23 ms·

iPhones and action discoverability

396 points by otras 4y ago

orobinson 4y ago
The iPad is worst for this, I still haven’t got to grips with all the convoluted gesture based multitasking controls.
ezequiel-garzon 4y ago
It took me way too long to accidentally find out that the stock calculator app becomes a (limited) scientific calculator in landscape mode.
dawiddr 4y ago
Well, the screen estate on a mobile device is limited, so the number of actions that are easy to discover needs to be limited too - otherwise the UI would be cluttered. I find Apple good at balancing this. Notice how actions that he mentions are just quicker alternatives to stuff that one can already do in another way.
- lcuff 4y ago
  Not 'just' quicker. Easier. Less frustrating. Important elements. This is my experience of using the long-spacebar technique for placing the cursor. Digressing: An AI noticing that someone has moved the cursor several time without ever typing anything could pop up a "Want me to show you other ways to move the cursor?" dialog, and teach the 'hard to discover' technique. I await the day ...
  - jonchang 4y ago
    Sounds like a rebranding of the much-reviled Clippy.
    - lcuff 4y ago
      I never used Clippy. Reviled? You mean Microsoft took the idea of 'context appropriate useful suggestions' and bungled the user interface? Inconceivable!
  - joshgachnang 4y ago
    AI Clippy!
  - rajeshr 4y ago
    The Calculator app could suggest that I can swipe on the display at the top if it notices that I'm using 'C' often. This would not even need an AI. I wonder if there are UI frameworks that support the detection and suggestion of "better" actions?
- ncann 4y ago
  That excuse doesn't hold for the calculator example, where the 0 button takes up 2 spaces for no good reason, and they could easily added a backspace button instead.
  - hk__2 4y ago
    > That excuse doesn't hold for the calculator example, where the 0 button takes up 2 spaces for no good reason, and they could easily added a backspace button instead. It would be a really weird place for a backspace button and you would always tap on it by mistake.
    - ncann 4y ago
      It's literally how the Android calculator is, 0 button -> . button -> backspace button. No one ever complained about it. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.calculator&hl=en_CA&gl=US https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.and...
      - hk__2 4y ago
        Thanks; I stand corrected.
- yccs27 4y ago
  This seems crucial to me - most of these 'nondiscoverable' actions are shortcuts, and there is another discoverable way to achieve the same outcome. They are similar to keyboard shortcuts in that way, they just help power users who know them. (The calculator backspace seems to be an exception, which is why I also dislike it.)
  - kemayo 4y ago
    There isn't a backspace in the calculator, but the swipe is still (basically) a shortcut for something which does have a button. Pressing the C button clears the current input entirely, after all.
adastra22 4y ago
The last two are pretty obvious to me. The first two are brand new to me and very undiscoverable though!
- amelius 4y ago
  Yes, for the first two you have to think like a UI designer. Do UI designers think that everybody would be good at their job?
  - Gigachad 4y ago
    HN users think they would do better than the experts in any field.
    - adastra22 4y ago
      How tf would anyone think that swiping a calculator screen will make the digits go away one at a time, and that this behavior would be organically discovered?
      - codeptualize 4y ago
        As with all design you can have the discussion if there are better alternatives, but it's not that crazy to design it like this considering most old physical calculators don't have a backspace button. They have C and CE (or AC) buttons to either clear the last entry or everything, similar to the app. You could very well reason they are sticking to convention. Also in most basic use of a calculator it's quite fine to input the last number again, it's probably often even more convenient than backspace. This makes the backspace swipe feature an extra, non-essential feature, and it's probably ok to not be discovered organically. Most UI is full of hard to organically discover accelerators aimed at expert users. They are intentionally not visible, to keep the basics simple for novice users. The right question is; can people use the calculator app without knowing about this feature? The answer is yes, as many people do without any problem. Again, you could have a discussion if there should be a visible backspace button, but accelerators are an important part of any well designed UI. To answer your question: They don't think it will be discovered organically, it's by design.
koinedad 4y ago
Yeah it’s hard! Kind of the flip side but related to the text navigation: https://technicallychallenged.substack.com/p/my-favorite-iphone-feature-was-removed https://technicallychallenged.substack.com/p/my-favorite-iph...
jbverschoor 4y ago
While I also hate the "undescoverability". It's possible that all (maybe not all) usecases of an app are still available to anything visible. For older or less tech interested people, this is actually perfect. The problem lies in the following cases: 1) Person accidentally does something 2) Edge case / state / scenario, which cannot be solved without knowing some shortcuts. I think iOS became too complicated for some people. At the same time the UI is a pretty messy and inconsistent at times.
