This is mostly a thing on touch interfaces. When the UI designers think 100% of the screen needs to do something when touched. Like if an app pops out a form for you to fill out, don't let your palm touch the margins because there's a good chance it will close the form and delete everything you put in it. It's ironic that this is mostly a thing on the platforms where it's the biggest mistake. But it's horrible on PC too. I'm not sure what the proper way to refocus is but my habit has always been to click on whitespace because it's such an easier and therefore faster target than a taskbar. Too bad there are twisted shadow realms where our concept of whitespace doesn't exist.
For similar reasons I can't stand those "in-app" browsers either. God forbid you need to reference something in the app while using the in-app browser. Whatever page you were on, whatever you entered, it's gone with no warning. I avoid these whenever possible but I swear that despite all in-app browsers being "powered by chrome," the option to open the actual page in the actual browser is obfuscated in a different way every time. I barely use any apps anymore and it's still never where I expect to find it.
Also in the same genre of frustration, the way Android (idk if iOS is like this too) automatically clears out RAM is really inconvenient sometimes. I have a special emotion that only activates when I go back to an app from another and it reloads, losing everything.
Crap like this makes using a mobile interface feel like handling a live bomb sometimes. We use the term volatile to describe either memory that dissapears when power is lost, or software that's prone to crashing. But software also has a varying risk of your shit suddenly being lost without anything unintended occurring, and it just feels fragile. I don't know if we have any language right now to describe exactly what this aspect of software is like, but I love apps and programs where my work always feels safe.
A few days ago, I ran into some issues while trying to authenticate on a website (Android). It sent a verification code to my email, but every time I open the email, the browser restarted and the page reload, making it impossible to enter the code.
Couldn't find the code text box because it was generated dynamically, so I needed to generate another code. Really annoying.
Reminds me of that app in which I had to pay something, but if I left the app while doing the transaction (for example, to validate the transaction with my bank app for 2FA) it would cancel the transaction. I literally couldn't pay without either using two devices or an alternate 2FA method (where the bank would send me a code by SMS - this worked because the SMS would trigger a notificztion from which I could read the code without leaving my app.)
This is mostly a thing on touch interfaces. When the UI designers think 100% of the screen needs to do something when touched. Like if an app pops out a form for you to fill out, don't let your palm touch the margins because there's a good chance it will close the form and delete everything you put in it. It's ironic that this is mostly a thing on the platforms where it's the biggest mistake. But it's horrible on PC too. I'm not sure what the proper way to refocus is but my habit has always been to click on whitespace because it's such an easier and therefore faster target than a taskbar. Too bad there are twisted shadow realms where our concept of whitespace doesn't exist.
For similar reasons I can't stand those "in-app" browsers either. God forbid you need to reference something in the app while using the in-app browser. Whatever page you were on, whatever you entered, it's gone with no warning. I avoid these whenever possible but I swear that despite all in-app browsers being "powered by chrome," the option to open the actual page in the actual browser is obfuscated in a different way every time. I barely use any apps anymore and it's still never where I expect to find it.
Also in the same genre of frustration, the way Android (idk if iOS is like this too) automatically clears out RAM is really inconvenient sometimes. I have a special emotion that only activates when I go back to an app from another and it reloads, losing everything.
Crap like this makes using a mobile interface feel like handling a live bomb sometimes. We use the term volatile to describe either memory that dissapears when power is lost, or software that's prone to crashing. But software also has a varying risk of your shit suddenly being lost without anything unintended occurring, and it just feels fragile. I don't know if we have any language right now to describe exactly what this aspect of software is like, but I love apps and programs where my work always feels safe.
A few days ago, I ran into some issues while trying to authenticate on a website (Android). It sent a verification code to my email, but every time I open the email, the browser restarted and the page reload, making it impossible to enter the code.
Couldn't find the code text box because it was generated dynamically, so I needed to generate another code. Really annoying.
Reminds me of that app in which I had to pay something, but if I left the app while doing the transaction (for example, to validate the transaction with my bank app for 2FA) it would cancel the transaction. I literally couldn't pay without either using two devices or an alternate 2FA method (where the bank would send me a code by SMS - this worked because the SMS would trigger a notificztion from which I could read the code without leaving my app.)