What is wrong with people?
The Amazon Kindle app, which lets me read Kindle eBooks on my Android tablet, has recently (-ish) had a change made to it where the default view went from a list of everything on the device, to a carousel. Here’s a picture of a random device showing this carousel I found on Google Images:
So 30% of your screen is dedicated to advertising, 10% at the top is the menu bar, and the middle 60% is where you can browse your collection. Three books at a time. This, to put it bluntly, is fucking slow and tedious. Anyone who has more than a dozen books on there is probably going to have a worse experience than before.
There’s an option where you can view all books on your device, or all on your account, and this is far saner. The “On Device” view is a grid showing something like 20 books at a time. This is much faster and easier to browse through on a tablet. But can I set this to the default view? No. It’s not configurable in the settings. Every time you load the app it takes you to the default home screen, which is the carousel. So every time I load it, I have to switch views.
I went ahead and logged feedback about this. Here’s what I said:
i’d like to be able to adjust my default view for my home screen. the carousel has a very limited view which is frustrating and slow to browse through. i would like to change mine so it defaults to the “on device” page.
The lack of caps was because I was used to auto-capitalisation in every other app on my mobile devices, but Kindle’s app doesn’t do that. So let’s ignore yet another feature they fail at, and move on.
I got a response today, which is as follows:
Message From Customer Service
Hello,
I understand that you would like to adjust the default view for your home screen.
I’d love to help you with resolution, I would suggest you to contact us via chat or phone because it is only be possible when we assist you live, it is not possible with email procedure. By email, if I tried to help you, this will confuse you and things will be complicated to you. So, I request you please do chat or call with us, which one easy for you.
I hope you understand our limitation in this case as we’ll not be able to do live assistance in email.
I realize that at this point of time asking you to contact us again would be disappointing, however, we would really like to assist you better.
Your patience and understanding is highly appreciated in this matter. You can reach us by phone directly and toll free from many countries by clicking the Contact Us option in the right-hand column of our Kindle Support pages at:
[snip default contact response template shit]
Best regards,
Neha G
Wow, really? Wouldn’t it be easier to give someone complex instructions via electronic message? Or maybe point to a help page on your site which runs them through the procedure with some screenshots? Makes me think it’s not possible at all, and they just want to give me the run around. I doubt you do toll free from New Zealand, but even if you did, I’m not going to waste my time waiting on the end of a support queue just to talk to someone on a dodgy VoIP line from Manilla or Mumbai.
Fine, you’ve written a new feature that you think is really clever and you want to show it off. I’m not saying remove it, or go back to the old display method, I’m just saying, let me configure the default page to what I want.
This current generation of app developers (and that includes web apps) who insist on forcing users to use the apps the way they want, quite frankly is offensive. Give us some goddamn choice. We don’t all want the same thing, and we don’t all use our computers the same way.
Amazon, if you really want everybody to be using your app, then you have to make some concessions. Give us a good user experience, and we’ll be happier using your system. Force us into using a slower and more tedious interface, that blatantly only exists to up-sell to us, then well, you will find people not using your product.
This diminished user interface is completely unsatisfactory. Please add an option in your settings called “Default Home Screen” and let us pick which view we prefer. Hell, you can still waste 30% of the “On Device” screen on up-selling to me, but as long as the thumbnails allow me to see more than three damn books at a time, I’ll be happy. Well, until you add a new “feature” next revision.
Source:
http://www.oldschool.geek.nz/2013/07/03/kindle-yet-another-app-that-forces-us-into-one-restricted-interface/