[HN Gopher] iPhones and action discoverability
___________________________________________________________________
iPhones and action discoverability
Author : otras
Score : 186 points
Date : 2022-09-24 18:21 UTC (4 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (alexanderell.is)
(TXT) w3m dump (alexanderell.is)
| dawiddr wrote:
| Well, the screen estate on a mobile device is limited, so the
| number of actions that are easy to discover needs to be limited
| too - otherwise the UI would be cluttered. I find Apple good at
| balancing this. Notice how actions that he mentions are just
| quicker alternatives to stuff that one can already do in another
| way.
| yccs27 wrote:
| This seems crucial to me - most of these 'nondiscoverable'
| actions are shortcuts, and there is another discoverable way to
| achieve the same outcome. They are similar to keyboard
| shortcuts in that way, they just help power users who know
| them.
|
| (The calculator backspace seems to be an exception, which is
| why I also dislike it.)
| lcuff wrote:
| Not 'just' quicker. Easier. Less frustrating. Important
| elements. This is my experience of using the long-spacebar
| technique for placing the cursor.
|
| Digressing: An AI noticing that someone has moved the cursor
| several time without ever typing anything could pop up a "Want
| me to show you other ways to move the cursor?" dialog, and
| teach the 'hard to discover' technique. I await the day ...
| jonchang wrote:
| Sounds like a rebranding of the much-reviled Clippy.
| lcuff wrote:
| I never used Clippy. Reviled? You mean Microsoft took the
| idea of 'context appropriate useful suggestions' and
| bungled the user interface? Inconceivable!
| servercobra wrote:
| AI Clippy!
| rajeshr wrote:
| The Calculator app could suggest that I can swipe on the
| display at the top if it notices that I'm using 'C' often.
| This would not even need an AI. I wonder if there are UI
| frameworks that support the detection and suggestion of
| "better" actions?
| ncann wrote:
| That excuse doesn't hold for the calculator example, where the
| 0 button takes up 2 spaces for no good reason, and they could
| easily added a backspace button instead.
| hk__2 wrote:
| > That excuse doesn't hold for the calculator example, where
| the 0 button takes up 2 spaces for no good reason, and they
| could easily added a backspace button instead.
|
| It would be a really weird place for a backspace button and
| you would always tap on it by mistake.
| adastra22 wrote:
| The last two are pretty obvious to me. The first two are brand
| new to me and very undiscoverable though!
| amelius wrote:
| Yes, for the first two you have to think like a UI designer.
|
| Do UI designers think that everybody would be good at their
| job?
| Gigachad wrote:
| HN users think they would do better than the experts in any
| field.
| layer8 wrote:
| > Going back after opening a new Safari tab
|
| I like this feature, but what annoys me is that unlike the
| regular use of Back, you can't Forward to undo the Back in that
| situation, even in the common case that the original tab is at
| the top of the history (i.e. has no current Forward target of its
| own).
| NaOH wrote:
| >unlike the regular use of Back, you can't Forward to undo the
| Back in that situation....
|
| If you've enabled Shake To Undo in
| Settings>Accessibility>Touch, then you can undo/reopen the
| closed tab.
| layer8 wrote:
| Right, but the reopened tab doesn't restore to the previous
| scroll position as Forward does, and the tab also cannot be
| closed by Back anymore, both meaning that it isn't a true
| Undo. These are just more inconsistencies. The problem is
| that iOS is full of such smaller and bigger inconsistencies.
|
| Another thing that annoys me is when you open a new tab via
| _Look Up_ > _Search Web_ (which in a sense is quite similar
| to opening a link in a new tab), then that new tab cannot be
| closed by Back.
|
| I wish Apple would spend a year or two in streamlining all
| that stuff.
| robinson-wall wrote:
| I can forgive the URL bar swipe to change between tabs, because
| there is a visual cue that the other tabs are there - the URL
| bars of the adjacent tabs peek onto the screen.
| 1-6 wrote:
| Data centers hate this one neat trick:
|
| The best one is the kinetic (inertial) scrubbing they brought to
| videos on iOS 16. For example, open a YT video from Safari (don't
| open on the YouTube app), go full screen and the flick to scroll
| backwards and forwards! I bet we'll all consume more data as a
| result of this UI addition. I certainly use the YT mobile web
| version as a result.
| glacials wrote:
| These features aren't nondiscoverable; discovery just takes place
| outside the operating system, in communities like this one. Good
| designers know that communities are a constant of the power user
| UX just like a settings menu or instruction manual. You don't
| have to pollute the UI with hints and copy about every little
| thing because power users are their own discovery engines.
| shepherdjerred wrote:
| > Good designers know that communities are a constant of the
| power user UX
|
| Maybe power users are a part of those communities because they
| can't figure out how to use your product in the first place?
| _thisdot wrote:
| What I find most annoying in iOS UX is how much information is
| tucked behind the "Share" icon. Having to click the share button
| to access "Find on Page" is super unintuitive.
| yieldcrv wrote:
| and this keeps changing too!
|
| in Safari, things constantly switch between the Share icon, and
| the "Aa" menu in the URL bar!
| aeharding wrote:
| The share button also has actions that vary unnecessarily.
|
| For example, in SFSafariViewController there is no "add to home
| screen" button, but in actual safari there is. Despite them
| both being web view experiences controlled entirely by Apple.
|
| (And you can't detect SFSafariViewController vs Safari as a web
| app, so good luck onboarding users for your PWA.)
| dnissley wrote:
| You can also just type in the url bar to find on page (also
| super unintuitive)
| PNWChris wrote:
| To add insult to injury, sometimes the share sheet is really,
| really slow! Like several seconds with no UI feedback to
| indicate anything is going on! That's quite frustrating when I
| want to quickly invoke my password manager or search on page.
|
| I agree, the share sheet is just too confusing. Favorites
| management, my password manager, air drop, texting, find on
| page, and the kitchen sink are all in there and are quite
| undiscoverable if you don't know to look for them.
|
| To add some confusion on top of that, some features and
| extensions go in the similarly un-discoverable "aA" button in
| the URL bar, so it's not even like everything goes in the share
| sheet. That button is really tough to remember even exists
| since it goes away when you scroll.
| tomjen3 wrote:
| Agreed.
|
| Photos have an option to mark photos as hidden, so they won't
| show up in random places.
|
| Its meant to be for more sensitive photos.
|
| If you want to mark a picture as hidden, yep, its under the
| share icon.
| fizwidget wrote:
| This was thankfully fixed in iOS 16. The "hide" option is now
| in the triple-dot menu in the top right corner.
| tuukkah wrote:
| And they used to ridicule Windows for hiding Shut down in the
| Start menu...
