Worst experience ever

bluenote · #1 (**permalink**) 11-11-2009, 01:01 AM

This is the third time I've come back to ubook, after becoming disgusted and frustrated with its crappy looks and completely unintuitive interface.
Because each time, somebody tells me they love it, or I hear rave reviews.

The help contains phrases like "there are two arrows for forward and back, two more arrows for x and y function, and two more arrows for other functions, and they can be placed anywhere depending on what skin you are using.

WHAT?

Just describe the functionality of the skin that you start up with, ok? And specifics would be really good.

Am I a complete idiot? Is this program only for geniuses?

Is there even a library? How do you get to the settings for it?

Please, somebody point me to a sane "how to use this" so I can also take advantage of the fabled, fabled, hard to find, goodness.

thanks

cyclist · #2 (**permalink**) 11-11-2009, 06:47 AM

Which version are you using? If it's the beta for version 10, I agree that getting started is extremely hard. I gave up on it a couple of times before finally understanding.
The key is the Touch item in the overlay. Change it to Select and then your touch screen will work normally so you can set up the location of your library and whatever other settings you want, like your choice of skin. Skins do not affect the controls by the way. Then change the Touch item to pages and select the Touch item with the hand icon. This shows you what the areas of the screen do in that mode, which is the one intended for use during reading.
uBook is very hard to get started with; it definitely needs some kind of how to on start up for first users. But I too am one who says it is worth it.

µBook · #3 (**permalink**) 13-11-2009, 06:19 PM

uBook is meant to be full of options so that power-users can customize the view of the text as much as possible, which I find lacking in most readers. That being said I have tried to simpify the UI many times during the years, but never found a good compromise. Maybe 2010 will change that.

windows · #4 (**permalink**) 13-11-2009, 06:30 PM

I must admit since the new I came into being I've given up on using it, even I found it too complex

At the moment I'm using Mobipocket, which I do not like, but at least I can get at the config easily and change it in seconds.

boz · #5 (**permalink**) 13-11-2009, 09:48 PM

New version available in this thread here

:

http://www.4winmobile.com/forums/ubo...-beta-2-a.html (µBook 2010r0b -- Beta 2!)

windows · #6 (**permalink**) 13-11-2009, 10:31 PM

I know

µBook · #7 (**permalink**) 17-11-2009, 08:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by windows

I must admit since the new I came into being I've given up on using it, even I found it too complex

At the moment I'm using Mobipocket, which I do not like, but at least I can get at the config easily and change it in seconds.

Snif... Ironic and discouraging since I was trying to simplify the UI for the users. Is there a function in particular that is too complex now (like Annotations, File Open, Options, etc) ? The quick file open dialog needs still some work, but the old style browse page is still there... Same for the fonts/options.

cyclist · #8 (**permalink**) 17-11-2009, 09:38 PM

In my opinion the big problem is how to get started. I could get the overlay up, but could not work out how to set my library location or skin or anything, because I couldn't use the old settings in page mode for Touch. You need some kind of first start take the user through the settings startup, which leaves the user knowing how to use the touch methods. Have a look at what PI have done with 9.0, that gives a good get started quickly intro with 3 basic user patterns. For uBook I would have been happy to move my books or rename their folder, if only I could have used them. Took me 4 plane trips to get the hang of it.

windows · #9 (**permalink**) 18-11-2009, 07:33 AM

Agreed I think the learning curve was too great and with minimal time available for reconfiguration it was a nightmare. Plus for me not being able to tap right and left on the screen to move forward back on pages that really put me off. Centre page tapping to go back was / is not natural IMHO.

cyclist · #10 (**permalink**) 19-11-2009, 06:18 AM

It took a while to get used to, but now that I have I like the tapping layout. For me holding the device in my left hand tapping on the left side with the left thumb is the easiest movement, so having that be page forward is good. I rarely want to do page back so having that as a smaller area is fine by me.