“Your opinion doesn’t matter”

At the heart of this statement was my confusion over the object of that opinion.

My point was that Colin’s opinion does not change Apple’s official recommendation. Colin’s point is that Apple’s recommendation does not change his opinion.

Obviously, both are true, and arguments as to the relative merit of Settings.app are ultimately irrelevant.

Sorry for the confusion and any unecessary hypertension.

Changing a setting in an intention of the user. One intends to make a tool behave in a different way from first-run. Where does one expect to find the place to change this tool? Inside the tool itself, or under the rug and behind the curtain?

Having Settings.app to house settings in an honorable intention. By providing a different home for frees the screen real estate in the application. It also implies that the default settings are the ideal settings in general. One can pick-up-and-go without fiddling with settings. This plays out nicely with applications like iPod, Phone, and the other native, out-of-box applications.

The native applications are core functionalities, but they also share across the OS and invade all applications. One can play a song in iPod with another application running. Phone is always on. Contacts shares across everywhere. This plays into the need for a one-stop shop for settings. “I want all my phone calls that come in at any time to act this way.” This is the same as setting a resolution of a personal computer screen. While some application can (and do) have app-specific resolutions, the system settings area contains the default home of resolution.

With third-party applications, we are adding an infinite possibility of what the tool is. More importantly, none have any concurrent functionality that graduates settings on a global level. Twitter doesn’t chirp in when someone Tweets. Rolando doesn’t keep rolling when I’m checking e-mail. Thus we only think and use the tool when we are using the tool itself. To place a settings into a separate bin causes a disconnect between the intention of the setting and the location. I have to travel to a separate application to change something that applies to one narrowed thing. Especially when that custom tool may have reinvented the screen interface where settings is appropriate in the screen.

I agree with the assertion that Settings.app is not a very appropriate place for almost all third-party applications. Besides the technical limits of Settings.app, we are asking the user to make specific application changes at the most general and system-wide place. It’s counter-intuitive to the user’s intentions which outweigh the analytical analysis.

I think anyone who has an iPhone, and knows what an ‘app’ is has used a computer. And anyone who has used a computer and knows that apps have ‘settings’ looks for them in the app. And the vast majority of the apps I have used on the iPhone have settings in the app, thereby setting a convention through majority.

And I was totally puzzled to find some third party app settings in the Settings.app. Threw me for a loop.

Users don’t know or care about the HIG. They just want to know where they can change their account info or background color or high scores, and if they can’t find it it’s YOUR customer service they are emailing and YOUR bad reviews they are leaving, not Apple’s.

Assuming they don’t, it’s then up to the users to decide who’s right by where they prefer (or expect) the settings.

The point holds for the iPod touch as it does for the iPhone: Almost all users of both devices come from a desktop or laptop computer.

In your opinion, settings do not go in Settings.app. In Apple’s opinion, they do, unless they are going to be accessed frequently. Since it’s the Apple iPhone, and not the Colin Barrett iPhone, your opinion doesn’t really matter.