| layer8 wrote:
| You don't have to use Share for Find on Page. Just type in the
| address bar, then "On this Page" will be the bottom option.
| Obviously, that doesn't seem to be sufficiently discoverable as
| well.
| Gigachad wrote:
| It is a general pattern that the share menu is the collection
| of everything that didn't justify its own icon.
| robocat wrote:
| Have you looked at Apple's Shortcuts App that allows some
| customisation of the share actions? e.g. that is the way to run
| JavaScript snippets in a web page on Mobile Safari (equivalent
| to javascript: bookmark urls in desktop browsers). I've only
| tried it on iPad, but I presume it works the same on iPhone (it
| would be unobvious if it didn't).
|
| The Shortcuts App is the way to access some deep and very
| unobvious functionality.
| wgx wrote:
| A factor in all of this is how familiar we get with our phones.
|
| An app or website we only use once a week or once a month needs
| to be more obvious and discoverable than the iPhone we pick up
| 100 times per day.
| at_a_remove wrote:
| I was very late to the smartphone game, transitioning somewhat
| suddenly from a Nokia to an iPhone SE. I found the
| discoverability to be against everything I was taught as a
| programmer. It really felt like I was expected to have grown up
| with the iPhone from the first generation.
|
| Worse yet, the _gestures_ ... I searched in vain for a decent
| printable sheet of the commonly used gestures, only to make my
| own set of diagrams for an iPad I tried to get my mother to use,
| leaving her with a set of laminated sheets: the green one
| detailing the parts of the iPad, the red sheet showing the
| different screens and how to get there, and finally a blue one
| with the gestures.
|
| I think iOS really needs a "Tutorial mode" app bundled with it.
| This of course requires that someone resist the temptation to
| interject with all of the bundled apps that Apple wants you to
| know about but aren't needed to do the basics. No Focus, no
| Stocks, no Apple TV ... just show me how to get around in some
| Settings, practice locking and unlocking a screen, drills for
| _all_ of the basic gestures.
| hk__2 wrote:
| > I think iOS really needs a "Tutorial mode" app bundled with
| it.
|
| Another commenter on this thread writes that there is an on-
| boarding process that was introduced with the iPhone X:
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32966383
| simonswords82 wrote:
| When I tell people about the long press spacebar feature they
| react like I've changed their (mobile) lives.
| stonegray wrote:
| The long-press spacebar wasn't even really a great design, it
| was a hack to replace an older, better feature.
|
| iPhones prior to the iPhone 11 used to be able to sense the
| pressure you touched with on the display, and a firm touch had
| a ton of neat but hard to discover user interactions, from
| previewing links in safari without opening them to preventing
| accidentally hitting the flashlight on the lockscreen on X/XS
| by requiring a bit of pressure.
|
| One of the best (imo) features was the ability to move the
| cursor in any direction by dragging firmly _anywhere on the
| keyboard_. No delay, no press and hold, just instant access to
| a cursor. The new "haptic touch" way of doing this makes it
| difficult if not impossible to scroll down, and needing to
| press and hold ensures it will always be slower.
|
| 20 second video demo of how it used to work:
| https://youtu.be/XlcCgiYF2Fs?t=25
| gnicholas wrote:
| In my experience (on an iPhone 7 Plus), the hard-press still
| involved a small delay, so the new long-tap isn't that much
| different. They may have optimized this in newer versions of
| the phone, but I jumped from a 7 to an 11 and thought it
| wasn't that bad. I didn't like the original version because
| the delay left me wondering if I'd pressed hard enough or not
| waited long enough for it to activate.
| cyral wrote:
| I really miss the haptic touch features. The flashlight one
| was particularly cool because you could instantly enable it
| by just clicking it like you'd click on an actual flashlight
| (usually the on button requires some pressure). Now it's an
| awkward half second delay that is still hard to discover and
| now feels less natural.
| romwell wrote:
| >One of the best (imo) features was the ability to move the
| cursor in any direction by dragging firmly anywhere on the
| keyboard.
|
| Must be tons of fun to use with Swipe-type input (aka Flow,
| etc)
| cyral wrote:
| You really had to press hard to get it to happen. iOS has
| also natively had swipe input for a while now (not sure if
| it was at the same time though)
| svendahlstrand wrote:
| The Back Tap feature is my favorite "hidden" action on the
| iPhone. You can double (or triple) tap the back of the phone to
| trigger whatever action you want. For example, toggle the
| flashlight or lock rotation. Show Spotlight or run a Shortcut.
|
| https://support.apple.com/guide/iphone/back-tap-iphaa57e7885...
|
| I think Apple does a decent job telling people about iOS features
| across the User Guide, Tips.app, and the Apple Support YouTube
| channel.
|
| The "undiscoverable" features in the article are all there.
|
| _Delete the last digit: If you make a mistake when you enter a
| number, swipe left or right on the display at the top._
|
| https://support.apple.com/guide/iphone/calculator-iph1ac0b5c...
|
| _Turn the onscreen keyboard into a trackpad._
|
| _1. Touch and hold the Space bar with one finger until the
| keyboard turns light gray._
|
| _2. Move the insertion point by dragging around the keyboard._
|
| https://support.apple.com/guide/iphone/type-with-the-onscree...
|
| _To access other open tabs, you can swipe left or right on the
| tab bar._
|
| https://youtu.be/30tfnCxLWSg?t=21
| inetknght wrote:
| > _The Back Tap feature is my favorite "hidden" action on the
| iPhone._
|
| Too bad it's undiscoverable. I would never have thought about
| trying to double or especially triple tab some button that
| isn't even visible for most interactions.
|
| > _I think Apple does a decent job telling people about iOS
| features across the User Guide, Tips.app, and the Apple Support
| YouTube channel._
|
| Nonsense.
|
| What "User Guide"?
|
| Tips.app? You mean that piece of trash that tells me a bunch of
| useless noise?
|
| Apple Support Youtube Channel? I have to use a competitor's
| product to learn about the iPhone?
|
| > _Delete the last digit: If you make a mistake when you enter
| a number, swipe left or right on the display at the top._
|
| So I have to move my fingers from the keyboard at the bottom of
| the screen to some imaginary place at the top of the screen?
| It's hard enough getting the damn phone to understand a
| left/right swipe instead of an up/down swipe!
| shepherdjerred wrote:
| This is a very low-effort comment that is trying to disagree
| with the parent in every way possible.
|
| I'm guessing that you just don't like Apple, which is fine,
| but the way that you're disagreeing isn't particularly
| useful.