- djmcnab 4y ago
  In unfamiliar UIs, I often find myself accidentally triggering keyboard shortcuts and getting into weird states, so 1) leading to 2). A classic example is changing into override mode[0] in Microsoft Word or similar[1]. You end up in a mode where typing no longer adds characters, but replaces them. If you're at the end of the document, it would still add characers, but you stay in override mode. Meaning that once you're in this mode, it doesn't strike until you start editing or try to fix a typo, when the computer. WordPad doesn't even have any visual distinction. Visual Studio Code's solution to this is nice. If you enter `Tab Moves Focus` mode, with <kbd>Ctrl</kbd>+<kbd>M</kbd>, the info bar shows the text `Tab Moves Focus` in a (tastefully) highlighted button, clicking which disables that mode. So you will have a moment of confusion upon pressing tab, inadvertently entering the mode, however the situation of 2) is avoided as a helping hand is visible. Perhaps another UI is to have a log of activated keyboard shortcuts always visible, with 'new' shortcuts highlighted more obviously (perhaps with some estimation of decaying familiarity). I'm not familiar with this being implemented anywhere, but I think it at least merits consideration. [0] This is activated with <kbd>Insert</kbd>; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insert_key https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insert_key [1] In the version of Word I currently have installed, this behaviour seems to be disabled/removed. However, Wordpad still changes into override mode upon pressing Insert.
- layer8 4y ago
  The other problem is the flat design which makes it non-obvious which parts of the UI are tappable controls and which are just read-only design elements or indicators or labels. Another issue is inconsistent placement. For example during iPhone setup, sometimes you have Continue buttons centered in the bottom half of the screen, and sometimes you have to tap the small “Next” label at the top right of the screen. I’ve had family members get stuck in that process because the Next button was so inconspicuous and so far removed from the main elements of the current dialog that it was completely unclear to them how to move forward.
layer8 4y ago
> Going back after opening a new Safari tab I like this feature, but what annoys me is that unlike the regular use of Back, you can’t Forward to undo the Back in that situation, even in the common case that the original tab is at the top of the history (i.e. has no current Forward target of its own).
- NaOH 4y ago
  >unlike the regular use of Back, you can’t Forward to undo the Back in that situation.... If you've enabled Shake To Undo in Settings>Accessibility>Touch, then you can undo/reopen the closed tab.
  - layer8 4y ago
    Right, but the reopened tab doesn’t restore to the previous scroll position as Forward does, and the tab also cannot be closed by Back anymore, both meaning that it isn’t a true Undo. These are just more inconsistencies. The problem is that iOS is full of such smaller and bigger inconsistencies. Another thing that annoys me is when you open a new tab via Look Up > Search Web (which in a sense is quite similar to opening a link in a new tab), then that new tab cannot be closed by Back. I wish Apple would spend a year or two in streamlining all that stuff.
robinson-wall 4y ago
I can forgive the URL bar swipe to change between tabs, because there is a visual cue that the other tabs are there - the URL bars of the adjacent tabs peek onto the screen.
renewiltord 4y ago
What's the recording app that shows the cursor movement? The built in recorded only shows taps and scrolls right?
- filoleg 4y ago
  > The built in recorded only shows taps and scrolls right? Click on options in the built-in one, there is a "show mouse pointer" check you can click. Here is how it looks[0]. 0. https://static1.makeuseofimages.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/macos-screenshot-options.jpg?q=50&fit=crop&w=1500&dpr=1.5 https://static1.makeuseofimages.com/wordpress/wp-content/upl...
  - renewiltord 4y ago
    Thank you!
- otras 4y ago
  I actually cheated and used the built-in recorder with an external mouse (I somehow had a USB->Lightning adapter on hand). You can then, in the Accessibility settings, enable an always visible cursor under Pointer Control, though Pointer Control is only visible _after_ you have the mouse plugged in. Ironic to have such iOS struggles for a post about iOS struggles...
  - renewiltord 4y ago
    Nice. Thank you.
thih9 4y ago
> I don’t think any of these are intuitive or easily discoverable. Then again, perhaps they don’t need to be universally intuitive / discoverable; i.e.: the users who need these features may instinctively search for them and eventually discover them. Anecdotally, I’ve been able to discover three out of four actions mentioned in the article (the fourth one was about the calculator app, which I don’t use that often).
- culopatin 4y ago
  What does anyone have to gain by making it a quest to find these features? It doesn’t benefit the user who found them anyway and obviously doesn’t help the user who didn’t find them. Does it make you part of a UX VIP club to find them?
  - thih9 4y ago
    The benefit is that the app ends up being simpler. The users who don’t need these features don’t have to know about them, don’t have to click through tutorials, or be pestered by hints.
    - romwell 4y ago
      >The users who don’t need these features don’t have to know about them, don’t have to click through tutorials, or be pestered by hints. Welcome to the new iCalculator! To simplify your experience, the only operator button is "+", which now takes half of the screen, and is therefore easy to find and press, adding to the pleasure of using the calculator. You might ask, where's the "-" button? Was it stupid to remove it? No, it's brave! Don't be so negative about it; our UX studies show that "+" is statistically the most used button, and so your needs don't matter. If you need to subtract, swipe "+" button down; to multiply, swipe "+" right, and to divide, swipe "+" down. Swipe "+" up to raise to an exponent. To quickly square numbers, hold "+", then perform a square gesture clockwise aronud the button. To take a square root, perform it in reverse. You may notice that we have removed the digit buttons as well. That's because you don't need to type the numbers in - just say them out loud! Swipe the screen diagonally from the bottom left corner to the top right one to activate voice input. Note: digit buttons can still be enabled from the accessibility options in the system dialog. Note 2: voice recognition of operators is coming in a future upgrade. To clear your input, you can simply restart the app, no buttons needed. Note 3: you can enable a haptic shortcut in system acessibility settings: "Clear input by shaking phone". Finally, you can read this instruction manual by telepathically tuning into the lead engineer's mind, as it's not available anywhere else. Enjoy your intuitive iExperience!
ice3 4y ago
I'd also add - double tapping the top of the screen to scroll to the top.
