Archiving in the trash: The Instapaper UI

<i>Imagine if Android’s Gmail app made you click the trash to save something. We would certainly see complaining blog posts and snarky tweets all over the place. So why does Instapaper get a free pass?</i><p>As we can all plainly see, it doesn't.

&#62; Imagine if Android’s Gmail app made you click the trash to save something. We would certainly see complaining blog posts and snarky tweets all over the place. So why does Instapaper get a free pass?<p>I’m not sure that we would. There are some great designers working on Android apps, but I don’t get the feeling that the UIs get the same critical eye, especially because there is less consistency throughout Android.<p>Marco should probably have the Archive box and the trash icon in the main list view instead of the trash icon that does both. However, I get the feeling that he doesn’t care as much about the polish of Instapaper as some people do. Last year I sent him an email with a list of adjustments to bring Instapaper in line with how iOS apps should behave (e.g. table view cells should fade out with the back-navigation transition instead of after it), but months later, most of the issues aren’t fixed. It’s the little things that really show polish and he doesn’t seem to be responsive to fixing the little things.

The button he's calling the "share" button is in fact called the "action" button in iOS. It's supposed to bring up a context-sensitive list of actions that you can perform at a particular point in an app. The article says "same button, completely different uses in the same app" - well, that's how it's meant to be used.<p><a href="http://bit.ly/OXvSyw" rel="nofollow">http://bit.ly/OXvSyw</a>

Twitter for iPad (at least prior to today, I haven't updated) uses the same "Share" icon at the top of an embedded webview and at the bottom (so the same icon on the screen in two places at the same time) and they also summon different menus.<p>I always forget which one I want when I want to email a link to a page...

I'm actually a little surprised that this passed apple's App Store screening. Clearly not in compliance with the infamous "Human Interface Guidelines".<p>Also irks me every time I use the app, as there is no quick way to archive and move onto the next item.<p>As a paid app, and a pricey one at that, one expects a little polish.<p>Grrrrrr make it better Marco!

Speaking of unintuitive archive icons, I think Android's Gmail one is terrible. <a href="http://www.google.com/help/hc/images/android/android_ug_40/ic_menu_archive_holo_light.png" rel="nofollow">http://www.google.com/help/hc/images/android/android_ug_40/i...</a>

"share w/ /dev/null"

Last time I tried to archive something, I hit the leftmost button, since a down-arrow on a folder kind of seems like an archive function. Then I hit the rightmost button, since it seemed like an action. Finally I hit the trash, because it was the only one left.<p>One interesting thing about this design is that if there were separate trash/archive icons, they would probably have confirmation popups, and so the number of taps is the same either way.

In gmail if you don't archive something it goes away on its own and it's lost. I've been using Instapaper daily for about 3 years and have always considered it one of my favorite iOS apps. I use the 'read later' folder for exactly what it is. A dumping ground. A sort of limbo. When I want to save things for an extended period I just move them into a different (non-readlater) folder. They stay there. Not only that, but they are categorized.<p>There are a lot of stories/comments on HN that I disagree with, but in this case I really don't understand what the problem is at all. Maybe I am missing the point because I'm not using a designated "archive" function and don't realize how much better it is. Is there a reason archiving is better?

+1. Better UI design = win!