|
| It would be constructive if you at least posted a comparison
| of how Android (or your favorite phone maker) does it better,
| or even what you'd improve.
|
| > What "User Guide"?
|
| The parent linked to it in their comment, here's the home
| page: https://support.apple.com/guide/iphone/welcome/ios
|
| > Tips.app? You mean that piece of trash that tells me a
| bunch of useless noise?
|
| The first thing I do when setting up iOS is delete the stock
| apps, including Tips.app. I just downloaded it to see what it
| actually is, and flipped through it for a few minutes.
|
| I'm not sure what useless noise you're referring to. After
| going through the app, it contains a very good list of things
| to know about using an iPhone, such as how to navigate, how
| to set up features like Medical ID and use Emergency SOS, as
| well as personalize your iPhone will wallpapers, sounds, font
| sizes, etc.
|
| Tips does a very good job of not being information overload
| -- there are 5 sections under "Get Started", with each
| section having a 5-10 short sentences about each feature. It
| also contains a link to the full iPhone User Guide.
|
| There's no upselling or suggesting that you buy some
| subscription in the app, nor any ads. I'm not sure what you
| have against this app, even someone who's had an iPhone for a
| while will probably learn one new thing after spending 5-10
| minutes in it.
|
| > Apple Support Youtube Channel? I have to use a competitor's
| product to learn about the iPhone?
|
| This is ridiculous.
|
| > So I have to move my fingers from the keyboard at the
| bottom of the screen to some imaginary place at the top of
| the screen? It's hard enough getting the damn phone to
| understand a left/right swipe instead of an up/down swipe!
|
| You're switching from the topic of discoverability to Apple
| makes poor features.
| [deleted]
| shepherdjerred wrote:
| Wow, these are great! The back tap feature seems really handy,
| and it even worked with my case on. I guess they're doing it by
| sensing phone movement/rotation rather than some sort of touch
| sensor on the back.
| joezydeco wrote:
| The accelerometer (the one that knows your phone is rotated)
| is watching in three dimensions.
|
| A tap on the back looks like a very brief acceleration on the
| axis coming out of the screen. Like a reverse free-fall.
| code_biologist wrote:
| * 2. Move the insertion point by dragging around the keyboard.*
|
| Anyone know how to go down doing this? Left, right, and up are
| all good, but I can't figure out how to go down consistently.
| The 1.5mm below the space bar is really fiddly.
| kccqzy wrote:
| What do you do when you are using a traditional laptop
| trackpad, you're dragging an item downward but your finger is
| already at the bottom of the trackpad?
|
| (Hint: the amount the cursor moves does not only depend on
| the dragged distance on the trackpad.)
|
| Now do the same thing for the on-screen virtual trackpad.
| girvo wrote:
| You don't have to keep within the keyboard once you've got
| the insertion bar thing on screen and in your control.
|
| You can whip it upwards to the top of the screen which then
| gives you the entire screen to scroll down (precisely).
| faitswulff wrote:
| I've found this to be nearly useless in practice because it
| fails to register the back taps accurately enough to be
| reliable.
| Gigachad wrote:
| Which is probably why Apple isn't pushing hard for everyone
| to know about it.
| [deleted]
| renewiltord wrote:
| What's the recording app that shows the cursor movement? The
| built in recorded only shows taps and scrolls right?
| otras wrote:
| I actually cheated and used the built-in recorder with an
| external mouse (I somehow had a USB->Lightning adapter on
| hand). You can then, in the Accessibility settings, enable an
| always visible cursor under Pointer Control, though Pointer
| Control is only visible _after_ you have the mouse plugged in.
| Ironic to have such iOS struggles for a post about iOS
| struggles...
| filoleg wrote:
| > The built in recorded only shows taps and scrolls right?
|
| Click on options in the built-in one, there is a "show mouse
| pointer" check you can click. Here is how it looks[0].
|
| 0. https://static1.makeuseofimages.com/wordpress/wp-
| content/upl...
| thih9 wrote:
| > I don't think any of these are intuitive or easily
| discoverable.
|
| Then again, perhaps they don't need to be universally intuitive /
| discoverable; i.e.: the users who need these features may
| instinctively search for them and eventually discover them.
|
| Anecdotally, I've been able to discover three out of four actions
| mentioned in the article (the fourth one was about the calculator
| app, which I don't use that often).
| culopatin wrote:
| What does anyone have to gain by making it a quest to find
| these features? It doesn't benefit the user who found them
| anyway and obviously doesn't help the user who didn't find
| them. Does it make you part of a UX VIP club to find them?
| thih9 wrote:
| The benefit is that the app ends up being simpler.
|
| The users who don't need these features don't have to know
| about them, don't have to click through tutorials, or be
| pestered by hints.
| romwell wrote:
| >The users who don't need these features don't have to know
| about them, don't have to click through tutorials, or be
| pestered by hints.
|
| Welcome to the new iCalculator!
|
| To simplify your experience, the only operator button is
| "+", which now takes half of the screen, and is therefore
| easy to find and press, _adding_ to the pleasure of using
| the calculator.
|
| You might ask, where's the "-" button? Was it stupid to
| remove it? No, it's _brave_! Don 't be so _negative_ about
| it; our UX studies show that "+" is statistically the most
| used button, and so your needs don't matter.
|
| If you need to subtract, swipe "+" button down; to
| multiply, swipe "+" right, and to divide, swipe "+" down.
| Swipe "+" up to raise to an exponent.
|
| To quickly square numbers, hold "+", then perform a
| _square_ gesture clockwise aronud the button. To take a
| square root, perform it in reverse.
|
| You may notice that we have removed the digit buttons as
| well. That's because you don't need to type the numbers in
| - just say them out loud! Swipe the screen diagonally from
| the bottom left corner to the top right one to activate
| voice input.
|
| _Note_ : digit buttons can still be enabled from the
| accessibility options in the system dialog.
|
| _Note 2_ : voice recognition of operators is coming in a
| future upgrade.
|
| To clear your input, you can simply restart the app, no
| buttons needed.
|
| _Note 3_ : you can enable a haptic shortcut in system
| acessibility settings: "Clear input by shaking phone".
|
| Finally, you can read this instruction manual by
| telepathically tuning into the lead engineer's mind, as
| it's not available anywhere else.
|
| Enjoy your intuitive iExperience!
| gnicholas wrote:
| Who has ever used a calculator and hasn't needed a
| backspace key? This is not an unnecessary feature that can
| be hidden behind an unguessable UI.
|
| I wonder if anyone knows when this gesture was introduced.
| Has it been there since the beginning? I've had an iPhone
| since the day they came out, have watched most iPhone
| announcements and WWDC keynotes, and I had no idea about
| this gesture. I wonder how many Apple Geniuses are aware of
| it.