- jeffbee 4y ago
  That, I believe, is just a single tap.
  - ice3 4y ago
    Huh, I always assumed it’s a double tap, and I’ve been using iPhones sines 4, but just checked and it’s a single tap. Talk about action discoverability.
iforgotpassword 4y ago
It's a little ironic how at the advent of the iPhone, the desktop os was mocked as being clunky and full of those things you just have to know, rather than being discoverable. The iPhone was limited and simple. And it really helped adoption of smartphones. Now it's assumed everybody is already familiar with smartphones and welcomes yet another shortcut or gesture to make usage quicker. Take Android and the removal of the three buttons at the bottom, in exchange for some gestures. Just so the interface looks cleaner. Imagine someone who has never used a smartphone before would be starting out with that. Just hand them the phone and see how long it takes them to return to the home screen after opening the first app. Not to say this is good or bad, just an observation mostly.
- nightfly 4y ago
  First thing I did on my new phone was put those dots back...
- jeroenhd 4y ago
  I like the way Xiaomi enabled gestures on my phone. The default was the three button layout, with the option to switch to gestures. The moment you enable gestures, you get a little interactive tutorial on how to use them so you don't get confused.
- i80and 4y ago
  The removal of the three dots completely throws me for a loop. I simply could not get the gestures to stick in my brain. And not to sound entitled, but... I shouldn't have to? Anyway I'm ride or die for the three dots and am pretty worried they'll kill off the option to bring them back.
  - saiya-jin 4y ago
    I don't use gestures, never had, if possible never will. Phone works 100% fine for me as it is (samsung s22 ultra), i am as efficient with it as I want and need. Whatever works for you is how you should use the product. Plus, lets not be pathetic with wasting life on phone, real life happens outside screens. Its good to keep reminding oneself this little truth regardless how shiny new gimmicks manufacturers bring to keep us glued to their products and ad-based services.
scary-size 4y ago
Took me two years to learn that I can hit the volume down button to trigger the camera…
- knolan 4y ago
  In fairness this has been around since feature phones.
- wolpoli 4y ago
  Sounds like they could help by putting an icon next to the volume down button.
hs86 4y ago
I moved to iOS over a year ago after using Android exclusively, and I agree that this was a discoverability downgrade. Editing text with various multi-finger gestures, shaking the device, or even putting the entire Photos app into a different mode to select multiple items are outright downgrades to what Android does. The iPhone innovated finger-touch-based on-screen keyboards while everyone else was still typing with a stylus on a tiny keyboard, but since then, they seem to stagnate. iOS 16 just got haptic feedback on its keyboard in 2022(!), and I am still making more typing errors compared to Android with Gboard.
- skizm 4y ago
  > Editing text with various multi-finger gestures What multi-finger text editing gestures am I missing out on?
  - svendahlstrand 4y ago
    Undo and redo: Undo the last edit: Swipe left with three fingers, then tap Undo at the top of the screen. Redo the last edit: Swipe right with three fingers, then tap Redo at the top of the screen. https://support.apple.com/guide/iphone/type-with-the-onscreen-keyboard-iph3c50f96e/16.0/ios/16.0 https://support.apple.com/guide/iphone/type-with-the-onscree...
- shepherdjerred 4y ago
  > iOS 16 just got haptic feedback on its keyboard in 2022 Wow thanks for letting me know. I finally have haptics again after switching to an iPhone 6 years ago. I totally agree with iOS having a worse typing experience. On Android with Gboard I could swipe/type extremely quickly with few errors. On iOS I make a mistake every few works, and the swipe accuracy is significantly worse. I know that there is Gboard with iOS, but I've had a lot of trouble with custom keyboards on iOS, so I've given up.
theptip 4y ago
This drives me mad too. However, not sure it’s the end of the world. In many cases these are extra shortcuts, analogous to key bindings. Power users are (should be?) aware of the existence of such things and look them up. It’s hard to make keyboard shortcuts discoverable (though IntelliJ does a good job). I think it’s extremely problematic when these are core UI actions instead of shortcuts. Manipulating long form text is quite annoying without the space-bar trick for example. Hard to see how you’d make that discoverable though. (An interesting UX thought experiment!)
