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He's right. The default Home button behaviour should be to go the first page of the SpringBoard. The current behaviour even appears to contravene Apple's own iO

He's right. The default Home button behaviour should be to go the first page of the SpringBoard. The current behaviour even appears to contravene Apple's own iOS Human Interface Guidelines: "Give people a logical path to follow. Make the path through the information you present logical and easy for users to predict." and: "In most cases, give users only one path to a screen." From: http://developer.apple.com/library/ios/#DOCUMENTATION/UserExperience/Conceptual/MobileHIG/UEBestPractices/UEBestPractices.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/TP40006556-CH20-SW5 http://developer.apple.com/library/ios/#DOCUMENTATION/UserEx...

username3 15y ago
It's easier to go to the first page by press the home button again than to swipe to the fifth page all the time. If we press the home button accidentally, it's easier to open the same app if it's on the fifth page although we could double click the home button. The way it is now is good if we have a group of apps on the fifth page that we use for a certain situation.
- LukasMathis 15y ago
  If you exit an application accidentally, you can get back using the task switcher, like you say. The other situation you describe (you have a set of applications on a screen far away from the first home screen, and want to launch many of them at the same time) seems uncommon. It's typically bad to have a UI that makes the common case worse in order to make an uncommon case better.
  - jbrennan 15y ago
    The unfortunate thing I don't think a lot of regular users even know about the Task Switcher tray, and really they shouldn't have to. But I don't have data to back up "a lot of regular users", just anecdotal experience with them.
christoph 15y ago
One trick Apple clearly miss here (IMO) is not having the "Home" screen centered. On iOS devices, page 1 is always at the far left. i.e. Screen 1 -> Screen 2 --> Screen 3 ---> Screen 4 ----> Screen 5 On a lot of Android launchers, you can have page one centered. i.e. Screen a <--> Screen b <-> Screen 1 <-> Screen x <--> Screen y What's the benefit? I can get to my two most used screens both within 1 swipe. In fact the most swipes I need to access any of my five screens (from the Home) is 2, on iOS as above it's 4 (for the same number of screens). You could argue that some people use "Search" so much it negates this, but I think search should be accessed in a slightly different way to how Apple have it programmed in now anyway.
- richbradshaw 15y ago
  I've never used an Android phone, but surely that's a little confusing for casual users – at a glance is it easy to tell which is the "main" screen?
  - guelo 15y ago
    The key on Android are the home screen widgets which make each screen more recognizable than on iOS where every screen is a grid of similar icons. A lot of phones ship with a big clock/weather widget on the "main" screen that makes it easy to recognize. Users then quickly learn how to customize and add widgets, after some use the look of each screen becomes ingrained and instantly recognizable.
    - bane 15y ago
      You are right, my home screen is a clock and calendar widget. A couple important contact shortcuts (for super speed dial), email, browser and navigation. The absolutely most used things on my phone. One screen to the right are the rest of my social media things and various camera apps plus the powerbar widget for turning on and off various things on my phone without heading into settings (flashlight, wifi, GPS, etc.) One more screen to the right are my various nerd tools, an ftp server, a terminal emulator, file manager, heck I even have a tricorder app and the tron bit on there. Going left I have productivity apps, google docs, drop box, a folder full of various audio apps like pandora and Tune In radio, The Kindle app, a comic book reader, etc. And finally all the way left I have games, emulators, calculators whatever sort of entertainment junk I want. I know immediately where I am on my phone at a glance and can almost navigate to it without looking. If I start to run out of space, or want more organization, I just dump a category of apps into a folder...or my Launcher lets me add more screens if I want.
dpark 15y ago
Apple's current choice is entirely logical. The home button takes you to the "desktop". Resetting the "desktop" to the "home screen" state is not a more logical path. It might or might not be a better choice, but it's not more logical, and it certainly wouldn't fit their guidelines any better. As for the "one path" argument, making the button take you directly to the home screen doesn't reduce the number of paths. You exit the app via the home button and it takes you to one place. That's one path. Whether the path is to the home screen or back to the state you were in is a design choice that has no effect on the number of paths. Personally, I think Apple made the right choice. It would be pretty obnoxious to be on screen 3, launch the wrong app on accident, and then be dumped back to screen 1 when exiting. I'd much rather be able to hit the home button and then immediately launch the app I intended to launch.
- zakovyrya 15y ago
  It's called "home" button for a reason.
  - dpark 15y ago
    Thanks for the insight. Now we can discuss whether "home" means "screen 1" or if it means the "desktop app". Either could fit the word "home". Apple has so far chosen then second meaning.
    - zakovyrya 15y ago
      Sure, we can discuss whatever we want. Of course, it's a screen 1. You can see it on any promotional picture. This, for example: http://www.apple.com/iphone/gallery/ http://www.apple.com/iphone/gallery/
      - dpark 15y ago
        What Apple chose is very clearly not the "first screen of apps". If that's what "home" meant to Apple then we wouldn't be discussing it, because that's all the "home" button would do.

username3 15y ago

It's easier to go to the first page by press the home button again than to swipe to the fifth page all the time. If we press the home button accidentally, it's easier to open the same app if it's on the fifth page although we could double click the home button. The way it is now is good if we have a group of apps on the fifth page that we use for a certain situation.