| massysett wrote:
| I have never needed this. If I make a mistake, use the C
| button, just like old-style pocket calculators.
|
| PCalc has a backspace button, along with a bunch of other
| buttons making it more complicated than the iPhone
| calculator. It makes sense that Apple kept it simple with
| just a C/AC button.
| romwell wrote:
| >Then again, perhaps they don't need to be
|
| Yeah, who'd need a _delete_ button on calculator?
|
| Simpler is better! Long press the "+" button to access advanced
| features, like "*".
| stingraycharles wrote:
| > the users who need these features may instinctively search
| for them and eventually discover them
|
| I discovered the "space bar allows you to move the cursor
| around" hack through a friggin' TikTok video only a few weeks
| ago. My mind was blown; never did I realize I needed a feature
| this much, I always thought it was just my fat thumbs that were
| the problem.
|
| My wife was equally blown away.
|
| Some may consider me an idiot for not discovering this earlier
| or googling this, but seriously, I just never realized there
| could be a better way and was always blaming my fat thumbs. I
| just thought other people never had this problem.
|
| The discoverability of this feature sucks.
| ice3 wrote:
| I'd also add - double tapping the top of the screen to scroll to
| the top.
| jeffbee wrote:
| That, I believe, is just a single tap.
| ice3 wrote:
| Huh, I always assumed it's a double tap, and I've been using
| iPhones sines 4, but just checked and it's a single tap.
|
| Talk about action discoverability.
| janaagaard wrote:
| The article argues that blue text is obviously a clickable link,
| but that swiping from the left to navigate back isn't. While I do
| think it makes a difference that the link is visually different,
| I also think that what is affordable or discoverable is
| ultimately a subjective thing. You could argue that for anyone
| born in this millennia, swiping down to refresh is just as
| intuitive that blue text being clickable.
| knolan wrote:
| I've found watching the WWDC keynotes where they announce a new
| version of iOS or MacOS a good way to learn many of the new
| gestures and features.
|
| For your average user many of these features will remain hidden
| and I suspect that's partially by design. They want such users to
| have a simple experience.
| irrational wrote:
| Huh, I've been using an iPhone since the very first one. This is
| the first time I've ever seen any of these actions. I had no
| idea.
| arthurofbabylon wrote:
| I fail to see the flaw here. When catering to large groups of
| diverse people, I don't expect homogenous use of a product.
| Everyone should be able to find their own high-value solutions
| within a product, according to their real needs.
|
| We could call the presented paradigm needs-based discovery.
|
| It inherently means that some people won't be aware of solutions
| that benefit others - that is, until their need or exposure
| evolves. And that is okay. More than okay, it's great. To return
| to the basics... people don't like being inundated with features
| they don't want and they do like discovering solutions to
| problems.
|
| This is excellent design.
|
| Could those features be better presented? Always.
|
| The iPhone interface has an incredible array of constraints: it
| needs to serve literally every type of person on the planet.
| That's beautiful. I have huge respect for designers capable of
| connecting with such diverse stakeholders. It is masterful design
| in the most pure sense.
| iforgotpassword wrote:
| It's a little ironic how at the advent of the iPhone, the desktop
| os was mocked as being clunky and full of those things you just
| have to know, rather than being discoverable. The iPhone was
| limited and simple. And it really helped adoption of smartphones.
| Now it's assumed everybody is already familiar with smartphones
| and welcomes yet another shortcut or gesture to make usage
| quicker. Take Android and the removal of the three buttons at the
| bottom, in exchange for some gestures. Just so the interface
| looks cleaner. Imagine someone who has never used a smartphone
| before would be starting out with that. Just hand them the phone
| and see how long it takes them to return to the home screen after
| opening the first app.
|
| Not to say this is good or bad, just an observation mostly.
| mcculley wrote:
| The iPhone got some undeserved credit for being intuitive just
| because it was so limited. It did not even have copy/paste.
| Even now, it is far from obvious how to use undo (tap with
| three fingers). It's when there are many features that great
| UI/UX designers shine.
| shp0ngle wrote:
| I thought undo is "violently shake the phone"
| rejectfinite wrote:
| I still always turn on the bottom 3 button on Android phones.
| Just easier than remembering gestures.
| nightfly wrote:
| First thing I did on my new phone was put those dots back...
| jeroenhd wrote:
| I like the way Xiaomi enabled gestures on my phone. The default
| was the three button layout, with the option to switch to
| gestures. The moment you enable gestures, you get a little
| interactive tutorial on how to use them so you don't get
| confused.
| i80and wrote:
| The removal of the three dots completely throws me for a loop.
| I simply could not get the gestures to stick in my brain. And
| not to sound entitled, but... I shouldn't have to?
|
| Anyway I'm ride or die for the three dots and am pretty worried
| they'll kill off the option to bring them back.
| saiya-jin wrote:
| I don't use gestures, never had, if possible never will.
| Phone works 100% fine for me as it is (samsung s22 ultra), i
| am as efficient with it as I want and need. Whatever works
| for you is how you should use the product.
|
| Plus, lets not be pathetic with wasting life on phone, real
| life happens outside screens. Its good to keep reminding
| oneself this little truth regardless how shiny new gimmicks
| manufacturers bring to keep us glued to their products and
| ad-based services.
| nfw2 wrote:
| The actions listed in the article are fairly non-essential, but
| many fundamental iOS functions also have discoverability issues,
| as well as some head-scratching design choices. For example:
|
| - seeing notifications requires swiping down specifically from
| the top left
|
| - turning on the flashlight requires swiping down specifically
| from the top right. Swiping down from top left also gets you a
| flashlight button, but it is not actionable. The flashlight
| button on the home screen is also not actionable.
|
| - universal search requires swiping to the left of the app pages.
| Swiping past the right end of the app pages also gets you a
| search bar, but it will only show you apps
|
| - Seeing your open apps requires swiping up slowly from the
| bottom of the page.
|
| - turning the phone off requires holding two unrelated buttons
|
| Mobile UX generally is heavily-dependent on gestures, which
| inherently creates discoverability challenges, but it seems like
| Apple goes out of its way to hide every basic function behind a
| very specific swipe. It makes me wonder if they intentionally
| design their products to be exclusively usable by tech-savvy
| people.
|
| Another possible explanation is that design requires users to
| develop muscle memory over time that will improve experience in
| the long run and makes competitors feel unnatural.
