One UI: Great features. Terrible looking

[sonnnet]

After a couple of weeks or so with One UI, I hate the way it looks. Great big curved bubbles around everything eg in the settings menu and the Reminders app, etc. Huge horrible notifications. Awful system fonts. Terrible notification shade graphics. And shifting everything down so you can access it easier if your thumbs happen to be at the bottom of the phone has a certain logic, but half a blank screen at the top with no attempt at shading just looks awful.
I don't know who the graphic designers were for this project but it's a botched job.

Conversely, many of the new features are innovative and genuinely useful. I suppose this matters more than how it looks, but surely the looks should also have had the wow factor.

 

[mustang7757]

I like the layout , looks better then the old design.

 

[srgonu]

I too like the layout. The empty screen on the top helps to reach top of the screen. Once you move up it fills. Seems more practical.

 

[sonnnet]

I get the concept, I just don't like the design. But of course the look and feel of something is in large part subjective and I'm glad you like it.

 

[chrism8922@gmail.com]

I don't like the design or the theory behind it. I bought the correct size phone for my hands and my use, and there's nothing more usable about the very bottom of the screen than any other part. So now the design looks terrible and is harder for me to use one handed.

My biggest issue is that I bought the phone one way for $1000, and now it's not that way anymore, and I can't change it back. So I hate it.

 

[chrism8922@gmail.com]

Example: in order to use the gestures at the bottom, my finger hits the case due to the slim bezels. It's inconvenient and feels weird, and requires both hands for me to get my thumb all the way down there.

I've never particularly needed to use my phone in only one hand, and I don't think this design makes it any easier if I did. That's why I bought the phone with the old UI - it worked and looked super clean.

I'm glad some people like it, but those people didn't buy my phone for me. I did, and suddenly everything changed and it's too late to return it (I tried).

 

[sonnnet]

I don't like the design or the theory behind it. I bought the correct size phone for my hands and my use, and there's nothing more usable about the very bottom of the screen than any other part. So now the design looks terrible and is harder for me to use one handed.

My biggest issue is that I bought the phone one way for $1000, and now it's not that way anymore, and I can't change it back. So I hate it.

You definitely feel more strongly than I do about it, but I see your point. To be honest, the 'One UI' concept is a bit of a gimmick in my opinion. It's great PR. It sounds cool... but, It's hardly revolutionary. It's a combination of a number of new handy tweaks, some of which are useful. It's also a combination of taking away handy tweaks from the previous software version and this is not useful.
But that's the way it goes with software updates; often you gave a phone that you have customised to the max, really enjoy using, because it's tailored to your spec, then an update lands and then you're back to speccing it up again with the new software.
I wouldn't really mind; this is one way in which innovation takes place. But what I also want from a software update is a UI that looks sharp and fresh. These round bubbles around notes in the notes app, and photos in the gallery app and around menus and notifications look dated and clunky to me.

 

[OJsakila]

You definitely feel more strongly than I do about it, but I see your point. To be honest, the 'One UI' concept is a bit of a gimmick in my opinion. It's great PR. It sounds cool... but, It's hardly revolutionary. It's a combination of a number of new handy tweaks, some of which are useful. It's also a combination of taking away handy tweaks from the previous software version and this is not useful.
But that's the way it goes with software updates; often you gave a phone that you have customised to the max, really enjoy using, because it's tailored to your spec, then an update lands and then you're back to speccing it up again with the new software.
I wouldn't really mind; this is one way in which innovation takes place. But what I also want from a software update is a UI that looks sharp and fresh. These round bubbles around notes in the notes app, and photos in the gallery app and around menus and notifications look dated and clunky to me.

I agree 100%.
But I've always used Nova Prime for years and just now using SquareHome2/3 with tremendous results. It doesn't appear to be a battery drain, at the moment. Nova never messed with the battery..
One UI isn't all that, as far as I'm concerned. I like the dark mode.. And that seems to work fine on other launchers, soo...

 

[sonnnet]

I agree 100%.
But I've always used Nova Prime for years and just now using SquareHome2/3 with tremendous results. It doesn't appear to be a battery drain, at the moment. Nova never messed with the battery..
One UI isn't all that, as far as I'm concerned. I like the dark mode.. And that seems to work fine on other launchers, soo...

