Reading one of the referenced articles by Don Norman [1], I find this statement immediately true...
> "What kind of design philosophy requires millions of its users to have to pretend they are disabled in order to be able to use the product? Apple could have designed its phone so that the majority of people could read and use the phone without having to label themselves as needy, disabled, and requiring assistance."
...as just a few days ago I reluctantly traded in my iPhone 6 for the iPhone XS. So far, I cannot get over not having a home button. (since it was mentioned below, I just want to point out that my gripe isn't about not wanting to adapt to a new interface; it's about what Don brought up). After exploring the OS menus for a while I found that, I could add a button to the screen that mimics to a small degre, much of the functionality of the home button Apple previously entrained me on. Of course this option is tucked under the accessibility preferences. In fact, I found a half-dozen 'features' under accessibility that I decided to turn on.
Hopefully I can adapt to the default XS patterns soon, so I can turn off some of some of these accessible features, apparently intended for the iPhoneXS-disabled. I'm just wondering why these things, which to me just seem like user preferences or options are nested under the accessibility tab. Then again, maybe Apple is trying to tell this 6th-year phd student that I'm no spring chicken, so hurry up and graduate already.
No, I'm complaining that things which seem like 'features' are nested under 'accessibility'. But maybe I'm reading too much into it.
edit: Anyway that was Don's main point.
edit2: oh I also found this kinda funny, as another example: Note I've turned on 'reachability' in the 'accessibility' tab. This accessibility option allows people using their phone with one hand to swipe down at the bottom of the screen to shift icons from the top-half to the bottom-half, so if you're an 'inaccessible' like me who doesn't have thumbs that reach the top corners of the screen, you can still use those apps.
> "What kind of design philosophy requires millions of its users to have to pretend they are disabled in order to be able to use the product? Apple could have designed its phone so that the majority of people could read and use the phone without having to label themselves as needy, disabled, and requiring assistance."
...as just a few days ago I reluctantly traded in my iPhone 6 for the iPhone XS. So far, I cannot get over not having a home button. (since it was mentioned below, I just want to point out that my gripe isn't about not wanting to adapt to a new interface; it's about what Don brought up). After exploring the OS menus for a while I found that, I could add a button to the screen that mimics to a small degre, much of the functionality of the home button Apple previously entrained me on. Of course this option is tucked under the accessibility preferences. In fact, I found a half-dozen 'features' under accessibility that I decided to turn on.
Pic: http://bit.ly/iPhoneXS_accessibility
Note that the floating home button is labeled AssistiveTouch. Here is a really short video I just made attempting to use this slippery-ass button...
http://bit.ly/iPhoneXSdemo
Hopefully I can adapt to the default XS patterns soon, so I can turn off some of some of these accessible features, apparently intended for the iPhoneXS-disabled. I'm just wondering why these things, which to me just seem like user preferences or options are nested under the accessibility tab. Then again, maybe Apple is trying to tell this 6th-year phd student that I'm no spring chicken, so hurry up and graduate already.
[1] Don Norman article: https://www.fastcompany.com/3053406/how-apple-is-giving-desi...