- Gigachad 4y ago
  The space bar trick is clearly explained in the iOS manual. Probably even in the Tips app too. At some point there is just no way to get people to know every feature short of forcing them to read the manual and locking the phone with a quiz on it at the end.
traeregan 4y ago
Where I work we've been developing mobile apps since the first iPhone, and we still have these "How the hell was I supposed to know?" moments quite often. A couple of my friends who don't work in tech. are sort-of hobbyist iOS fanboys, and they always get a kick out of it when they show me some feature or gesture that I wasn't familiar with.
carom 4y ago
I do find myself regularly saying things like - >Ah yes, the three finger force press double tap right swipe, of course. What bothers me about these is how non technical people who don't search will never find them. On the other hand, it might be good to have things hidden so someone non technical can't get their phone into a bad state.
crazygringo 4y ago
It's funny how I've witnessed a complete 180° change from how, in the 1990's, software was supposed to be entirely discoverable and it also came with a manual that documented literally everything, to now there's a ton that's hidden, often without any manual whatsoever... but you can Google everything you need to know. Probably the single most useful skill I've had to learn in my life is, whenever you wonder something, just Google it. If you don't think your software does X... don't just assume it. Look it up. I've been astonished at how often a feature was added 3 years ago to a program I've used for 8 years, or there's a secret swipe that avoids a bunch of menus, or an unofficial command-line flag. And it really leaves me feeling deeply conflicted. Because on the one hand, I still believe in the virtue of learning your tools inside and out. I would read the manual and be proud I knew exactly what every program/language could and couldn't do. But on the other hand, is that really just a waste of time? Programs have so many features now, that instead of learning all the things via discoverability or a manual, we just learn them by... querying how to do things when we need them. I don't really like the idea of so fundamentally relying on Google and forums and tutorials and Reddit and YouTube videos as the main way of learning how to use software. But at the same time, software does so much now and adds new things so quickly that it appears to be the only reasonable way.
- agumonkey 4y ago
  This pattern is quite global. Everything is "more available" now, real time streamed, there's no apparent need for apriori organization since we can correct on the fly. Or so it seems. Games are patched live, browser in constant update etc etc
- layer8 4y ago
  > we just learn them by... querying how to do things when we need them. The problem with this is that you don’t learn any new features that you wouldn’t have come up with on your own. I loved reading the well-written manuals and “on-line” (integrated into the software) help of the 90s (and 80s) that explained all the concepts and features of the particular software. You’d learn a ton of new ideas and possibilities. It was really fun and exciting, and it gave you the perception of a well-designed and well thought-out whole. You built up a consistent mental model of the software, and you thus ended up with the feeling of mastery and control over the software. Nowadays it feels more like poking the software with a stick in an attempt to build a mental model and discover its capabilities by trial and error, often remaining in doubt about the actual intent of how exactly things are supposed to work.
vidanay 4y ago
I've been an Android user since day 1 and had never used an iPhone until about a year ago when my company replaced my work phone (Android) with an iPhone. It took me two months before I realized there is a difference between swiping down from the top on the left and swiping down from the top on the right. I don't think Android is necessarily better though - I simply have more experience with it.
- Gigachad 4y ago
  I remember that top swipe situation being the same on my Nexus 7 (2012)
cjohansson 4y ago
I would say most people don't know 90% of how to use the iOS interface but ppl are in general not interested in learning it and wouldn't read a manual if the box included one or even watch videos of it. People just what Apple to read their minds, to get their stuff done in as little effort as possible and people are willing to pay a lot of money for that experience
_thisdot 4y ago
What I find most annoying in iOS UX is how much information is tucked behind the "Share" icon. Having to click the share button to access "Find on Page" is super unintuitive.
- dnissley 4y ago
  You can also just type in the url bar to find on page (also super unintuitive)
- PNWChris 4y ago
  To add insult to injury, sometimes the share sheet is really, really slow! Like several seconds with no UI feedback to indicate anything is going on! That’s quite frustrating when I want to quickly invoke my password manager or search on page. I agree, the share sheet is just too confusing. Favorites management, my password manager, air drop, texting, find on page, and the kitchen sink are all in there and are quite undiscoverable if you don’t know to look for them. To add some confusion on top of that, some features and extensions go in the similarly un-discoverable “aA” button in the URL bar, so it’s not even like everything goes in the share sheet. That button is really tough to remember even exists since it goes away when you scroll.
- layer8 4y ago
  You don’t have to use Share for Find on Page. Just type in the address bar, then “On this Page” will be the bottom option. Obviously, that doesn’t seem to be sufficiently discoverable as well.
  - Gigachad 4y ago
    It is a general pattern that the share menu is the collection of everything that didn’t justify its own icon.
