Here’s the thing: if I didn’t care, I wouldn’t criticize. I couldn’t be bothered to invest the time it takes to examine an interface and develop a hypothesis of why it is just so horribly, horribly broken. (Feel pity for my poor students at SF State, USC, and AFTRS, who got this treatment from me, year after year.) Because, I mean, why bother, really? If it sucks why bother to pay it any attention at all?
And that’s the point: Android does not suck. HTC Desire does not suck. Which makes their screw-ups all the more annoying. And unfair. You want your new friend to be practically perfect in every way, and when he reveals a bad temper or obsession with the Wiggles, etc., well, it’s just – disappointing.
I analyze a UI simply by interacting with it. When I make a mistake, I note it. When I make the same mistake repeatedly, I realize that the fault is not my own – it lies with the UI. This brings me to the Notification Bar. This is the place where Android apps can post all sorts of status updates – an email has arrived, or a file has finished downloading. It lives at the top of the screen in Sense UI. I don’t know if that’s an Android standard or something specific to Sense UI. And it sucks.
Why? Well, I didn’t even know you could pull down the Notification Bar until several days after I received the HTC Desire. Perhaps I should have known, but I just watched it fill up with weird icons and thought nothing of it. Like the Microsoft Windows taskbar. But it turns out that if you tap on it just right, you can pull it down. And therein lies the trouble. Ninety-nine times out of a hundred, when I go for the Notification Bar, this is what I get:
Here, I’ve selected the Time/Date widget on my Home Screen, not the Notification Taskbar. Note the position of my thumb – directly on top of the Notification Taskbar. So clearly, I’m landing on the proper point on the screen. But, for some reason, the UI is interpreting that gesture as something else. This has made using the Notification Taskbar (which is actually a nice feature of Android) a complete pain in the ass.
Picky? I don’t think so. This is the sort of thing that should work out-of-the-box. Or it should go back to QA.
Update: Several commenters have pointed out that a ’swiping’ motion, from the HTC logo downward onto the screen, opens the Notification Bar reliably. That’s a lovely insight. I wish it had been printed somewhere…
oh you are not alone on having this issue….
and it is one that is driving me nuts as well…
Comment by wolfcat — May 23, 2010 @ 4:12 am
You can tap it, yes. Can also drag it down too — which is what I always use.
Comment by Will Hughes — May 23, 2010 @ 4:15 am
I use a brushing gesture that start just above the lcd and flicks down. I’ve eliminated the issue you have this way.
Comment by steven herod — May 23, 2010 @ 4:17 am
@steven -Nice. Just tried the brushing gesture, and it works well. Thanks!
Comment by admin — May 23, 2010 @ 4:19 am
Like you, I had no idea it existed for a while and also had attempts to access it go wrong. It has come good for me now though. I find a little flick down just below the led opens it consistently. I quite like it now.
Comment by Westu — May 23, 2010 @ 4:20 am
Pity, I absolutely love how notifications work, but then again, I’ve never had the issue of accidentally pressing a giant widget; they are so overrated, and the only one I use is the calendar one which isn’t on my main home screen. I don’t really need to know what the weather is every time I look at my phone, and time displays fine in the top right corner /shrug
Also, as you’ve said before [or maybe it was in the comments], the HTC Sense UI hinders the native Android UI, if anything.
Comment by c0up — May 23, 2010 @ 4:30 am
Of course such a fundamental interface feature should be described in the Your HTC Desire Quick start guide. It’s not. It’s not even mentioned.
And don’t get me started on tiny, weedy, sans-serif typefaces and the lack of legibility…
Comment by Stilgherrian — May 23, 2010 @ 4:37 am
It’s similar in Seesmic for the Android where the top bar is “go to the top” but it’s a tiny bar right above the first tweet or the refresh button (Why oh why do I have to press a button when Tweetie allows me to just drag down to refresh), so I often hit one when I’m meant to be hitting the other.
But yes, I also do the swipe gesture from above the screen down to access the notifications area.
Comment by JodieM — May 23, 2010 @ 4:43 am
The Android notification system is worlds apart from what iPhone / Win Mo / others offer, and it’s ALMOST there.. but I agree – unless you have dainty little fingers its very easy to miss the notification bar and click on something else, and this is a massive UX fail in my book.
