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    <title>rants &amp;mdash; Erik I</title>
    <link>https://erik.itland.no/tag:rants</link>
    <description>My public writing. You can reach me at @eitland@mstdn.io </description>
    <pubDate>Sat, 16 May 2026 04:07:18 +0000</pubDate>
    <item>
      <title>The iOS UX guideline no one talks about</title>
      <link>https://erik.itland.no/the-ios-ux-guideline-no-one-talks-about?pk_campaign=rss-feed</link>
      <description>&lt;![CDATA[Filed under #rants and #ux&#xA;&#xA;I have an iPad that I like a lot. It is like 4 times quicker than even my flagship Android phones, and it mostly works.&#xA;&#xA;There&#39;s one thing I notice however almost every time I use it:&#xA;&#xA;Lack of consistency seems to be considered an UX guideline for iOS apps, and back when I used Mac it was the same there:&#xA;&#xA;In every app that is produced or featured by Apple something is wildly different. Let&#39;s take a couple of examples:&#xA;&#xA;Keyboard and tool layout in Notes.&#xA;&#xA;Keyboard and tool layout in Pages.&#xA;&#xA;Can you spot the differences? Here are some starting points:&#xA;Undo has moved (next to the keyboard and easy to reach in Notes, top of the page, jammed in next to Table of Contents in Pages.)&#xA;Paste doesn&#39;t exist in pages, you have to use the &#34;tap the cursor&#34; trick.&#xA;&#xA;iOS/iPad OS is so full of these small annoyances that it seems like there is a UX guideline for it saying that every app should be ever so slightly different.&#xA;&#xA;For the record:&#xA;&#xA;Windows is well on its way in the same direction with the mess that is Control Panel these days.&#xA;&#xA;There are actually a number of things I think were better before, and consistent UX is one of those things that had its peak somewhere around Windows XP and Office 2003. I do not want to go back, but I really wish UX designers would go back and learn to undo the mess that is Metro, Ribbon or in the iOS case the whole mess.&#xA;&#xA;That said: I love my iPad as much as the best PC I had. It is &#xA;quick, somewhat predictable: &#xA;with the latest patch release I reboot it twice a week every time it jams my keyboard or something &#xA;most of the quirks are documented somewhere&#xA;&#xA;I actually like it so much I&#39;m seriously considering getting an iPhone next time I have to get a new phone which is really soon (TM) as I&#39;m so extremely fed up with having to wait for Android to switch apps, finding back the state after the other app got killed in the background etc.]]&gt;</description>
      <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Filed under <a href="https://erik.itland.no/tag:rants" class="hashtag"><span>#</span><span class="p-category">rants</span></a> and <a href="https://erik.itland.no/tag:ux" class="hashtag"><span>#</span><span class="p-category">ux</span></a></p>

<p>I have an iPad that I like a lot. It is like 4 times quicker than even my flagship Android phones, and it mostly works.</p>

<p>There&#39;s one thing I notice however almost every time I use it:</p>

<p>Lack of consistency seems to be considered an UX guideline for iOS apps, and back when I used Mac it was the same there:</p>

<p>In every app that is produced or featured by Apple something is wildly different. Let&#39;s take a couple of examples:</p>

<p><img src="https://i.snap.as/jCB5DCI.png" alt="Keyboard and tool layout in Notes."/></p>

<p><img src="https://i.snap.as/T6uLBog.image" alt="Keyboard and tool layout in Pages."/></p>

<p>Can you spot the differences? Here are some starting points:
– Undo has moved (next to the keyboard and easy to reach in Notes, top of the page, jammed in next to Table of Contents in Pages.)
– Paste doesn&#39;t exist in pages, you have to use the “tap the cursor” trick.</p>

<p>iOS/iPad OS is so full of these small annoyances that it seems like there is a UX guideline for it saying that every app should be ever so slightly different.</p>

<p>For the record:</p>

<p>Windows is well on its way in the same direction with the mess that is Control Panel these days.</p>

<p>There are actually a number of things I think were better before, and consistent UX is one of those things that had its peak somewhere around Windows XP and Office 2003. I do not want to go back, but I really wish UX designers would go back and learn to undo the mess that is Metro, Ribbon or in the iOS case the whole mess.</p>

<p>That said: I love my iPad as much as the best PC I had. It is
– quick, somewhat predictable:
– with the latest patch release I reboot it twice a week every time it jams my keyboard or something
– most of the quirks are documented somewhere</p>

<p>I actually like it so much I&#39;m seriously considering getting an iPhone next time I have to get a new phone which is really soon ™ as I&#39;m so extremely fed up with having to wait for Android to switch apps, finding back the state after the other app got killed in the background etc.</p>
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      <guid>https://erik.itland.no/the-ios-ux-guideline-no-one-talks-about</guid>
      <pubDate>Wed, 27 Nov 2019 03:50:28 +0000</pubDate>
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