On Back-Buttons and Such
Regarding the argument that hardware back-buttons are a good thing in Jon’s piece i linked to earlier today: Those dedicated hardware buttons on Android and Windows Phone 7 devices are a curious thing. I completely agree with them in theory and on principle (usable and useful, widely understood concept, saves valuable screen real estate), but in practice i despise them. I don’t like using them because it feels disruptive to switch from touchscreen-interaction to hardware buttons. It’s not as much a problem with the home button, because when i press that button i’m normally done with whatever task i was doing, so it’s mostly okay to disrupt my interaction flow then. But with the back-button being such an integral part of moving inside an app on Android (and presumably Windows Phone 7 as well), i find it really disruptive. Furthermore it seems to me that the back-button invites lazy interface design and is often used inconsistently.
What i would like to see in iOS instead of a dedicated hardware back-button is a system-wide gesture for that action – similar to what Apple already does on the Mac with the three-finger-swipe. In addition, i would really love to have a distinct gesture for launching the iOS multitasking bar instead of (or in addition to) that silly double-click on home button. So, please Apple, could we get multitouch gesture support in your flagship touchscreen OS that’s at least on par with multitouch gesture support in your desktop OS? That would be swell.
Interesting commentary on interface chrome in Windows Phone 7 compared to iOS by Jon Bell (via).
