The importance of instant feedback in UI design: the Android case
“The inconsistencies in the interface between apps and the occasional lag doing simple things like scrolling in windows just screamed at me.”
— James Kendrick (2011) After the iPhone 4S, Android just feels wrong
“That having been said, it unfortunately remains the case that Android [Ice Cream Sandwich] isn’t as swift and responsive as iOS or Windows Phone (or even MeeGo Harmattan on the N9).”
“The subtle, pervasive lag that has characterized the Android UI since its inception is still there, which is not a heartening thing to hear when you’re talking about a super-powered dual-core device like the Galaxy Nexus.”
— Vlad Savov (2011) Galaxy Nexus with Ice Cream Sandwich hands-on
“Android, on the other hand, has always felt laggy to me.”
— Mike Rundle (2011) Android’s Touch Responsiveness Is Terrible
From an interaction design standpoint, this is a quite huge flaw in Android as is today and it’s one of the things that can be easily dismissed but in the end is that one able to create the magic of a perfect user experience.
I found a discussion on Reddit about this, here are some quotes:
“I’m not saying android’s touch responsiveness is bad, it’s just not as good and it’s very noticeable when playing games on it.”
“Scrolling a list of apps in the market, or doing absolutely anything in Reddit is Fun–are jerky nightmares.”
“However even compared to those parts that are not jerky, iOS still seems to be smoother. I cannot put my finger on what is actually different, but I’m not sure it is actually smoother/faster/better.”
— Reddit: Why is the touch sensitivity/responsiveness on android phones not even half as good as apple products? [Not trolling, honest question]
From the discussion and some good analysis there, it seems that the problem isn’t in the detection of the touch even, but in the response of the UI. Most of the responses seems to point out to the lack of hardware acceleration as the culprit.
I like this discussion because it’s very hard to show people this very problem: while its consequences are very relevant in the overall user experience, it’s often very difficult to make someone understand that “it should be 0.1 seconds faster” is actually a very important thing to do.
Velocità delle interazioni su mobile: ancora più importante che su desktop - Alberto Mucignat
Matteo Balocco:
Hi Davide! Good point.
As far as I can see, performance in mobile design is quite important also at the prototyping level. Sometimes I had some bad reviews of my prototypes (for iPad or iPhone apps) because they were made in js/css/html.
The user perceived a finished, but sloppy, app rather than a prototype.
I'm just saying that because I don't know yet how to prototype for the mobile and delivery a good UI change-of-states performance.
Davide 'Folletto' Casali:
Wow, yes, with prototypes is even more evident that problem. :)
Sometimes I also have to choose different design choices because I don't know if there's time in a project to implement a better solution that however could work only with a quick interaction. :)
Antonio Patti LdF:
I can confirm that Phone7 UI is really fast. Switching from an app to another is incredibly fast and you've always the sensation that everything is solid.
On Android I still have the impression that I'm in a sort of late beta environment.
When we'll have pc/laptop with Win8 and Phone7 Nokia powered, I think that we'll see a new era, or probably we'll have finally a real devices convergence.
I'm really interested in the new Microsoft OS with different interfaces for desktop, tablet and smartphone.
#1OS3UI
Do you like this ashtag?!
:-P