Again, this is something I didn’t even think of in reviewing the Desire – I’ve used Android for so long now that I just knew this feature existed and was a standard part of the Android OS… for HTC not to mention it in the quick start guide is just completely stupid IMHO.
Comment by Chris Rowland — May 23, 2010 @ 5:44 am
I also swipe. I guess I’m lucky that I have teeny tiny hands and dainty little fingers, because, apart from not knowing what it was at first and discovering it by accident, I haven’t had a problem with pulling it down since.
However, most adults do not have the hands of a 9-year-old girl, so my success is not indicative of the expected success of the broader community.
Comment by Helen Perris — May 23, 2010 @ 6:27 am
I’m another one who always swiped it, and apart from a couple of goes on the first day I haven’t had problems with it. However I saw it done at Google Dev Day ‘08 so I guess I had an unfair advantage
The swipe action on the G1 doesn’t need any precision, testing it I can do it mashing half the screen width with my thumb. Tiny fingers not required
Is the Desire different?
Comment by Ben Buchanan — May 23, 2010 @ 8:01 am
Swiping down is the proper way to do it, you don’t need to hold your finger down on it. Once you realize that you’ll see why the notification bar is awesome and not broken at all. Compare to the iPhone where notifications are modal windows – useless!
(Seems very strange that it’s not in the getting started guide though; is that Telstra’s documentation or HTC’s? Maybe you should pong them about it)
Comment by Justin Carter — May 23, 2010 @ 9:48 am
Oh and it’s a standard Android thing since 1.0, nothing to do with HTC sense
Comment by Justin Carter — May 23, 2010 @ 9:50 am
“most adults do not have the hands of a 9-year-old girl,”
I don’t have the hands of a 9-year-old girl, and I’ve never had problems with it
Comment by Will Hughes — May 23, 2010 @ 1:33 pm
I agree, it’s a little annoying, however as per normal HTC/Google have given multiple options.
I’ve found that because I have larger thumbs, the small bar at the top is hard to hit, so I usually aim for the “HTC” logo and swipe down. I personally find that a much more convenient gesture.
However, there’s also pressing the “Menu” button, then “Notifications”. I find I can quickly hit both the hard-key and large on-screen button with with good accuracy. Even in challenging conditions like on the bus. (Everything jumps around when on the buses I have to catch.)
So, yes I do think you’re picky, just because you can’t figure it out doesn’t mean it’s a fault in the design.
What works for you will not always work for other people, and these devices are designed for as wide a market as possible. So occasionally, some individuals will have small quirks where they need to change their habit’s slightly. This is a small price to pay IMHO for the other benefits the device gives me.
Comment by Glenn Stephens — May 24, 2010 @ 12:36 am
Sorry, but I’m wondering if you’ve had much experience with capacitive touch enabled devices. Admittedly, I haven’t read all that you’ve written so far.
After a while you realise that the fingers on your hand are differently shaped. So you may think you’re touching with the left side of your finger (on the underside, not where your nail is) but in fact it’s the lower part, or the right side. My fingers aren’t perfectly round or flat. If you use different fingers to touch, swipe, etc it can get a little confusing.
Despite the above, over time you should get the hang of it. I’ve been doing this on my HTC Dream for the past 18 months. It was a little frustrating initially while I was learning where to touch and how to swipe or drag down, but I didn’t assume it was the phone’s fault. Now, it’s easy.
I hope your not looking for faults with different parts of the UI cause it’s gonna make your review pretty lame if that’s the case!
Comment by Geoff — May 24, 2010 @ 12:55 pm
Really !?! You can’t be serious.
RTFM … if you really don’t understand technology and aren’t willing to sit down with the manual and read it, then you really shouldn’t be making commentary about it.
Comment by Jason — May 25, 2010 @ 1:37 pm
@Jason – What manual are you talking about? The manual that wasn’t included with my HTC Desire? (Sheesh.)
Comment by admin — May 25, 2010 @ 7:52 pm
[...] – the best Android apps and games on the Android market Monday, 24 May 2010 1:29 PM Notification Blah » Desire Monday, 24 May 2010 1:22 [...]
Pingback by Last Week on Delicious « Visible Procrastinations — June 7, 2010 @ 2:32 am
I had a mini guide included in my desire packaging but when I mounted it as a drive I found a more in depth manual. It’s existence wasn’t exactly obvious though as the file name was in acronyms.
Comment by andy — August 12, 2010 @ 9:52 pm