HowTo and ideas: Multi-touch gestures

asked 2014-03-27 18:29:02 +0300

This post is a wiki. Anyone with karma >75 is welcome to improve it.

updated 2014-07-30 16:46:52 +0300

jiit

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admin

Purpose of this thread

According to specs, the Jolla handset has a 5 point multi-touch display. So far, there seems to be a single multi-touch gesture implemented. We do not know, whether Jolla intends to provide more gestures, it is not easy, to invent good gestures:

They must be "natural" in terms of the function they trigger.
They must be easily remembered.
Each of them must be sufficiently distinctive to other gestures.
The individual gestures must make up a nice bunch of flowers.
When implemented on operating system level, they must be working system wide.

How to contribute to this thread

I do not know, when Jolla staff may have time to code for new gestures. Nonetheless, this thread should serve as:

A list of the multi-touch gestures already implemented.
Each function (or function groups) and its corresponding gestures should be described in an answer of its own, the heading should start with "HowTo".
A list of ideas that can be discussion.
Each function (or function groups) and its corresponding gestures should be described in an answer of its own, the heading should start with "Idea". The ideas can be discussed by commenting them. Finally the answer may be edited to reflect the solution. When implemented, the "Idea" in the heading should be changed to "HowTo".
New Answers should be added to the lists below.

Feel free to contribute!

HowTos

Zoom in/out

Ideas

See also Related questions, e.g. for ideas on gestures and responses.

PostScriptum

I know Put 5-point multi-touch to use which could be regarded as duplicate. However, that thread does not include "HowTo", this thread should be structured much more formal, this thread should state exactly what gesture results in what response.

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Comments

just need to be careful not to break those iphone multi-touch gesture patents.. but I'd love to see multitouch in use in the browser / whole UI. Someone might say it makes the interface complex, but it already requires learning, so I doubt it would be a problem

Acce ( 2014-03-27 19:39:20 +0300 )edit

IMHO, I can't stand it having to think how many fingers I have to use for a specific gesture. I once tried it with one of thes Apple Tragic Macpads. It was unbearable and I replaced it with a traditional three button mouse within less than a minute. Personally, I give multifinger gestures just one finger, the middle one.

Venty ( 2014-03-28 10:14:28 +0300 )edit

@Venty: Do you never use pinch for zooming? You already had to learn a couple of (single finger) gestures. The idea is not to add tons of gestures but to make life easier with a few "natural" gestures for daily tasks.

Even for the mouse you have to learn the buttons and not all buttons have a function in all situations.

jgr ( 2014-03-28 11:27:20 +0300 )edit

12

answered 2014-03-27 18:53:55 +0300

This post is a wiki. Anyone with karma >75 is welcome to improve it.

updated 2014-03-27 18:54:26 +0300

jgr
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Idea: Manual screen orientation setting and locking

Gesture: Use 2 fingers as dividers, circling one finger around the other in the direction the screen should rotate.

System response: Screen turns by 90° in the direction the divider rotated (overwriting any sensor signal) and stays in that orientation until next device lock.

Works: System wide for all screens that can change orientation.

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Comments

Nice idea, but I'd like the orientation to go back to normal like it is now. So you can set the rotation with the new gesture, but it returns to normal when for instance, an app is closed or minimized.

Roundhouse ( 2015-03-01 17:56:43 +0300 )edit

5

answered 2014-03-28 00:24:13 +0300

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updated 2014-03-28 00:26:15 +0300

jgr
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Idea: Selection of multiple, sequential elements in a list (e.g. emails in InBox)

Gesture: Yet to be defined, for options see comments (can be voted individually), you are welcome to add your ideas.

System response: All elements included in the gesture are selected for further operations (e.g. copying, moving, deletion etc.).

Works: System wide on lists of items.

