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You do make a strong point, though as I see it, you take an usability point of view rather than a pure eye-candy one. I have to admit I have not looked at the usability of Sense UI for the Hero with such scrunity, and I also have to admit you make some very good points. It is true that the iPhone's UI is simple, streamlined, consistent, and stays out of your way (most of the time) while managing to be nice on the eyes. It's a great feat by the designers at apple, and it's one of the reasons why the iPhone is one of the most advanced phones on the market, yet it is still accessible by pretty much any demographic without disorienting them. But, let's look at it this way. The iPhone was released roughly two years ago (I did some research, and, what do you know, it was released exactly two years ago, June 29th, 2007), and they interface hasn't changed at all. This doesn't bother me much, but the UI has stayed the same. I believe that for a phone with so much functionality, you've got to give your users a certain amount of customization options. Granted, some might argue that countless people stick with the same look of their computer OS for years without much complaint, but it's different because when using a computer, you're most focused on the applications, but I won't dabble into that right now. Having the same interface on a device that I use every day, have it on me most of the time, and navigate through tens of times a day, for two years (assuming it was acquired on launch), it is bound to bore a little, and I think one of the strong points of Android in general is the amount of customization you can do to the interface. Now, that's my personal opinion, but I think that's one of the reasons WebOS for Pre and Sense for Hero have gotten so much hype design wise. When the iPhone was released, everyone was marveled by it's design, whose letterpressed fonts rocked the minds of even the least design savvy, if only subconsciously. It was revolutionary. More usable and productive, maybe (I can't really say without using Sense myself). But the average Joe/Jane doesn't really pay attention to those kind of details. The average Joe/Jane will in fact look for the flashiest phone and OS so that they can show it off to the world. They don't care about how usable it is, and won't notice if it takes them a second or two more to see how many messages they've got. The power user might notice and appreciate this, but the power user is knowledgeable enough to choose the phone that suits them best. Regarding themes, I don't have any on the iPhone. I don't need them, though I know many people who do and would love to be able to customize theirs. I won't dive into this much because it was just an idea I threw around without thinking about it much. I think apple designers wouldn't like having their perfected design redone. (You're welcome, for the links ;) |
This isn't to say refinements and improvements aren't welcome (which Apple has done with the iPhone), but a truly good design/UI will stand for years. (Great ones will last decades.) For another consumer-electronics based example, when was the last time Apple dramatically changed the UI on scroll-wheel iPods?