Another rant about usability of the mobile app

I really don’t want to continue to be critical of the design of the ST mobile app but every time I need to do something beyond adding a new device I am faced with the frustration of having to decipher the illogical layout of the app. Here are some examples.

  1. Adding (or trying to add) new rules. Let’s say you have an existing device that you want to add a new… routine(?) to… logically you would expect to go to the device and see in the options “add new smartapp” or “rule” or something similar. No. You have to know to go to the Marketplace. Marketplace? Why would ANYONE think to go to the marketplace to add a rule to a device such as a notification that it is on. This is senseless. So senseless that even after having to do this a month ago I’ve already had to research how to do so again. Unitive design of an application and workflow should be the rule NOT design based on principle or some other strange decisions.
  2. No landscape mode is pretty much unforgivable. I guess SmartThings is never ever meant to be used on a wall mounted tablet? No one at SmarThings has ever done this or seen it done?
  3. Things. Where are my “lights” and “sensors”??? Why am I forced to go through a list of all of my devices to find a specific device that could easily be in a type like it was before?
  4. Dashboard. Why after all this time does my “Dashboard” have ONE item? This issue has been raised over and over again. A dashboard is meant to display an overview of the system status with some level of detail! To top it off it’s the first thing I see when I open the app!

There’s a lot more issues and what is so frustrating is that for some reason it appears either that ST doesn’t care what the community thinks or are so prideful that they refuse to acknowledge these glaring issues, and others. If ST expects to succeed in this market and maintain a lead position they MUST correct these and other related issues and put usability first, not personal pride, and drop the “not created here” mentality that seems to exist.

The SmartThings platform is an awesome achievement, I don’t know what I’d do without it. That said I can assure you that if a company was to release a similarly capable platform for a similar price I would jump ship immediately to gain improvements in these areas.

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Customers sure have. But we got tired of begging for the obvious and produced SmartTiles instead.

http://SmartTiles.click

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I’m right now looking into SmartTiles and alternatives. Haven’t used it in a while but going to give it another go.

My main issue with SmartTiles is that it’s not a tool, it can’t (to my knowledge) be used to modify settings and such (like create new rules, etc). I may be wrong.

For a tablet display it’s probably going to be perfect. But as for overall usability I keep hoping that the squeaky wheel get’s the grease but I’m not hopeful given how long this has gone on.

Thanks for the relink tgauchat.

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Correct… SmartTiles is focused on simplifying everyday usage & monitoring rather than configuring automations. Private message me for a V5.5 Beta invite.

Maybe someday it will expand into configuration, but that’s why we support our siblings in crime… SmartRules (@obycode), SharpTools (@joshua_lyon), and others.

We’re limited by the APIs of SmartThings, which are slowly improving.

Guess we’re making lemonade from this lemon. :lemon:

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There are several third-party apps which helps fill some of the gaps in the official mobile app. They may be complementary, not necessarily competing. See the following:

FAQ: For those that are no good with coding? (Dashboards and Rules Engines) (SmartThings Classic)

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Oh, phleeesee. You take your marketing “job” a bit too seriously, no? SmartTiles is not a replacement for the mobile app and this thread is not about SmartTiles.

Maybe not, but at least SOMEONE is listening to ST users. ST sure as heck isn’t.

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