  - WhyNotHugo 4y ago
    I have to close the keyboard or scroll out-of-view for this to be visible. It could have been the second option shown TBH.
svendahlstrand 4y ago
The Back Tap feature is my favorite "hidden" action on the iPhone. You can double (or triple) tap the back of the phone to trigger whatever action you want. For example, toggle the flashlight or lock rotation. Show Spotlight or run a Shortcut. https://support.apple.com/guide/iphone/back-tap-iphaa57e7885/16.0/ios/16.0 https://support.apple.com/guide/iphone/back-tap-iphaa57e7885... I think Apple does a decent job telling people about iOS features across the User Guide, Tips.app, and the Apple Support YouTube channel. The "undiscoverable" features in the article are all there. Delete the last digit: If you make a mistake when you enter a number, swipe left or right on the display at the top. https://support.apple.com/guide/iphone/calculator-iph1ac0b5cc/ios https://support.apple.com/guide/iphone/calculator-iph1ac0b5c... Turn the onscreen keyboard into a trackpad. 1. Touch and hold the Space bar with one finger until the keyboard turns light gray. 2. Move the insertion point by dragging around the keyboard. https://support.apple.com/guide/iphone/type-with-the-onscreen-keyboard-iph3c50f96e/16.0/ios/16.0 https://support.apple.com/guide/iphone/type-with-the-onscree... To access other open tabs, you can swipe left or right on the tab bar. https://youtu.be/30tfnCxLWSg?t=21 https://youtu.be/30tfnCxLWSg?t=21
- inetknght 4y ago
  - shepherdjerred 4y ago
    This is a very low-effort comment that is trying to disagree with the parent in every way possible. I'm guessing that you just don't like Apple, which is fine, but the way that you're disagreeing isn't particularly useful. It would be constructive if you at least posted a comparison of how Android (or your favorite phone maker) does it better, or even what you'd improve. > What "User Guide"? The parent linked to it in their comment, here's the home page: https://support.apple.com/guide/iphone/welcome/ios https://support.apple.com/guide/iphone/welcome/ios > Tips.app? You mean that piece of trash that tells me a bunch of useless noise? The first thing I do when setting up iOS is delete the stock apps, including Tips.app. I just downloaded it to see what it actually is, and flipped through it for a few minutes. I'm not sure what useless noise you're referring to. After going through the app, it contains a very good list of things to know about using an iPhone, such as how to navigate, how to set up features like Medical ID and use Emergency SOS, as well as personalize your iPhone will wallpapers, sounds, font sizes, etc. Tips does a very good job of not being information overload -- there are 5 sections under "Get Started", with each section having a 5-10 short sentences about each feature. It also contains a link to the full iPhone User Guide. There's no upselling or suggesting that you buy some subscription in the app, nor any ads. I'm not sure what you have against this app, even someone who's had an iPhone for a while will probably learn one new thing after spending 5-10 minutes in it. > Apple Support Youtube Channel? I have to use a competitor's product to learn about the iPhone? This is ridiculous. > So I have to move my fingers from the keyboard at the bottom of the screen to some imaginary place at the top of the screen? It's hard enough getting the damn phone to understand a left/right swipe instead of an up/down swipe! You're switching from the topic of discoverability to Apple makes poor features.
knolan 4y ago
I’ve found watching the WWDC keynotes where they announce a new version of iOS or MacOS a good way to learn many of the new gestures and features. For your average user many of these features will remain hidden and I suspect that’s partially by design. They want such users to have a simple experience.
irrational 4y ago
Huh, I’ve been using an iPhone since the very first one. This is the first time I’ve ever seen any of these actions. I had no idea.
arthurofbabylon 4y ago
I fail to see the flaw here. When catering to large groups of diverse people, I don’t expect homogenous use of a product. Everyone should be able to find their own high-value solutions within a product, according to their real needs. We could call the presented paradigm needs-based discovery. It inherently means that some people won’t be aware of solutions that benefit others – that is, until their need or exposure evolves. And that is okay. More than okay, it’s great. To return to the basics… people don’t like being inundated with features they don’t want and they do like discovering solutions to problems. This is excellent design. Could those features be better presented? Always. The iPhone interface has an incredible array of constraints: it needs to serve literally every type of person on the planet. That’s beautiful. I have huge respect for designers capable of connecting with such diverse stakeholders. It is masterful design in the most pure sense.
yakubin 4y ago
My least favourite “feature” of iOS now is shake-to-undo. I’ve never triggered it intentionally. It’s too weird of a thing to remember when I actually want to do it. It would also feel ridiculous even if I remembered it. The only times I trigger it, it’s by accident, and then I need to cancel it.
- svendahlstrand 4y ago
  You should turn it off then. :) Search for shake in the Settings app.
- nicoburns 4y ago
  On the contrary it's one of my favourite iOS features. If you're writing any volume of text on mobile it's super useful to undo accidental mistakes. Android just doesn't have undo at all and your text is gone. Probably would be better as a long press menu option though.
- layer8 4y ago
  I actually use that quite frequently, because it’s often quicker than the equivalent text editing operations. You can turn it off in Settings > Accessibility > Touch > Shake to Undo.
- easton 4y ago
  The one that bugs me sometimes is shake to send feedback, because the feedback form isn’t useful whenever I trigger it by accident. The funniest implementation is Microsoft Teams, where if you shake it pops up a feedback form that then says you can’t send feedback because it can only be sent via Mail.app, not Outlook (you know, the Microsoft email client that your IT department makes you use instead of Mail.app?).
baggy_trough 4y ago
Worse than undiscoverable features are landmine features where an accidental gesture triggers some huge mode change that can’t easily be reverted.
doe88 4y ago
Is there a guide / (giant) cheatsheet of all these hidden features, collected somewhere? It would be a great ressource.
