Title needs a changin. Almost all of these are just personal preferences on very minor ui elements. The author maybe has a valid point about (maybe?) losing customizations options, but loses the forest for the trees.

Yes. To me the original Reddit poster seems like a kid with way too much free time on their hands.

Operating systems should just be tools, using your brainpower to squint at accent colors or similar is just pure waste. Kinda like you don't give two shits about the asphalt color of the highway while driving.

The post is about much more than just the customisation options. He also highlights the reduced information density and the negatively impacted effort to effect ratio of the new controls and their layout.

OK, but changing stuff for no reason also wastes user brainpower.

>> Almost all of these are just personal preferences on very minor ui elements

That's also just your personal opinion.

That is the common thread to clickbait armchair ui designer articles like this.

the minor is a bit of a bold statement in a complete design language overhaul.

" you can't change the fonts, you can't change the accent colors to anything else than the bland 4 colors that are provided by Google. "

This makes MS windows 1.0 look advanced. 1 GHz processor with 4 GB RAM and they are not able to include a font and color selector. And now MS is copying them.

I never understood the lack of ability to select from the color palette. I saw it in way too many places. Why would you not just allow me to fucking pick any color I would like?

You can see this kind of trend in software that has to do with organization of whatever. You can pick between like 8 colors for your folders, for example, or labels. Like... is it too hard, or what is the reasoning? Laziness?

I really hope the plush, bubbly phase UIs have been going through the last few years will pass soon. This update is like a caricature of it. My phone suddenly feels like it's designed for a todler.

Android 12 looks like a Dribbble concept. Looks great in screenshots but way too overdesigned for normal use

big tech is offensive to the user

seriously.

I thought this article was going to be about the many substantive problems with platforms like Android

turns out it's entirely about cosmetic annoyances

Discussing UI is important too, esp. when it changes in a way that wastes users brain power.

Android 7 to me was the best iteration.

I think 7.1 was "peak Android as we knew it" - not as disorganized as pre-5.0 Android, not as tame as post-7.1 Android - but not necessarily the best experience for the most people (i.e. maximizing utility and satisfaction). In my view, 8.0 and onward have definitely had a simplification/"iOS"-ification of the interface and experience (with the perceived bonus of being less prone to breakage), but I don't see it as a net negative overall. Before that, Android was still visibly geared towards more technical users (compared to the average) and it is understandable that Google wanted to make it more approachable for the masses (remember, hand-me-down iPhones with their less complicated interface and experience were considered the best "grandma smartphones" by many people"). However, I do wish Google hadn't taken some design decisions that make no sense to me (for a recent example, see: Android 12 quick toggles).

Meh, just whinging on Reddit... Kind of like how Linux users bitch about everything that's new. If you asked the typical Linux 'power user' then we'd all be stuck on some archaic tiling WM. Yet most of us get along with Gnome Shell or something modern just fine. Android's fine, based on what I've seen of Android 12, looks like it'll be the best yet and I'll still use Android.

I dont really understand these massive design changes.

I seriously believe that at some point some of these things are done to keep designers employed. Do we really need all these designers to sit around making up reasons to be employed?

Holo was great, every single change since then has decreased information density, and simply make it harder to do things.

What is the wisdom in nesting a simple toggle under its own submenu? Its a goddamn toggle.

Ted Kaczynski noted that over time all large organizations trend towards self preservation projects.

Noted social commentator “the unabomber”.

Dude was extremely smart and observant. I get that it’s hard to see past the bombings, but they don’t exactly bear on the strength of his philosophical work.

I mean… we are talking about a UI update here.

"Android 12 and its consequences have been a disaster for the human race" - Ted Kaczynski

Yeah, but that particular observation is neither new nor obscure. Surely a different source for a similar quote would have been better.

This observation was famously attributed to one of the classic sociologists - maybe Durkheim? The form I remember was: each institution's primary activity is to preserve itself, and only secondarily to pursue its nominal purpose. I'd love it if someone could track down the original quote. It definitely predates Kaczynski though, and we could probably do without the internet trope of bringing him up as a social theorist.

> each institution's primary activity is to preserve itself, and only secondarily to pursue its nominal purpose.

Sounds weird about institutions, but obvious about organisms. Substitute in "organisation" instead, and the parallel to organisms becomes clearer.

The word is contemporary you need to have a constant evolving product in todays market and design is one of the easiest way to achieve it.

>you need to have a constant evolving product in todays market

Isn't this a self-fulfilling prophecy? Only needed because everyone thinks it's needed. I bet at this point "our shit just works and we won't change it unless it breaks" would be an innovative strategy that even casual users could appreciate.

It wouldn’t, or depends on the field. Apple would be a notable competitor and they do the “just works” and “innovation” better than most.

The problem is that approach is actively hostile to customers.

Ugly design and lots of bugs. This has been a problem with Android for a long time. HTC (remember them!?) used to make a business out of fixing those problems - with the side-effect of just fragmenting the OS.

Bought a second-hand iPhone 6S in 2016 and never looked back.