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Comment by robterrell | Hacker News Reader

My biggest gripe with iOS 7 is how I can't predict that a UI element is tappable. With every new app (i.e. every app I already have that has been updated for iOS 7 and automatically upgraded by the iOS without me really knowing) I find myself having to tap various bits of UI stuff to figure things out. What's fascinating to me is seeing how my 2 year old does with it.

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the UX designers behind the flat trend seem not realize that there is no mouseover in touch UI which is why you can get away with it in desktop UI.

flat design seems even more applicable for print design, i.e. completely non-interactive

It's even funnier on old devices like the iPhone 4, where a tap might not have a response within a few seconds depending on what's the app's doing. These are genuinely awkward moments wondering if the phone is painfully slow or you just tapped a label.

It's even better when those taps lead to actions. I permanently deleted some messages because of a non-descript icon (on Android's confusing modern look).

The worst thing about all this icon frenzy to me is that they often even take up more space than text that could descripe their function.

* The worst thing about all this icon frenzy to me is that they often even take up more space than text that could descripe their function. *

That highly depends on the language that you're using... Having localized our app into 16 different languages I've found that there are many languages where the text simply does not fit into the allotted space. In those cases I think using icons are a lot more effective than a bunch of ellipsized text.

Sounds exactly like the problems for WP: can't figure out which is tappable just by looking at it. Maybe that's one of the inevitable pitfalls of flat design?

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