- sbuk 4y ago
  There's the user guide...
glacials 4y ago
These features aren't nondiscoverable; discovery just takes place outside the operating system, in communities like this one. Good designers know that communities are a constant of the power user UX just like a settings menu or instruction manual. You don't have to pollute the UI with hints and copy about every little thing because power users are their own discovery engines.
- shepherdjerred 4y ago
  > Good designers know that communities are a constant of the power user UX Maybe power users are a part of those communities because they can't figure out how to use your product in the first place?
simonswords82 4y ago
When I tell people about the long press spacebar feature they react like I’ve changed their (mobile) lives.
- stonegray 4y ago
  The long-press spacebar wasn't even really a great design, it was a hack to replace an older, better feature. iPhones prior to the iPhone 11 used to be able to sense the pressure you touched with on the display, and a firm touch had a ton of neat but hard to discover user interactions, from previewing links in safari without opening them to preventing accidentally hitting the flashlight on the lockscreen on X/XS by requiring a bit of pressure. One of the best (imo) features was the ability to move the cursor in any direction by dragging firmly anywhere on the keyboard. No delay, no press and hold, just instant access to a cursor. The new "haptic touch" way of doing this makes it difficult if not impossible to scroll down, and needing to press and hold ensures it will always be slower. 20 second video demo of how it used to work: https://youtu.be/XlcCgiYF2Fs?t=25 https://youtu.be/XlcCgiYF2Fs?t=25
  - romwell 4y ago
    >One of the best (imo) features was the ability to move the cursor in any direction by dragging firmly anywhere on the keyboard. Must be tons of fun to use with Swipe-type input (aka Flow, etc)
    - cyral 4y ago
      You really had to press hard to get it to happen. iOS has also natively had swipe input for a while now (not sure if it was at the same time though)
  - cyral 4y ago
    I really miss the haptic touch features. The flashlight one was particularly cool because you could instantly enable it by just clicking it like you'd click on an actual flashlight (usually the on button requires some pressure). Now it's an awkward half second delay that is still hard to discover and now feels less natural.
nfw2 4y ago
The actions listed in the article are fairly non-essential, but many fundamental iOS functions also have discoverability issues, as well as some head-scratching design choices. For example: - seeing notifications requires swiping down specifically from the top left - turning on the flashlight requires swiping down specifically from the top right. Swiping down from top left also gets you a flashlight button, but it is not actionable. The flashlight button on the home screen is also not actionable. - universal search requires swiping to the left of the app pages. Swiping past the right end of the app pages also gets you a search bar, but it will only show you apps - Seeing your open apps requires swiping up slowly from the bottom of the page. - turning the phone off requires holding two unrelated buttons Mobile UX generally is heavily-dependent on gestures, which inherently creates discoverability challenges, but it seems like Apple goes out of its way to hide every basic function behind a very specific swipe. It makes me wonder if they intentionally design their products to be exclusively usable by tech-savvy people. Another possible explanation is that design requires users to develop muscle memory over time that will improve experience in the long run and makes competitors feel unnatural.
- fiddlerwoaroof 4y ago
  > The flashlight button on the home screen is also not actionable. The button is actionable, it just takes a long press to avoid accidental activation.
  - romwell 4y ago
    Great, add that to the list of undiscoverable and incoherent design choices in the OP's comment.
    - mobiledev2014 4y ago
      As you hold your finger down the button grows. The designers considered that to be an affordance, whether successful or not (the swiping between tabs mentioned in the OP also has a fairly obvious affordance IMO) The search discoverability nfw2 brings up is fair but has been entirely fixed in iOS 16- a prominent search button was added to the Home Screen (thankfully can be disabled if you prefer the old way)
comex 4y ago
I found swiping on the Safari URL bar to switch between tabs a bit too “discoverable”: I was constantly performing it by accident when trying to switch between apps. I quickly switched back to “Single Tab” mode in settings.
shp0ngle 4y ago
one thing I discovered just now, four years after switching to iPhone: you can actually tap and drag the scrollbar! You need to find the correct time for it to appear, and you need to tap it just right - not too much on the top or on the bottom. And then you can very quickly go up or down, without stupid scrolling like idiot. Very useful if you want to scroll more quickly. Scroll like it’s 1998!
dangus 4y ago
Discoverability isn’t important to shortcut functionality like this. You don’t have to navigate text with the spacebar, you can touch the text directly and touch and hold. You don’t have to delete numbers in the calculator, you can hit C to clear the current number and retype it (a lot of people think that doing this will totally clear your operation, which isn’t true: C is different than AC). You can hit the tabs button in Safari to switch between tabs, swiping the address bar is a shortcut. I would also argue that the safari address bar swipe is very discoverable. You can see the next tab’s address bar on the side of the interface, so it’s implied you can scroll to it. Basically, an analogy to this argument is that the author of this article should be telling us that keyboard shortcuts should be banished because they’re not discoverable. Also, I don’t think discoverability is the same on touch screens as in desktop operating systems. Nobody complains about the discoverability of pinch to zoom or tap and hold because it’s so obvious and intuitive. On the desktop, drag and drop is a similar feature that could be seen to be not so discoverable.
