Moving touch wrongly interpreted as tap-and-hold in Launcher
asked 2014-03-22 09:54:17 +0200
In the Launcher, sliding your finger in an empty area can be interpreted as a tap-and-hold gesture.
How to reproduce: 1. Have your last app launcher page not full, so there is some empty space on the bottom. 2. Move your finger starting from this empty area either up (so that the icons fade to indicate that there are no more pages) or sideways. 3. The launcher will enter delete/rearrange apps mode.
When sliding your finger on top of app icons, this doesn’t happen – you need to hold your finger still to invoke the delete/rearrange mode. I think this should be the case also in the empty area. (Edit: This can also happen when touching and moving on top of icons, but it's harder to reproduce – I think it depends on where exactly the touch starts: right on top of an icon or in the space between them.)
You can also see this behavior on the Home screen (moving your finger in blank area will activate ”close apps” mode).
There's discussion below on whether this is a bug or not. To me that is not so important; the point is that this behaviour, intended or not, should be changed. Reasons:
- It creates confusion between gestures: When you're trying to scroll down from the last app screen, you'll enter edit mode instead. That is, you're doing a drag/scroll/swipe gesture, but it is interpreted as a tap and hold. You're trying to do one thing, but something else happens. So, it produces accidental actions. This could be easily avoided if tap-and-hold was activated only when holding your finger still (with some tolerance for accidental movement).
- I see no practical benefits in the way it works now; no-one needs to use it this way on purpose (activating tap and hold by moving one's finger around). (Ok, that's a guess. I can't be sure what other users do.) Everyone knows that tap and hold is by definition "hold your finger still on the screen". So no harm done by changing it.
I am also confused by this behavior
Awiecierz ( 2014-03-22 11:21:03 +0200 )editMe too, i ve this problem.
Claudio Maradonna ( 2015-01-03 02:03:39 +0200 )editProbably not the best possible way to try to give more credit to a personal opinion by stating that "no-one needs to use it like that on purpose" ;) This is a user forum, and there are varying UX conventions and UI designs that some like to use and find them beneficial or non-problematic while others might feel diffrently.
foss4ever ( 2015-01-03 21:31:12 +0200 )edit@jjaone, like I said, it's my guess; but you're right, such vague claim isn't a strong argument. However, I do believe that this kind of gesture is simply not needed, and removing it would reduce confusion and accidental actions. And yes, that's my opinion, and others might feel differently. :)
No-one knows (sic) each and every user's needs. That's why generalizations must be made if one wants to say anything about ”what users need”. And you can go wrong with generalizations, I admit that.
ssahla ( 2015-01-03 22:25:18 +0200 )edit@ssahla Guessing is not a very good argument either (atleast UI shouldn't be redesigned based on your guess-work only), and personal opinions should not be made or claimed to be generalized or universal facts ;)
foss4ever ( 2015-01-03 23:18:56 +0200 )edit