I'm a long time user of Nova Prime, too. (I don't have any experience with Square Home). So, thank goodness the One UI design for me is just for system/ Samsung apps, settings and functions. Nova takes care of everything else it can and looks and works just as great as it ever did.
In fact, I often find Nova updates more significant than OS updates (for UI) and love the extra functionality each Nova update brings.
So I have a mixed experience. Mostly great: Nova plus the new features of Pie I like. And ugly: the One UI Graphics for the system stuff, including notifications.

 

[strikeIII]

Definitely subjective. Not everyone will like it. I personally like it. Samsung was due for a new look and I like what that did esp. With the night mode. Better than Pixels dark mode.

 

[sonnnet]

Definitely subjective. Not everyone will like it. I personally like it. Samsung was due for a new look and I like what that did esp. With the night mode. Better than Pixels dark mode.

Yep, I agree. Horses for courses.

 

[Mojave]

I'm a long time user of Nova Prime, too. (I don't have any experience with Square Home). So, thank goodness the One UI design for me is just for system/ Samsung apps, settings and functions. Nova takes care of everything else it can and looks and works just as great as it ever did.
In fact, I often find Nova updates more significant than OS updates (for UI) and love the extra functionality each Nova update brings.
So I have a mixed experience. Mostly great: Nova plus the new features of Pie I like. And ugly: the One UI Graphics for the system stuff, including notifications.

Same here. Nova for me also with Pie.

 

[chrism8922@gmail.com]

You definitely feel more strongly than I do about it, but I see your point. To be honest, the 'One UI' concept is a bit of a gimmick in my opinion. It's great PR. It sounds cool... but, It's hardly revolutionary. It's a combination of a number of new handy tweaks, some of which are useful. It's also a combination of taking away handy tweaks from the previous software version and this is not useful.
But that's the way it goes with software updates; often you gave a phone that you have customised to the max, really enjoy using, because it's tailored to your spec, then an update lands and then you're back to speccing it up again with the new software.
I wouldn't really mind; this is one way in which innovation takes place. But what I also want from a software update is a UI that looks sharp and fresh. These round bubbles around notes in the notes app, and photos in the gallery app and around menus and notifications look dated and clunky to me.

I will readily agree that I feel more strongly about it than most - I fully know that most people aren't as particular as I am about their phones. But that is precisely why I set aside $1000 for the 9 while I was using a perfectly good 8 - because the design details matter a lot to me.

With that in mind, I'm with you - the round bubbly look is absolutely the worst, most pervasive feature, and is a really disappointing design language. I also use Nova, so that takes care of the launcher interface, but the Samsung apps look pretty weak now.

 

[sonnnet]

Totally appreciate that. The design clearly divides people. Personally, I don't know what they were thinking, it looks miles from premium to me... But I'm sure I'll learn to live with it (not much choice anyway...!)
Try not to be too disappointed. The rest of the phone is as brilliant as it was. Who knows, One UI is new so maybe there will be future refinements which will give us what we are looking for. Certainly hope so.

 

[edubb256]

Yes, there is no way Samsung can design a UI that everyone will like. Their goal should be to implement a design that most prefer. Judging from the mostly positive comments, it seems they were successful in that regard, but not everyone will be happy.

I personally like it and for me it improves usability in several ways, but YMMV.

 

[pizza_pablo]

Definitely subjective. Not everyone will like it. I personally like it. Samsung was due for a new look and I like what that did esp. With the night mode. Better than Pixels dark mode.

This is why the "update" should not be mandatory.

 

[barondebxl]

I totally disagree. I love the new look. Yes it's more cartoonish but I like it and I really love the bubble notifications instead of the rectangular ones.

 

[BBSeattle]

At my age "cartoonish" anything is not desirable, not to mention an eerie resemblance to the iPhone. The UI has some nice new features but nothing life changing. After the the honeymoon I find myself using my phone as I always have.

 

[bassplayrguy]

I think it looks better than the old design as well. If you scroll up a little, it will fill the screen.

 

[JHBThree]

I thought I would hate it, but it seems Samsung has finally started to 'get' the software side of things. My favorite thing is how they treat things like text. It is much closer to stock and way less messy than pre-One UI versions of Samsung software