gayn1gga 4y ago
[flagged]
wgx 4y ago
A factor in all of this is how familiar we get with our phones. An app or website we only use once a week or once a month needs to be more obvious and discoverable than the iPhone we pick up 100 times per day.
vavooom 4y ago
"Using the spacebar as textbox navigation" is life altering as a rabid Notes user.
allanrbo 4y ago
I used iPhone 2008-2012, Windows Phone 2012-2015, Android 2015-2022, and then recently bought an iPhone again to see what it's like these days. I was baffled by how unintuitive it has become. So many "secret codes" you need to know these days to use an iPhone. Swiping down from the top on the left or the right bring you different dashboards? Swiping up from the bottom and hold to switch between tasks? How is anyone supposed to guess guess this stuff?
- Gigachad 4y ago
  They could read the onboarding steps you are forced to click through when you set up the phone. Or the “Tips” app that comes preinstalled. Or even the full and extensive manual on iOS.
at_a_remove 4y ago
I was very late to the smartphone game, transitioning somewhat suddenly from a Nokia to an iPhone SE. I found the discoverability to be against everything I was taught as a programmer. It really felt like I was expected to have grown up with the iPhone from the first generation. Worse yet, the gestures ... I searched in vain for a decent printable sheet of the commonly used gestures, only to make my own set of diagrams for an iPad I tried to get my mother to use, leaving her with a set of laminated sheets: the green one detailing the parts of the iPad, the red sheet showing the different screens and how to get there, and finally a blue one with the gestures. I think iOS really needs a "Tutorial mode" app bundled with it. This of course requires that someone resist the temptation to interject with all of the bundled apps that Apple wants you to know about but aren't needed to do the basics. No Focus, no Stocks, no Apple TV ... just show me how to get around in some Settings, practice locking and unlocking a screen, drills for all of the basic gestures.
- hk__2 4y ago
  > I think iOS really needs a "Tutorial mode" app bundled with it. Another commenter on this thread writes that there is an on-boarding process that was introduced with the iPhone X: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32966383 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32966383
- int_19h 4y ago
  It's worse than that. If you started with iPhone from the first generation, you'd have remembered how to use the home button (which also had a lot of functionality crammed into it, with double- and even triple-clicks). Which eventually got removed, so anyone who got used to that - like, say, my parents - had to re-learn once they upgraded.
1-6 4y ago
Data centers hate this one neat trick: The best one is the kinetic (inertial) scrubbing they brought to videos on iOS 16. For example, open a YT video from Safari (don’t open on the YouTube app), go full screen and the flick to scroll backwards and forwards! I bet we’ll all consume more data as a result of this UI addition. I certainly use the YT mobile web version as a result.
janaagaard 4y ago
The article argues that blue text is obviously a clickable link, but that swiping from the left to navigate back isn’t. While I do think it makes a difference that the link is visually different, I also think that what is affordable or discoverable is ultimately a subjective thing. You could argue that for anyone born in this millennia, swiping down to refresh is just as intuitive that blue text being clickable.
jonplackett 4y ago
Shake to undo a - surely the weirdness iPhone design decision.
- sbuk 4y ago
  Never had or played with an etch-a-sketch?
mrkwse 4y ago
I think the swiping back on new tab feature is a very well thought out piece of UX. If a user taps a link that is set to open in a new window/tab, while the bottom/top (depending on user config) URL bar does animate to show the transition, the user may still expect to be able to navigate back to where they came from (especially in such a case where they haven't deliberately made the decision to open in a new tab). I'd argue it would be worse UX for the back swipe to not navigate to the previous page in such circumstances than that it does but closes the tab (which is reasonably signalled by the URL bar animation).
jwalton 4y ago
My favourite is the “double tap with three fingers to zoom in the display”. This happened to me by accident while my phone is in my pocket. The first time it happened, I had to borrow someone else’s phone to look up how to undo it.
armchairhacker 4y ago
these features may be hard to discover but they are all really useful. Imagine if Apple just didn’t add include because they couldn’t find any way to do so intuitively. And once you know them, they’re not complex or hard to use. “Intuitive and easy” > “unintuitive and easy” > “intuitive and hard” > “unintuitive and hard” > “non-existent”
culi 4y ago
The worst degradation for my UX with my iPhone has been when they added some Siri smart search stuff to searching. I'm someone who's given up on memorizing the layout of my apps and I always just swipe down and search by the name of the app. This used to be extremely efficient. Usually a single letter is enough to have the app be in the top 3 results Now they also search a bunch of other apps and I think Siri does something with your searches, possible even looking for web results. All I really want is for the app results to show up first and not have them bogged down by all the other stuff being searched Edit: Seems I'm not the only one.[0][1] Also what I was talking about was called "Spotlight search" now its in "Siri & Search". Doesn't seem like there's a real solution [0] https://discussions.apple.com/thread/7887520 https://discussions.apple.com/thread/7887520 [1] https://arstechnica.com/civis/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=1483913 https://arstechnica.com/civis/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=1483913
- bashy 4y ago
  Siri & Search in Settings. Can configure what’s shown. Although it’s true what they say in your [1] link with the speed.
