
Jakob Nielsen on iPad Usability: First Findings - adnam
http://www.useit.com/alertbox/ipad.html
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barrkel
The discoverability of commands is particularly important, and something I
noticed a lot after starting out with iPod Touch, then Android (Nexus One),
then iPad.

With iPod / iPhone / iPad, applications need to be very carefully designed to
reveal actions; but every application exposes those actions in slightly
different ways. Android, on the other hand, has built-in buttons for Back and
Menu, and has a generally common theme of long-press for "context-menu"-like
action. This ends up making Apple-platform apps inconsistent, occasionally
brilliant but frequently odd, while Android apps are pedestrian but
consistently usable, in the sense that actions can easily be discovered and
reasonably easily invoked, but not necessarily with a minimum of taps -
usually there's at least one or two extra taps involved with Android apps.

I think the optimum would be somewhere in between. Android has too many
buttons: the Search button is ironically mostly redundant. The consistency of
a back button works really well. The utility of a menu button is debatable; it
many ways, it's a cop-out. I wonder if a universal gesture might be more
appropriate, a little like the status area of Android is accessed with a pull-
down from the top of the screen. Perhaps a pull-up from the bottom for general
actions?

~~~
johnrob
Discoverability on iPhoneOS also suffers from the lack of a mouse pointer,
since that takes 'hovering' out of the equation. On the desktop we take for
granted the ability to mouseover something to test for clickability (the
common case being the mouse arrow turning into a pointing finger when hovering
over a link).

~~~
pook
Hm. Maybe a "hinting" gesture would work well.

Tap in the upper left corner, and all clickable text/borders becomes distinct
(tinted background, etc).

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wallflower
Reading the 93 page full report now...

Kudos to Jakob Nielsen:

"We decided to publish the full report anyway (as a donation to the community)
because all experiences from the last 30 years of usability shows that early
usability findings have a disproportionally large impact on design projects."

<http://s3.amazonaws.com/nngroup/ipad-usability.pdf>

~~~
jgrahamc
Surely, the reality is that Nielsen wants to increase his relevance by
glomming on to the current hype surrounding the iPad. Hence he releases the
report is a freebie.

I am glad he did this, now I actually have an idea about the product he sells.

~~~
wallflower
One of the best ways to market yourself is to give away freebies.

For example, I knew a graphic designer who did pro-bono work for some non-
profit organizations. He did really good work and some of the non-profit board
members gave him work to do. Really lucrative work - corporate annual reports.

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MWinther
Interesting findings for iPad developers, there's a free 93-page download at
the bottom as well. I would hate to see iPad development in the same quagmire
as DVD menus.

~~~
stcredzero
That's an excellent parallel.

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joubert
1) i wish they'd post videos of their usability testing

2) 7 users seem like a small sample. I wonder what their ages and backgrounds
were.

~~~
mixmax
According to Jakob Nielsen 5 users is enough:
<http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20000319.html>

~~~
joubert
Ok, I can buy that. I wonder why he chose 7 then in this case.

~~~
crystalis
That's how many were walking through the hallway.

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jwr
I don't like the proportion of critique vs suggestions. Nielsen critiques a
lot, but his suggestions are limited to a few broad strokes. I expected better
from a usability guru.

~~~
not_an_alien
I frankly think it's how it should be. He's really good in testing and
analysis. Focusing in the solution is almost like an entirely different
matter.

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Nwallins
There are constant references to _the etched-glass aesthetic_ with no examples
or explanation, and while I am pretty familiar with iPad reviews and whatnot,
I have no idea what this means.

~~~
Lazlo_Nibble
He gives a little context on page 6: _"Worse, there are often no perceived
affordances for how various screen elements respond when touched. The
prevailing aesthetic is very much that of flat images that fill the screen as
if they were etched. There’s no lighting model or pseudo-dimensionality to
indicate raised or lowered visual elements that call out to be activated."_

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hackermom
I wonder if Jakob Nielsen would have popped a vein and died on the spot had he
tried another mobile platform or tablet. Really - 7 users? A handful of apps?
And how does the developers' lack of HID adhering make the iPad itself
"unusable"? Really...

~~~
someone_here
Statistically speaking, 5 is enough to get a rough idea.

Also, a lot of the problems he has with the iPad do not show up on the N900.
He would probably like that.

~~~
pavlov
A while ago, I was watching an N900 user trying out an iPad. It was
interesting to see that he had substantial difficulty figuring out how to move
back in nested screen hierarchies. He was actually trying to press on the
black border around the screen to go back, because on the N900 all dialogs are
designed so that clicking anywhere in the area "behind" the dialog takes you
back.

IMHO, that "buttonless back button" is perhaps the best thing about the N900's
UI design.

~~~
zsouthboy
Can you illustrate what you're talking about? I'll see if I can youtube
someone playing with an N900..

It sounds like you simply tap anywhere but the dialog and it's "canceled"?

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wmf
_It sounds like you simply tap anywhere but the dialog and it's "canceled"?_

Yes. When a modal dialog is active, Maemo also blurs and darkens the
background so it's obvious that it's inactive.