| hk__2 wrote:
| > - seeing notifications requires swiping down specifically
| from the top left
|
| Not really, swiping from anywhere on the top (except top-right)
| works. This is consistent with the other gestures: swipe up
| from the lock screen to unlock it (just like you would open a
| roller shutter); swipe down to lock it again -- and see the
| notifications. You can also simply hit the side button.
|
| > - turning on the flashlight requires swiping down
| specifically from the top right
|
| You can turn it on from the lock screen, as others have pointed
| out.
|
| > - turning the phone off requires holding two unrelated
| buttons
|
| Yes, so that you don't turn it off by mistake. Smartphones are
| not devices you turn on and off; outside of OS updates they
| stay on forever.
|
| > It makes me wonder if they intentionally design their
| products to be exclusively usable by tech-savvy people.
|
| I would say the opposite. When I think of tech-savy people, I
| think about mouse and keyboard; when I think of non-tech-savy
| ones, I think about tactile displays and gestures (and voice).
|
| My 92-yo grandfather barely knows how to make his printer work
| but has no trouble remembering the most common swipe gestures:
| it's hard to forget about pinch to zoom or swipe down to
| 'close' the phone and swipe up to 'open' it again.
| fiddlerwoaroof wrote:
| > The flashlight button on the home screen is also not
| actionable.
|
| The button is actionable, it just takes a long press to avoid
| accidental activation.
| romwell wrote:
| Great, add that to the list of undiscoverable and incoherent
| design choices in the OP's comment.
| mmiyer wrote:
| All those flashlight buttons are actionable, you just need to
| press and hold. I suppose this proves a point about
| discoverability.
| ceeplusplus wrote:
| I think many of these are inherently poweruser features though.
| Most non tech-savvy people will rarely have to turn off their
| phone or clear their open apps (really if the memory eviction
| system is good this shouldn't even be a concern).
|
| Some of the other stuff you mentioned is discoverable in my
| opinion. Swiping down from home gives you a search bar.
| Notifications being accessible by swiping down from the left is
| admittedly not as good as swiping down from the top bar in the
| older iPhones, but I think still more discoverable than the
| Windows notification system that requires you to click a
| button.
| layer8 wrote:
| From time to time you need to reboot the phone to get some
| nonworking app or system function unstuck. I regularly have
| to guide family members to reboot their phone or tablet, and
| have to google each time which button combination has to be
| pressed on the particular iPhone or iPad model.
| nfw2 wrote:
| Turning off the phone is useful if you are low on power and
| don't have a way to charge. I do this sometimes when
| traveling or in the city.
|
| When I go through open apps, it is usually to get back to
| something I was doing, rather than to clear it. Finding what
| you were just looking at 2 seconds ago shouldn't be
| considered a power user feature.
| JKCalhoun wrote:
| I suspect that designers are tasked with too many features on
| too small of a device. On a desktop with a mouse + keyboard
| there is a potential for so many shortcuts ... you have to get
| much more creative on a touch-only device.
|
| I don't endorse it however. I think pop-up menus (even the much
| maligned hamburger) are at least a way to make many more
| features discoverable. I dislike "gestures".
| Gigachad wrote:
| I think this constraint actually created some of the best UI
| ever. Desktop designers had gotten lazy and just stacked tool
| bar over tool bar and then sidebars too with hundreds of
| icons everywhere.
|
| Was it really more discoverable to have the icon always on
| screen but embedded among so many other useless icons?
| dagmx wrote:
| Did you perhaps skip the on-boarding process? A lot of what you
| mention has been part of the Getting to know your iPhone on-
| boarding since they were introduced on the iPhone X.
| Specifically where to pull down from and pull up from.
|
| I'm not sure what you mean by the flashlight not being
| actionable. Notification shade/Lock Screen buttons are long
| press actions to prevent accidental activation.
|
| On iOS 16 there's now a button on the launcher to invoke search
| in case people want to avoid swiping
|
| You say they design their products to be used by tech savvy
| people but gestural design is designed to become intuitive
| after the first tutorial. Indeed the only people I know who
| struggle with it are tech savvy people who skip the on-
| boarding. In much the same way that people who think they're
| handy disregard ikea instructions etc
|
| Here's a talk on the thought process behind a lot of their
| "fluid" design https://developer.apple.com/wwdc18/803
| nfw2 wrote:
| I am not talking about myself personally. Users like my mom,
| who have trouble navigating AirBnb, are going to have trouble
| remembering 8 different swipe actions, even if they go
| through a tutorial. A designer needs to anticipate users
| skipping tutorials or just forgetting them. A tutorial is not
| an alternative to usable design.
| dagmx wrote:
| You're now conflating usability with discoverability which
| are very different things.
|
| Many very usable actions are left to intuition and
| discovered as such or by on-boarding.
|
| Pinch to zoom is a classic example.
|
| The swipe to dismiss gesture is very usable once it's
| discovered. iOS does a very good job at training people
| that actions from the edge of their device do things. It's
| fundamental to the design of the OS and has been so since
| day one.
|
| I also feel like comparing navigating an app with its own
| unique idiosyncrasies that you do so sporadically to
| navigating an OS daily are very different orders of
| magnitude on developing muscle memory.
|
| Anyway I think you're arguing very different aspect of UX
| design
| egypturnash wrote:
| I've been using iOS devices for years and getting what I want
| when I swipe down is a constant roll of the dice. Did I do it
| in the ambiguous zone for the control center or did I do it
| where I'll get recent notifications? Oh wait if I'm on my
| phone instead of my tablet I need to swipe up for the control
| center. Why it needs to be different on the tablets I've
| never really known, it used to be from the bottom and it was
| really nice for it to be consistent. Maddening.
| glandium wrote:
| > Did you perhaps skip the on-boarding process?
|
| I don't know how it is in other countries, but here in Japan,
| when you buy a phone in a mobile carrier shop, they set it up
| for you, which means any on-boarding that exists on the phone
| OS is skipped entirely.
| vavooom wrote:
| "Using the spacebar as textbox navigation" is life altering as a
| rabid Notes user.
| comex wrote:
| I found swiping on the Safari URL bar to switch between tabs a
| bit _too_ "discoverable": I was constantly performing it by
| accident when trying to switch between apps. I quickly switched
| back to "Single Tab" mode in settings.
| shp0ngle wrote:
| one thing I discovered just now, four years after switching to
| iPhone:
|
| you can actually tap and drag the scrollbar! You need to find the
| correct time for it to appear, and you need to tap it _just
| right_ - not too much on the top or on the bottom. And then you
| can very quickly go up or down, without stupid scrolling like
| idiot.
|
| Very useful if you want to scroll more quickly. Scroll like it's
| 1998!
| scary-size wrote:
| Took me two years to learn that I can hit the volume down button
| to trigger the camera...