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Comments

Option 1: Pinch open or close over all elements visible and to be selected

jgr ( 2014-03-28 00:24:51 +0300 )edit

Option 2: Tapping the first element in the sequence and holding while sliding down with another finger to the last one to be selected (this would even allow scrolling to pick more elements than do fit on a screen)

jgr ( 2014-03-28 00:25:37 +0300 )edit

1

Option 3: Tapping the first element in the list and holding while tapping with another finger the last one to be selected (if this would be combined with a pull by the other finger, again this would allow for scrolling to pick more elements than do fit on a screen).

jgr ( 2014-03-28 00:28:31 +0300 )edit

If you think, you have read this before: https://together.jolla.com/question/15475/e-mail-selection-of-multiple-e-mails-at-once/

jgr ( 2014-03-28 00:30:27 +0300 )edit

4

answered 2014-03-27 18:47:57 +0300

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updated 2014-03-27 20:44:02 +0300

jgr
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Idea: Selection of accented characters from virtual keyboard

Gesture: Tap and hold key, when list of accented characters appears tap the character of interest with second finger.
(This gesture shall be alternative to the current slide to the character of interest.)

Works: System wide

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3

answered 2014-03-27 18:34:17 +0300

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updated 2014-03-27 18:34:53 +0300

jgr
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HowTo: Zoom in

Gesture: Pinch open (tap with thumb and index finger and slide them open)

Works: System wide, where sensible (e.g. email, browser)

HowTo: Zoom out

Gesture: Pinch close (tap with thumb and index finger and slide them together)

Works: System wide, where sensible (e.g. email, browser)

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1

answered 2015-02-28 21:32:44 +0300

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updated 2015-02-28 21:36:58 +0300

bnoffer

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Idea: System wide zoom in

Like the system wide zoom feature found on iOS. Useful for apps with very small text or for people that are visually impaired.

Gesture: Double tap with three fingers.

System response: UI zooms in on the area where the gesture was performed.

Works: System wide on everything.

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0

answered 2014-03-27 20:36:46 +0300

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updated 2014-03-27 20:36:46 +0300

jgr
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Idea: Split screen handling with two fingers

Similar to this post: Ideas for split screen functionality My Idea is as following:

Two finger swipes over left and right edge for splitting the view. (Two fingers because you do something with two windows.)

The idea is, that you just drag the border of an app over the screen. Grab it with two fingers and move it horizontally over the screen. This could be a natural continuation to the existing one finger gestures.

If you swipe with two fingers over the left edge, the maximized app (or home screen) goes to the right half and opens up a home screen in the left. When you come from the right it should open the previous used app in the right half and go to the left side.

In each half you now can use the regular one finger gestures as usual (close, minimize, move within the app, start something new from the home screen, ...).

If you swipe with two fingers from one side over the middle border to the other side the app where you started should maximize to full screen.

Maybe this could also work from top and bottom edge in the splitted screen to make two apps in one half possible. So you can get a maximum of four apps on the screen. But I think, that might not really be useful.

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HowTo and ideas: Multi-touch gestures

Purpose of this thread

How to contribute to this thread

HowTos

Ideas

PostScriptum

Comments

7 Answers

Idea: Manual screen orientation setting and locking

Comments

Idea: Selection of multiple, sequential elements in a list (e.g. emails in InBox)

Comments

Idea: Selection of accented characters from virtual keyboard

HowTo: Zoom in

HowTo: Zoom out

Related questions

Idea: Split screen handling with two fingers

Question tools

Stats

Related questions

HowTo and ideas: Multi-touch gestures

Purpose of this thread

How to contribute to this thread

HowTos

Ideas

PostScriptum

Comments

7 Answers

Idea: Manual screen orientation setting and locking

Comments

Idea: Selection of multiple, sequential elements in a list (e.g. emails in InBox)

Comments

Idea: Selection of accented characters from virtual keyboard

HowTo: Zoom in

HowTo: Zoom out

Related questions

Idea: Split screen handling with two fingers

Question tools

Public thread

Stats

Related questions