LukasMathis 15y ago
If you exit an application accidentally, you can get back using the task switcher, like you say. The other situation you describe (you have a set of applications on a screen far away from the first home screen, and want to launch many of them at the same time) seems uncommon. It's typically bad to have a UI that makes the common case worse in order to make an uncommon case better.
- jbrennan 15y ago
  The unfortunate thing I don't think a lot of regular users even know about the Task Switcher tray, and really they shouldn't have to. But I don't have data to back up "a lot of regular users", just anecdotal experience with them.

christoph 15y ago

One trick Apple clearly miss here (IMO) is not having the "Home" screen centered. On iOS devices, page 1 is always at the far left. i.e. Screen 1 -> Screen 2 --> Screen 3 ---> Screen 4 ----> Screen 5 On a lot of Android launchers, you can have page one centered. i.e. Screen a <--> Screen b <-> Screen 1 <-> Screen x <--> Screen y What's the benefit? I can get to my two most used screens both within 1 swipe. In fact the most swipes I need to access any of my five screens (from the Home) is 2, on iOS as above it's 4 (for the same number of screens). You could argue that some people use "Search" so much it negates this, but I think search should be accessed in a slightly different way to how Apple have it programmed in now anyway.

richbradshaw 15y ago
I've never used an Android phone, but surely that's a little confusing for casual users – at a glance is it easy to tell which is the "main" screen?
- guelo 15y ago
  The key on Android are the home screen widgets which make each screen more recognizable than on iOS where every screen is a grid of similar icons. A lot of phones ship with a big clock/weather widget on the "main" screen that makes it easy to recognize. Users then quickly learn how to customize and add widgets, after some use the look of each screen becomes ingrained and instantly recognizable.
  - bane 15y ago
    You are right, my home screen is a clock and calendar widget. A couple important contact shortcuts (for super speed dial), email, browser and navigation. The absolutely most used things on my phone. One screen to the right are the rest of my social media things and various camera apps plus the powerbar widget for turning on and off various things on my phone without heading into settings (flashlight, wifi, GPS, etc.) One more screen to the right are my various nerd tools, an ftp server, a terminal emulator, file manager, heck I even have a tricorder app and the tron bit on there. Going left I have productivity apps, google docs, drop box, a folder full of various audio apps like pandora and Tune In radio, The Kindle app, a comic book reader, etc. And finally all the way left I have games, emulators, calculators whatever sort of entertainment junk I want. I know immediately where I am on my phone at a glance and can almost navigate to it without looking. If I start to run out of space, or want more organization, I just dump a category of apps into a folder...or my Launcher lets me add more screens if I want.

dpark 15y ago

Apple's current choice is entirely logical. The home button takes you to the "desktop". Resetting the "desktop" to the "home screen" state is not a more logical path. It might or might not be a better choice, but it's not more logical, and it certainly wouldn't fit their guidelines any better. As for the "one path" argument, making the button take you directly to the home screen doesn't reduce the number of paths. You exit the app via the home button and it takes you to one place. That's one path. Whether the path is to the home screen or back to the state you were in is a design choice that has no effect on the number of paths. Personally, I think Apple made the right choice. It would be pretty obnoxious to be on screen 3, launch the wrong app on accident, and then be dumped back to screen 1 when exiting. I'd much rather be able to hit the home button and then immediately launch the app I intended to launch.

zakovyrya 15y ago
It's called "home" button for a reason.
- dpark 15y ago
  Thanks for the insight. Now we can discuss whether "home" means "screen 1" or if it means the "desktop app". Either could fit the word "home". Apple has so far chosen then second meaning.
  - zakovyrya 15y ago
    Sure, we can discuss whatever we want. Of course, it's a screen 1. You can see it on any promotional picture. This, for example: http://www.apple.com/iphone/gallery/ http://www.apple.com/iphone/gallery/
    - dpark 15y ago
      What Apple chose is very clearly not the "first screen of apps". If that's what "home" meant to Apple then we wouldn't be discussing it, because that's all the "home" button would do.