Is V4 (based on Android 4.0/4.1), pomelo and MIUI a magnificent reincarnation or a timely work following the pace of Google Big Brother 4.0?

Prequel As mentioned in, MIUI has always been committed to creating customized system services for users of all models in the early 2.3 era. But now, unlike in the past, Xiaomi has made its own mobile phone, MiOne (Xiaomi Mobile 1). Shortly after that, Google released Android 4.0, ending 2.3. The gap between Android 2.3 and 4.0 is huge. For the MIUI team, a lot of code needs to be rewritten, and Google has also re standardized Android interaction. For the third-party ROM team, this means that almost everything needs to be rewritten.

Compared with 2.3, the development of V4 is obviously more difficult. According to the MIUI team, there are about three points.
1. Broader function set
If the function of 2.3 MIUI is A (basic system function), the workload of porting to V4 is A+B (hundreds of new functions have been added since the release). In order for users to upgrade smoothly, almost every function needs to be migrated.

2. More compact schedule
MIUI is no longer the "private team" of that year. With the release of mobile phones, the popularity of MIUI has increased, and the public's voice has become increasingly high. The expectations of users of the new version of MIUI V4 based on Android 4.0 are becoming stronger and stronger. The MIUI team must respond more quickly, and the time for sharing needs and in-depth communication with users has greatly shrunk

3. Continuous functional demands
In the process of developing V4, including after the release of V4, users' functional demands will not stop, and various user groups will put forward their own functional demands. When the product starts to take into account more people, it will not be perfect for any user group. To improve the experience of V4, it is not easy to carry out a lot of communication, persuade the team to modify the products that have been completed and released, and make these products conform to the new interaction and visual norms.

The MIUI after V4 has been patched a lot, and many interfaces have deviated from the overall design specifications. The MIUI is no longer solid and compact, and there are more and more inconsistencies and disunity. SMS, call, contact are one set, desktop, theme are one set, notes, recordings and other gadgets are one set. This has led to the split of the overall experience of MIUI. In some places, the interface and vision are inconsistent with the overall experience, in some places, the interaction mode is inconsistent with the overall experience, and in some places, the user operation process is maddening (the path is deep, or the process is bizarre), which has increased the cost of understanding and learning for users and has become accustomed to the operation behavior.

The number of MIUI teams in V4 is several times more than that in the era of 2.3. Why didn't they get the same recognition from users as in 2.3?
A brand new product is much easier to design at the beginning than the later revision. Newborn calves are not afraid of tigers. Before products existed, there were countless possibilities. The whole team focuses on users and implements the good user experience in the whole MIUI system from top to bottom. At this time, the MIUI user group is clear, the functional scope is clear, and the structure is unified. In addition, MIUI is not so well-known to outsiders. The MIUI team has enough time to optimize and adjust the performance, making 2.3 gradually become a classic. The success of 2.3 has made more people begin to notice and use MIUI, and the user group has gradually expanded. The forum has become a platform for everyone to express their opinions and seek help, and the forum has become the most concerned place of the development team. However, problems arose. In order to meet the needs of various user groups, MIUI began to add hundreds of functions, and the product began to become complex. Even members of the development team may not know what many functions are and where they are hidden. To manage and maintain this increasingly large system, the development team had to expand its staff, while the new members did not experience the complete process of MIUI design. The design concepts and principles of the 2.3 era were gradually diluted in the process of inheritance. MIUI is becoming more and more popular, forcing the development team to keep up with the pace of development, and forced to start running before they have learned to climb.

V4 has too many functions and too complex operations. It has pieced together a system with a variety of miscellaneous parts. Now it is most necessary to redesign the user experience in an overall, global and unified way. When using the system, confusion, misunderstanding, disorientation, frustration in operation, and unsmooth use are basically caused by fragmented user experience design.

However, MIUI's strength lies in its fast iterative update and relatively perfect user feedback system. MIUI V5 may bring a new experience and 2.3 MIUI style happiness.

To be continued..

For more information, please read the previous chapter

Miui's past life and present life - prequel

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