Re:Android Q Beta
by whalesalad on Wednesday March 13, 2019 @05:39PM
(#19384148)
Devils advocate: the iPhone has never had a physical back button and it's a wildly successful device with people across all walks of life and levels of technical experience.
I think a lot of Android users feel this way but it is clear that Android is moving away from physical buttons. It's a crutch that Google is finally getting rid of.
Re:Android Q Beta
by cromwellian on Wednesday March 13, 2019 @06:52PM
(#19384778)
On the other hand, most ordinary non-technical folk I know of don't know about about iOS swipe-to-go-back gestures, as iOS has largely moved from buttons to non-discovered swipes, special presses that most people won't know about unless they RTFM which they never do.
How many people know about Shake-to-Undo?
The swipe to go back gesture only applies to navigation controllers in which case there will always be a back button in the top left corner.
And yes they removed the home button and replaced it with a swipe up. But they have an annoying dark black line to indicate this. And you literally can’t use your phone without this one, simple gesture.
Another devil's advocate: undo on iOS is nigh-undiscoverable.
In the early iPhone-versions almost all apps had a back-button on the top-left corner during nested navigation.
I miss it.
All apps that use UINavigationController i.e. nested still have the back button in the top left corner. Nothing has changed.
More a case that apps have moved away from this UI style in favour of other conventions e.g. burger menu.
Re:Android Q Beta
by whalesalad on Wednesday March 13, 2019 @06:06PM
(#19384396)
Sorry I wasn’t trying to say the UI button is bad, I was referring to the physical button.
I don't necessarily think that the back button will remain, but I think it SHOULD remain. Gestures are cool, but the back button is like the undo feature: it gives user a visible, clear button to correct a mistake or cancel an action. Gestures are not immediately visible/discoverable, so while for a tech savvy it might not be a problem, for the average consumer (think of your dad, or aunt, or grandpa) it is a usability regression.