Lack of UI consistency

Messiah

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Having been an iOS user since the very first iPhone and also an Android user for the last 2 years, I dabbled with Windows Phone 7 earlier this year for a short while but did not stick with it. However, I am now giving it another try and find it a very fresh and clean interface with many great features.

Apart from many small niggles such as a distinct lack of sound profiles etc, the main issue I have with WP7 is a lack of consistency across the UI. 2 of the glaring ones for me are

1. When you make a change to a setting sometimes you get a tcp to press and others a disk icon. Why not the same every time?

2. With emails you get the option to touch the left hand edge of the screen to display checkboxes for selection. I love this feature but why oh why is it for mails only. Why have they not implemented this across other areas such as text messages, call history, etc

Whilst I do not class myself as an Apple fanboy I do feel this is where the other OS's fall down. To me it just shows a lack of attention to detail or UI experience. Of course, it could just be because different departments within MS build different parts of the OS, but to me the checkbox one is a glaring omission.

Am I just being picky? :)
 
There is definitely room for improvement. What use to annoy me was the music controls changing from the top to the bottom. This was fixed in Mango and is always in the same place now.

I like the multi delete feature also, I think they should use it system wide. Maybe because in the Messaging hub integrates Live/Facebook/SMS and if it would need to delete the live/FB/text conversation then it would have to connect to FB/WL to delete that conversation which could be a problem when you don't have a connection. This does not really bother me as I SMS/IM chats I never look back at. Though I just checked, there isn't a way to delete all either only one at a time.

Overall though I find navigating around WP7 e.g. settings/wifi pictures hub/viewing a better experience than iOS. Remember that WP7 is only a year old . MS seems to be listening as well so I suggest you could bring this up at their suggestions page. Feature Suggestions for Windows Phone

SMS Delete like email feature.
Delete all SMS Messages at once
 
I bloody hate the sound profile, but I prefer WP7 to IOS. For a one year old OS it is remarkably better than what Android was at this stage.

Problem is IOS has far more apps to choice from, a lot more quality apps too. Large studios and companies are the real deal broker here, until they don't jump in the ship with Wp7, the market place will never take over (imo).
 
More quality official app updates are definitely needed. I just hope they don't keep us waiting too long. As the OS is pretty new I would guess that we are at the bottom of the waiting list under iOS and Android. In the mean time Nokia really need to update the sound profile options ASAP(Nokia 800 user).
 
I just had a quick look and it seems there is some consistency to it. The save is shown in edit screens, such as editing a contact or editing an alarm, whereas the tick is shown in settings screen. The WP design team are quite active on twitter if you want the definitive answer :)

My guess on the email multi selection is probably that you don't (at least I don't) do bulk actions on calls or messages. In fact I generally don't perform actions at all on them, I will deal with an incoming message or missed phone call then it can sit in the list for ever, whereas I actively manage email.
 

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