| knolan wrote:
| In fairness this has been around since feature phones.
| wolpoli wrote:
| Sounds like they could help by putting an icon next to the
| volume down button.
| yakubin wrote:
| My least favourite "feature" of iOS now is shake-to-undo. I've
| never triggered it intentionally. It's too weird of a thing to
| remember when I actually want to do it. It would also feel
| ridiculous even if I remembered it. The only times I trigger it,
| it's by accident, and then I need to cancel it.
| svendahlstrand wrote:
| You should turn it off then. :) Search for shake in the
| Settings app.
| nicoburns wrote:
| On the contrary it's one of my favourite iOS features. If
| you're writing any volume of text on mobile it's super useful
| to undo accidental mistakes. Android just doesn't have undo at
| all and your text is gone. Probably would be better as a long
| press menu option though.
| layer8 wrote:
| I actually use that quite frequently, because it's often
| quicker than the equivalent text editing operations. You can
| turn it off in _Settings_ > _Accessibility_ > _Touch_ > _Shake
| to Undo_.
| easton wrote:
| The one that bugs me sometimes is shake to send feedback,
| because the feedback form isn't useful whenever I trigger it by
| accident. The funniest implementation is Microsoft Teams, where
| if you shake it pops up a feedback form that then says you
| can't send feedback because it can only be sent via Mail.app,
| not Outlook (you know, the Microsoft email client that your IT
| department makes you use instead of Mail.app?).
| hs86 wrote:
| I moved to iOS over a year ago after using Android exclusively,
| and I agree that this was a discoverability downgrade. Editing
| text with various multi-finger gestures, shaking the device, or
| even putting the entire Photos app into a different mode to
| select multiple items are outright downgrades to what Android
| does.
|
| The iPhone innovated finger-touch-based on-screen keyboards while
| everyone else was still typing with a stylus on a tiny keyboard,
| but since then, they seem to stagnate. iOS 16 just got haptic
| feedback on its keyboard in 2022(!), and I am still making more
| typing errors compared to Android with Gboard.
| shepherdjerred wrote:
| > iOS 16 just got haptic feedback on its keyboard in 2022
|
| Wow thanks for letting me know. I finally have haptics again
| after switching to an iPhone 6 years ago.
|
| I totally agree with iOS having a worse typing experience. On
| Android with Gboard I could swipe/type extremely quickly with
| few errors. On iOS I make a mistake every few works, and the
| swipe accuracy is significantly worse.
|
| I know that there is Gboard with iOS, but I've had a lot of
| trouble with custom keyboards on iOS, so I've given up.
| skizm wrote:
| > Editing text with various multi-finger gestures
|
| What multi-finger text editing gestures am I missing out on?
| svendahlstrand wrote:
| Undo and redo:
|
| _Undo the last edit: Swipe left with three fingers, then tap
| Undo at the top of the screen._
|
| _Redo the last edit: Swipe right with three fingers, then
| tap Redo at the top of the screen._
|
| https://support.apple.com/guide/iphone/type-with-the-
| onscree...
| dangus wrote:
| Discoverability isn't important to shortcut functionality like
| this.
|
| You don't have to navigate text with the spacebar, you can touch
| the text directly and touch and hold.
|
| You don't have to delete numbers in the calculator, you can hit C
| to clear the current number and retype it (a lot of people think
| that doing this will totally clear your operation, which isn't
| true: C is different than AC).
|
| You can hit the tabs button in Safari to switch between tabs,
| swiping the address bar is a shortcut.
|
| I would also argue that the safari address bar swipe is very
| discoverable. You can see the next tab's address bar on the side
| of the interface, so it's implied you can scroll to it.
|
| Basically, an analogy to this argument is that the author of this
| article should be telling us that keyboard shortcuts should be
| banished because they're not discoverable.
|
| Also, I don't think discoverability is the same on touch screens
| as in desktop operating systems. Nobody complains about the
| discoverability of pinch to zoom or tap and hold because it's so
| obvious and intuitive. On the desktop, drag and drop is a similar
| feature that could be seen to be not so discoverable.
| crazygringo wrote:
| It's funny how I've witnessed a complete 180deg change from how,
| in the 1990's, software was supposed to be entirely discoverable
| and it also came with a manual that documented literally
| everything, to now there's a ton that's hidden, often without any
| manual whatsoever... but you can Google everything you need to
| know.
|
| Probably the single most useful skill I've had to learn in my
| life is, whenever you wonder something, just Google it. If you
| don't think your software does X... don't just assume it. Look it
| up.
|
| I've been astonished at how often a feature was added 3 years ago
| to a program I've used for 8 years, or there's a secret swipe
| that avoids a bunch of menus, or an unofficial command-line flag.
|
| And it really leaves me feeling deeply conflicted. Because on the
| one hand, I still believe in the virtue of learning your tools
| inside and out. I would read the manual and be proud I knew
| exactly what every program/language could and couldn't do. But on
| the other hand, is that really just a waste of time? Programs
| have _so_ many features now, that instead of learning all the
| things via discoverability or a manual, we just learn them by...
| querying how to do things when we need them.
|
| I don't really like the idea of so fundamentally relying on
| Google and forums and tutorials and Reddit and YouTube videos as
| the main way of learning how to use software. But at the same
| time, software does so much now and adds new things so quickly
| that it appears to be the only reasonable way.
| WalterBright wrote:
| I still can't find a list of all the command key shortcuts for
| Windows. Googling it yields lots of pages of partial lists.
| thih9 wrote:
| > also came with a manual that documented literally everything
|
| Note that iPhones have a manual too, it's easy to navigate and
| quite comprehensive. E.g. here's a page that describes the
| "trackpad" action: https://support.apple.com/en-
| gb/guide/iphone/iph3c50f96e/16.... .
| Ankaios wrote:
| Even the manual itself isn't discoverable. (At least I don't
| see an obvious entry to it in the iOS UI.)
| judge2020 wrote:
| The "Tips" app has the User Guide available interactively
| with full Table Of Contents & search functionality. There
| are also more tutorial-esque articles for things like 'open
| control center' or 'take a screenshot'.
|
| https://support.apple.com/en-
| gb/guide/iphone/iph3afc3b3fc/16...
| [deleted]
| agumonkey wrote:
| This pattern is quite global. Everything is "more available"
| now, real time streamed, there's no apparent need for apriori
| organization since we can correct on the fly. Or so it seems.
|
| Games are patched live, browser in constant update etc etc
| bobbyi wrote:
| In the 1990s, plenty of people felt obligated to drive to the
| mall, walk into B Dalton, and purchase a 300 page book to learn
| how to use their new software. There was a whole section for
| it.
