2023-08-17 12:03:40
A button that moves two centimeters, and years of habits are upset: faced with the revolt of its customers, Apple has finally gave upTuesday, August 15, to move too radically the button to hang up a phone call in the next version of iOS, the central software of its phones.
During the summer, the company had experimented in “beta” – a test version which is only distributed to a small number of voluntary users – a new location for the red button used to hang up. Historically always located at the bottom and center of the screen, the button was shifted one notch to the right. Faced with criticism, the company partially backed down and reinstated this button in the center, but not quite the same position as before.
Located, as here, usually at the bottom of the screen, in the center, the button to end a call had been moved by Apple to the bottom right. SCREENSHOT “THE WORLD”
Interface changes on applications and operating systems always generate significant criticism: even when they are more practical or ergonomic, these modifications disrupt firmly rooted habits among users. On Android phones, which have very different interfaces depending on the version of the central software installed, each new update thus sees flower items pour ” improve “ or ” Cancel “ changes in the new version.
Repeated criticism
But the most frazzled changes often concern the positioning of buttons used daily by users. At the beginning of 2023, Instagram had been the target of many remarks, after moving the button « reels »which provides access to these short videos, instead of button « notifications »very frequently consulted by users of the application.
Similarly, in July, Snapchat rolled back an update that changed the location of the “back” button in the app. Previously placed at the top right, where the “call” button is also located, it had been moved to the top left. A new localization that prompted a number of users to make calls accidentally, the latter being accustomed to clicking at the top right to go back. Ironically, it was precisely to avoid these nuisance calls that Snapchat wanted to make this change in the first place.
If such developments, which may seem anecdotal, generate so many strongly annoyed reactions, it is because they come into conflict with the way we learn to use these everyday tools. Several types of memories are involved when learning an interface: memorizing the location of a button, for example, requires muscle memory and spatial memory, the latter being considered particularly effective. Studies show that users thus learn automatically and without conscious effort the location of a button or a function. A process logically undermined when they are moved.
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