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When I was user testing, my test subjects would often have typos (which is fine), then iOS's usual "spell check" pops up with the right word intended, and I found people clicking it to implement what they want, however, on clicking it, it closes it out. They then let out a sigh of frustration.

I found myself doing that too, and often, even though I know tapping it will close it out and "ignore" the change. The change happens only if you continue typing (which also makes it frustrating for me when I'm speaking another language through text. It auto corrects my correctly typed word).

So my question: Does anyone know what was their reason behind implementing this even though it seems contrary to what they were trying to do? (Note: Maybe this was what they were trying to do, and if so, what was their findings?)

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It's not very good UX, because Apple's goal is to make devices that behave exactly how you'd expect, and as you've stated in your question most people don't expect it to work that way.

Matter of fact, there is a common prank where you set autocorrect shortcuts that replace common phrases with embarrassing or weird ones. And as you type, your phone automatically replaces them. This can be especially annoying because while you type messages in iOS, if you hit "send" it'll auto-correct your last word right before it sends (or at least it used to when I had an iPhone, not sure if they've changed it).

It would be more intuitive if tapping on the popup corrects the word, and continuing to type doesn't change what you already wrote. This assumes that the user knows what they're doing and leaves them alone rather than distracting them by having to undo auto-correct.

Though, I'm sure a company like Apple had their reasons, even if it's just "Steve Jobs said so" as DA01 said :)

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Does anyone know what was their reason behind implementing this even though it seems contrary to what they were trying to do?

Probably. But we'd have to ask Apple that question. It may have very well been because Steve Jobs or Tim Cook "said so".

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  • I don't buy it. Usually a company like Apple is know to have good UX (most of the time). Just do it, doesn't normally come from companies like that without a valid reason.
    – UXerUIer
    Aug 27, 2015 at 19:14
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    @Majo0od actually, that's often how things did end up the way they ended up at Apple: Steve Jobs wanted it that way (which, at Apple was a valid reason. :)
    – DA01
    Aug 27, 2015 at 19:59
  • Oh man, that's so true, plus one for that comment!
    – UXerUIer
    Aug 27, 2015 at 20:49

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