|
| Today, they can find the equivalent information for free
| without leaving the device where the software is running.
| JKCalhoun wrote:
| Hard to say though if those books were in fact published by
| opportunists that surmised (correctly) that there was an
| audience out there that were either intimidated by the
| software manual (or assumed they would be without actually
| trying to read it) or who had pirated the software and so had
| no manual.
| layer8 wrote:
| > we just learn them by... querying how to do things when we
| need them.
|
| The problem with this is that you don't learn any new features
| that you wouldn't have come up with on your own.
|
| I loved reading the well-written manuals and "on-line"
| (integrated into the software) help of the 90s (and 80s) that
| explained all the concepts and features of the particular
| software. You'd learn a ton of new ideas and possibilities. It
| was really fun and exciting, and it gave you the perception of
| a well-designed and well thought-out whole. You built up a
| consistent mental model of the software, and you thus ended up
| with the feeling of mastery and control over the software.
|
| Nowadays it feels more like poking the software with a stick in
| an attempt to build a mental model and discover its
| capabilities by trial and error, often remaining in doubt about
| the actual intent of how exactly things are supposed to work.
| [deleted]
| culi wrote:
| As annoying as they can sometimes be, the little tips that
| pop up every now with "Hey did you know you can do this?" are
| a neat little solution to this. Really like the unobtrusive
| ones like the GitHub "ProTip!" at the bottom of the pull
| requests page
|
| It does get a bit ridiculous though. There's entire sites and
| content creators focused solely on VS Code tips. At what
| point are we gonna end up with engineers working on adding a
| feature to VS Code that they didn't know already existed?
| thih9 wrote:
| I feel like I'm reading more manuals than ever. Libraries,
| CLI tools and other specialized software have well written
| and very useful docs. Same with pro camera software, music
| gear software, and more.
|
| For "consumer" software I usually don't need manuals, I can
| find what I need via poking; this often includes power user
| features (when I use something sufficiently often).
|
| Is it possible that what you're feeling is nostalgia? Have
| you actually read the manual for your phone?
| layer8 wrote:
| > Have you actually read the manual for your phone?
|
| I have, and it's abysmal, because it doesn't make any
| attempt at explaining anything on a conceptual level, or
| even explaining basic UI elements. It doesn't teach you how
| to interpret what you see on the screen. It does the bare
| minimum of enumerating the steps to activate a given
| feature, presuming that you are able to match those
| descriptions to what you see on the screen (there are
| barely any screenshots) and that you know why you would
| want to use that feature in the first place. It also
| doesn't address any failure modes, and doesn't discuss
| relevant considerations regarding the use of the given
| feature.
| thih9 wrote:
| I see your point better now, thanks for explaining. That
| makes sense.
|
| Then again, today's smartphone operating systems are as
| popular as home appliances in the 90s.
|
| Maybe if we took something modern that is as niche as
| software in the 90s then it might come with a manual with
| a mental model too.
| layer8 wrote:
| Home appliances also used to come with detailed and easy-
| to-understand manuals, and mostly don't anymore. It's
| mainly that manufacturers stopped caring, due to
| accelerated product cycles and globalization, because the
| products sell regardless.
| thewebcount wrote:
| I recently bought a new washing machine. It has a mode
| with an odd name that turns out to be tied to a cleaning
| product from another company. The manual doesn't have any
| information on what the mode does or why it exists. The
| manual is a generic manual for like 5 or 10 models, and
| seems to only include the functions common to them all.
| Any function on a higher-end model that's not included on
| the lower-end model is just not documented. I guess if
| you want to use those, you're on your own.
|
| But of course, there's a phone app you can download and
| give the company a bunch of personal information to
| connect your washer to your home network so you can get
| notification when it's done with its cycle.
| teddyh wrote:
| There was a book series called "The Missing Manual - The
| book that should have been in the box(r)":
|
| https://www.oreilly.com/search/?query=missing+manual&form
| ats...
| [deleted]
| numpad0 wrote:
| Those manuals from good old times came with introductions
| and basic training chapters. Manuals for music gear
| software don't come with composition crash course, do they?
| In 80s and 90s they would have.
| 1-6 wrote:
| I actually miss picking up books like the Macintosh Bible where
| you can read through UI features. There was something fun about
| reading and then trying it in front of the keyboard.
| Gigachad wrote:
| Apple actually does have an extensive and up to date manual on
| their products which includes all those obscure convenience
| features. I don't think much has really changed in this regard.
| The manual exists, is very easy to read and understand, but
| people don't care because they get by without it just fine.
| toast0 wrote:
| > but you can Google everything you need to know.
|
| It's hard to Google things you don't know exist. And it's hard
| to Google things that changed. If you've ever had a problem on
| macos, Googling is only useful if the problem is new; if it's
| been an issue in older versions, you're going to find all those
| questions and maybe some answers but they likely don't apply
| because Apple broke it differently now. Other vendors are not
| immune to this either, of course. I understand Apple actually
| does have manuals, they just don't print them and if they
| reference them, many people (including me) never noticed.
| jonas21 wrote:
| Have you tried googling "iphone manual"? The first result is
| the iPhone User Guide [1], which is a comprehensive manual that
| does document literally everything.
|
| The manual is also available as an 843-page ebook [2], and is
| accessible via the Tips app, which is preinstalled on the home
| screen.
|
| It's not quite like the days when a paper manual would be right
| in the box, but it's close. And I think most people would be
| unhappy if their sleek new phone came with an 843-page tome
| (not to mention how much paper that would waste).
|
| [1] https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guide/iphone/welcome/ios
|
| [2] https://books.apple.com/book/id6443146864
| mdemare wrote:
| > The manual is also available as an 843-page ebook [2], and
| is accessible via the Tips app, which is preinstalled on the
| home screen.
|
| I didn't know that. I thought Tips was an app that gave you a
| couple of dozens of tips, and nothing else.
| morsch wrote:
| Macs in the 90s, so System 6, 7 and 8, were full of hidden
| stuff. Clicking stuff while holding option, you would discover
| all kinds of interesting features and easter eggs.
|
| https://wiki.preterhuman.net/The_Macintosh/Newton_Easter_Egg...
| mrkwse wrote:
| I think the swiping back on new tab feature is a very well
| thought out piece of UX.
|
| If a user taps a link that is set to open in a new window/tab,
| while the bottom/top (depending on user config) URL bar does
| animate to show the transition, the user may still expect to be
| able to navigate back to where they came from (especially in such
| a case where they haven't deliberately made the decision to open
| in a new tab).
