5 ms·

I wouldn't say 3D touch is entirely a bad feature. I agree with the argument that 3D touch features are usually hard to discover (took me a while to realize you

by mlex 11y ago

I wouldn't say 3D touch is entirely a bad feature. I agree with the argument that 3D touch features are usually hard to discover (took me a while to realize you could press the keyboard to get a "trackpad"). Some of the features you get from it are nice little quality-of-life things though, like quick app switching. It will be tough getting app developers to decide to implement 3D touch features when it isn't supported by everything, of course.

pen2l 11y ago
> Some of the features you get from it are nice little quality-of-life things though, like quick app switching. You can quickly switch apps using 3D Touch? How?
- paxswill 11y ago
  Force-press the left edge of the screen, then swipe to the right. It can take a little bit of practice to get a hang of it. I find kinda rolling my thumb works well to trigger it. Swiping all the way across goes to the last app, just partway opens up the app switcher.
  - deleted 11y ago
    [deleted]
  - bas 11y ago
    Did... not... know... this. Very cool.
  - carloscheddar 11y ago
    Wow that's amazing. I'll use this so much now.
  - samstave 11y ago
    What about killing a tab in chrome? In android, I could hit back and it would kill that tab and take me to the previous one, which works beautifully for Reddit. With iOS it's like five clicks to get back to the previous tab.
coldtea 11y ago
>I wouldn't say 3D touch is entirely a bad feature. I agree with the argument that 3D touch features are usually hard to discover That doesn't make them bad -- just hard to discover. Once you find out about them, they are dead easy. Not all UIs have to be immediately apparent, UI design is also about teaching users new idioms. Pointing with a mouse was alien once too...
- mlex 11y ago
  But that's kinda the thing; how do you end up finding out about them? Unlike buttons which appear on-screen, 3D touch interfaces aren't immediately visible and require special onboarding, which isn't always great even with conventional features. Another example, a great feature in Google Maps on mobile is the ability to zoom with one hand. You double tap and drag (tap, tap-and-hold, drag), but I only figured this out because some blog talked about it. From what I can tell there are no instructions in the app that tell you about this feature, and I see this as being in the same vein as 3D touch. Sure it's great, but if people don't know about it or can't learn about it easily, they won't reap the benefits.
  - coldtea 11y ago
    >But that's kinda the thing; how do you end up finding out about them? Someone shows you, you see someone do it, you accidentally press and activate it, you watch the introductory "wizard", you see it in an iPhone ad -- there are literally tons of ways. Including the one everybody hates, RTFM...
  - squeaky-clean 11y ago
    > Another example, a great feature in Google Maps on mobile is the ability to zoom with one hand. You double tap and drag (tap, tap-and-hold, drag), but I only figured this out because some blog talked about it. This is a native Android gesture, by the way, and works in most apps and web-pages. It used to work on HN, but stopped when they changed the markup to be more mobile-friendly.
  - sangnoir 11y ago
    > From what I can tell there are no instructions in the app that tell you about this feature It's fine for secondary controls (other ways to zoom). I'd say Google learned the lesson with the now discontinued Menu button on Android. Application authors would sometimes hide critical functionality behind a Menu button press, and sometimes the Menu button did nothing. This lack of discoveribility and inconsistency is bad for User Interaction

by mlex 11y ago

pen2l 11y ago

> Some of the features you get from it are nice little quality-of-life things though, like quick app switching. You can quickly switch apps using 3D Touch? How?

paxswill 11y ago
Force-press the left edge of the screen, then swipe to the right. It can take a little bit of practice to get a hang of it. I find kinda rolling my thumb works well to trigger it. Swiping all the way across goes to the last app, just partway opens up the app switcher.
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
- bas 11y ago
  Did... not... know... this. Very cool.
- carloscheddar 11y ago
  Wow that's amazing. I'll use this so much now.
- samstave 11y ago
  What about killing a tab in chrome? In android, I could hit back and it would kill that tab and take me to the previous one, which works beautifully for Reddit. With iOS it's like five clicks to get back to the previous tab.

coldtea 11y ago

>I wouldn't say 3D touch is entirely a bad feature. I agree with the argument that 3D touch features are usually hard to discover That doesn't make them bad -- just hard to discover. Once you find out about them, they are dead easy. Not all UIs have to be immediately apparent, UI design is also about teaching users new idioms. Pointing with a mouse was alien once too...

mlex 11y ago
But that's kinda the thing; how do you end up finding out about them? Unlike buttons which appear on-screen, 3D touch interfaces aren't immediately visible and require special onboarding, which isn't always great even with conventional features. Another example, a great feature in Google Maps on mobile is the ability to zoom with one hand. You double tap and drag (tap, tap-and-hold, drag), but I only figured this out because some blog talked about it. From what I can tell there are no instructions in the app that tell you about this feature, and I see this as being in the same vein as 3D touch. Sure it's great, but if people don't know about it or can't learn about it easily, they won't reap the benefits.
- coldtea 11y ago
  >But that's kinda the thing; how do you end up finding out about them? Someone shows you, you see someone do it, you accidentally press and activate it, you watch the introductory "wizard", you see it in an iPhone ad -- there are literally tons of ways. Including the one everybody hates, RTFM...
- squeaky-clean 11y ago
  > Another example, a great feature in Google Maps on mobile is the ability to zoom with one hand. You double tap and drag (tap, tap-and-hold, drag), but I only figured this out because some blog talked about it. This is a native Android gesture, by the way, and works in most apps and web-pages. It used to work on HN, but stopped when they changed the markup to be more mobile-friendly.
- sangnoir 11y ago
  > From what I can tell there are no instructions in the app that tell you about this feature It's fine for secondary controls (other ways to zoom). I'd say Google learned the lesson with the now discontinued Menu button on Android. Application authors would sometimes hide critical functionality behind a Menu button press, and sometimes the Menu button did nothing. This lack of discoveribility and inconsistency is bad for User Interaction