the world (of UI).
Today, looking at the pictures of the new Android Honeycomb operating system (the one designed for tablets), I found a confirmation. Look below.
What is it?
Simple, this is the home button on the Android tablets, just slightly more complicated. Slightly.
First of all, is there really a Home button? Let's look left to right.
The first button must allow you to scroll the screen to the left. The middle one to scroll the screen up. The third one... well, maybe that thing on the top is an arrow pointing top-right: so it must be a button to scroll the screen up and right (although I am not sure why I would do it).
Right? Wrong.
The first button is actually Back. Mmhh, like the circular rotating arrow I have on my Android today. But the circular shape of it somehow gives the impression of going back. This one, it does not. In particular, not with a touch interface (it could, with a mouse-based interface).
The second button is actually Home. Hey, how did I miss it? That is a house, not an arrow! Yep, one close to an arrow, which is not really an arrow...
The third button allows you to switch between applications you have open (I am not even sure what its name might be ;-) Something that would freak out your beginner user, the actual Panic button, but the one that generates panic because stuff move in front of your eyes and you do not exactly know why.
I do not think my mom will ever click the Switch App button intentionally. She would not know what to do with it. She wants one single application open, the one she is using. She does not understand multitasking, multitabbing, multiwhatever. She is old school, when people would watch TV without an iPad on their lap.
However, I am sure she would click on it by mistake. She would panic, she would lose confidence in the device, she would think it is an enemy, not a friend.
That is why I am going to buy her an iPad tomorrow. Android is no iPad, sorry. And yes, just for a little button, however Zen it is. It is $499 more for Apple, Zen.
Posted by Fabrizio Capobianco at 19:50
7 Comments:
USABILITY....
Comment Posted at 08:33
jackr said...
All very well, until the first time she double-clicks that iPad home button….
Comment Posted at 10:02
theres a few problems with your post... namely, if you buy her an ipad now you will regeret it in 2 months since the ipad 2 is coming out ;-), and, the images you showed are actually pretty obviously a back button, a home button, and a window button. I think you tried to see it as something else, or you just tried to see it as more complicated than the ipad
Comment Posted at 01:03
Fabrizio said...
@jackr: if she double-clicks that iPad home button, I am sure she will resort to one click to the Panic button :-) That's the beauty of the UI Apple has designed...
@Anonymous: I wish I could wait (I wanted the camera for videochats) but she is in the hospital right now and I can't wait. On me being biased and trying to see things complicated, well maybe. However, I would recommend you run them through some of the people you know and let me know how it went. You will be surprised by the answer normal people give you.
Cheers,
fabrizio
Comment Posted at 17:52
Fabrizio,
You can buy an iPad if you want (why you would buy it now with the iPad 2 just around the corner is beyond me, but whatever) but I find it sad that the back/home/window switcher is so confusing for you. Really? Has the American education system failed us so much that more than one button is "confusing" to people? Anyway, enjoy your iPad...
Comment Posted at 15:52
Fabrizio said...
I had to buy one for my mom, because she had surgery a few weeks back and she was in the hospital. I would have waited for the iPad 2 for sure (it bothers me that I cannot see her during our intercontinental chats), but I could not.
On the American education system, I can't comment, since I was raised in Europe ;-) Anyway, my comments were just from my background in usability: I am perfectionist (still, I love my Android phone).
BTW, my mom loves her iPad.
Cheers,
fabrizio
Comment Posted at 15:58
the only reason my mom loves her iPad more than an Android phone is because the iPad is more expensive than an Android phone
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