|
| I'd argue it would be worse UX for the back swipe to not navigate
| to the previous page in such circumstances than that it does but
| closes the tab (which is reasonably signalled by the URL bar
| animation).
| vidanay wrote:
| I've been an Android user since day 1 and had never used an
| iPhone until about a year ago when my company replaced my work
| phone (Android) with an iPhone. It took me two months before I
| realized there is a difference between swiping down from the top
| on the left and swiping down from the top on the right.
|
| I don't think Android is necessarily better though - I simply
| have more experience with it.
| Gigachad wrote:
| I remember that top swipe situation being the same on my Nexus
| 7 (2012)
| cjohansson wrote:
| I would say most people don't know 90% of how to use the iOS
| interface but ppl are in general not interested in learning it
| and wouldn't read a manual if the box included one or even watch
| videos of it. People just what Apple to read their minds, to get
| their stuff done in as little effort as possible and people are
| willing to pay a lot of money for that experience
| theptip wrote:
| This drives me mad too. However, not sure it's the end of the
| world. In many cases these are extra shortcuts, analogous to key
| bindings. Power users are (should be?) aware of the existence of
| such things and look them up. It's hard to make keyboard
| shortcuts discoverable (though IntelliJ does a good job).
|
| I think it's extremely problematic when these are core UI actions
| instead of shortcuts. Manipulating long form text is quite
| annoying without the space-bar trick for example. Hard to see how
| you'd make that discoverable though. (An interesting UX thought
| experiment!)
| Gigachad wrote:
| The space bar trick is clearly explained in the iOS manual.
| Probably even in the Tips app too. At some point there is just
| no way to get people to know every feature short of forcing
| them to read the manual and locking the phone with a quiz on it
| at the end.
| traeregan wrote:
| Where I work we've been developing mobile apps since the first
| iPhone, and we still have these "How the hell was I supposed to
| know?" moments quite often.
|
| A couple of my friends who don't work in tech. are sort-of
| hobbyist iOS fanboys, and they always get a kick out of it when
| they show me some feature or gesture that I wasn't familiar with.
| jwalton wrote:
| My favourite is the "double tap with three fingers to zoom in the
| display". This happened to me by accident while my phone is in my
| pocket. The first time it happened, I had to borrow someone
| else's phone to look up how to undo it.
| carom wrote:
| I do find myself regularly saying things like -
|
| >Ah yes, the three finger force press double tap right swipe, of
| course.
|
| What bothers me about these is how non technical people who don't
| search will never find them. On the other hand, it might be good
| to have things hidden so someone non technical can't get their
| phone into a bad state.
| gayn1gga wrote:
| jonplackett wrote:
| Shake to undo a - surely the weirdness iPhone design decision.
| baggy_trough wrote:
| Worse than undiscoverable features are landmine features where an
| accidental gesture triggers some huge mode change that can't
| easily be reverted.
| armchairhacker wrote:
| these features may be hard to discover but they are all really
| useful. Imagine if Apple just didn't add include because they
| couldn't find any way to do so intuitively. And once you know
| them, they're not complex or hard to use.
|
| "Intuitive and easy" > "unintuitive and easy" > "intuitive and
| hard" > "unintuitive and hard" > "non-existent"
| doe88 wrote:
| Is there a guide / (giant) cheatsheet of all these hidden
| features, collected somewhere? It would be a great ressource.
| sbuk wrote:
| There's the user guide...
| koinedad wrote:
| Yeah it's hard! Kind of the flip side but related to the text
| navigation: https://technicallychallenged.substack.com/p/my-
| favorite-iph...
| allanrbo wrote:
| I used iPhone 2008-2012, Windows Phone 2012-2015, Android
| 2015-2022, and then recently bought an iPhone again to see what
| it's like these days.
|
| I was baffled by how unintuitive it has become. So many "secret
| codes" you need to know these days to use an iPhone. Swiping down
| from the top on the left or the right bring you different
| dashboards? Swiping up from the bottom and hold to switch between
| tasks? How is anyone supposed to guess guess this stuff?
| Gigachad wrote:
| They could read the onboarding steps you are forced to click
| through when you set up the phone. Or the "Tips" app that comes
| preinstalled. Or even the full and extensive manual on iOS.
| jbverschoor wrote:
| While I also hate the "undescoverability". It's possible that all
| (maybe not all) usecases of an app are still available to
| anything visible. For older or less tech interested people, this
| is actually perfect.
|
| The problem lies in the following cases:
|
| 1) Person accidentally does something
|
| 2) Edge case / state / scenario, which cannot be solved without
| knowing some shortcuts.
|
| I think iOS became too complicated for some people. At the same
| time the UI is a pretty messy and inconsistent at times.
| djmcnab wrote:
| In unfamiliar UIs, I often find myself accidentally triggering
| keyboard shortcuts and getting into weird states, so 1) leading
| to 2). A classic example is changing into override mode[0] in
| Microsoft Word or similar[1].
|
| You end up in a mode where typing no longer adds characters,
| but replaces them. If you're at the end of the document, it
| would still add characers, but you stay in override mode.
| Meaning that once you're in this mode, it doesn't strike until
| you start editing or try to fix a typo, when the computer.
| WordPad doesn't even have any visual distinction.
|
| Visual Studio Code's solution to this is nice. If you enter
| `Tab Moves Focus` mode, with <kbd>Ctrl</kbd>+<kbd>M</kbd>, the
| info bar shows the text `Tab Moves Focus` in a (tastefully)
| highlighted button, clicking which disables that mode. So you
| will have a moment of confusion upon pressing tab,
| inadvertently entering the mode, however the situation of 2) is
| avoided as a helping hand is visible.
|
| Perhaps another UI is to have a log of activated keyboard
| shortcuts always visible, with 'new' shortcuts highlighted more
| obviously (perhaps with some estimation of decaying
| familiarity). I'm not familiar with this being implemented
| anywhere, but I think it at least merits consideration.
|
| [0] This is activated with <kbd>Insert</kbd>;
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insert_key [1] In the version of
| Word I currently have installed, this behaviour seems to be
| disabled/removed. However, Wordpad still changes into override
| mode upon pressing Insert.
| layer8 wrote:
| The other problem is the flat design which makes it non-obvious
| which parts of the UI are tappable controls and which are just
| read-only design elements or indicators or labels.
|
| Another issue is inconsistent placement. For example during
| iPhone setup, sometimes you have Continue buttons centered in
| the bottom half of the screen, and sometimes you have to tap
| the small "Next" label at the top right of the screen. I've had
| family members get stuck in that process because the Next
| button was so inconspicuous and so far removed from the main
| elements of the current dialog that it was completely unclear
| to them how to move forward.
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