  - culi 4y ago
    Yeah sorry I should've specified I already tried turning Siri results off and it didn't help. I see you can also turn off "Show Content in Search" for each app... I guess I can spend 10 minutes doing that on my 100+ apps
    - jamiek88 4y ago
      I do the same and instead just search from the App Library screen that shows only apps. Like I just swipe to that screen which is my second screen and enter the first letter and it’s done. Same amount of swipes just right instead of down! Doesn’t help if you have pages of apps and have to swipe five or six times to get to the App Library but I hide them all in two folders, one for Apple apps and one for installed apps so searching is key. (this was before the option to add to App Library only, indeed before App Library existed I’d basically created my own!)
imgabe 4y ago
I never understood the cliché about Ikea furniture being difficult to assemble. I always admired how they sidestepped the problem of producing directions in many languages by just using pictures. It's a marvel of clarity to me.
pottertheotter 4y ago
> I also think about the category of things that aren’t intuitive and require some guidance, like... putting together IKEA furniture. Woe is the fool who tries to discover a complicated IKEA piece through action! Do people try to do this? I've never considered not using the IKEA instructions.
JFKKFJ 4y ago
naet 4y ago
I was surprised when I needed to use my partner's iPhone I had no idea how to complete certain basic actions, despite using a similar Android smartphone every day. Maybe I had gotten used to the undiscoverable features on my phone, but I felt that a modern iPhone was borderline unusable for me without learning about certain hidden actions like swiping from different edges of the screen and knowing where certain settings are.
rocket_surgeron 4y ago
I love articles like this because they make me feel like a super-genius even though I am completely average. Every single one of those esoteric morsels of forbidden knowledge is in the Tips app, which I read from top to bottom when it was first released. Here are the instructions on how to delete a number in the calculator, the first arcane incantation the author discovered through his or her intense study of the dark arts: https://imgur.com/a/3BgTg1K https://imgur.com/a/3BgTg1K Something which I've known for years, because I RTFM. I'm willing to bet, but not bothered enough to check, that every single "TOP TEN FEATURES APPLE IS HIDING FROM YOU" is thoroughly documented, with full-color illustrations where warranted, in Tips.app. It has been a long time but I believe that Tips.app comes preinstalled and there are some nag-notifications for you to read it. I am sure many people smarter than I instantly deleted Tips.app the second they set up their phone to which I can only say "Careful, Icarus". And yeah, I read the manuals that come with my all of my products, usually while on the toilet. Who doesn't want to know the amperage a NES Mini draws from its AC adapter? I grew up in the technology era where if you didn't read the manual you were screwed, and my Apple IIgs Toolbox book, which I read from cover to cover to learn how to program my IIgs is still on my shelf surrounded by hundreds of other reference books. Tips.app is just the 2022 Apple IIgs Toolbox and I'm not haughty enough to look down on it.
YmiYugy 4y ago
I actually like the way Apple is doing these things. There is almost always a way to achieve the same things using established patterns, that takes slightly longer and is a little less convenient. It's not like you can't use an iPhone without knowing about these little "shortcuts". Admittedly, most users won't discover these hacks, because of poor discoverability. They could add a ton of UI like dedicated buttons for all these hidden gestures, even label them to make it more obvious what they do. The downside is, that the UI would quickly become a complete mess. Another way would be to have the user sit through a tedious tutorial upon opening the app for the first time and then remind them from time to time how to do things. This gets annoying really fast. The real alternative Apple would choose however is to simply omit these little features and "streamline" their apps. Because they aren't core the usability of the phone, I consider them welcome extras, which means I'm delighted every time I learn a new one rather than bummed out about the ones I don't know about.
cbsks 4y ago
The Apple Books app has a iPhone User’s Guide for download that has all of these tricks documented. Apple should make it more obvious that there is official documentation there.
Linda703 4y ago
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tehnub 4y ago
Even the basic spotlight search is pretty hard to discover. I'd say about half of the iPhone users I meet have never heard of the feature, and are surprised when I swipe down on their screen and show it to them. With iOS 16 though, they've finally added a button, so that should help on that front. Another feature that isn't well known is swiping between recent apps by swiping horizontally along the bottom of the screen. I didn't know about that feature until somebody posted about it on HN a while back.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
soheil 4y ago
I like the surprise of finding these nuggets when I do discover them over time. Why does everything have to be so freaking obvious that even a toddler can discover it with eyes closed?
soheil 4y ago
Finding little gems like these by accident gives an impression of something bigger, something mysterious and grand. Seems like the author wants a giant red arrow saying gem here on a treasure hunt.
eyelidlessness 4y ago
Today I learned the calculator app allows character deletion. Weirdly you can swipe both left/right and they both behave as backspace. That’s pretty weird! I knew the other gestures, which are nice conveniences. The lack of clear controls in the calculator is a good example of poor discoverability. The other examples are actions which all have more obvious alternatives, either visible in the UI (tab switching of various sorts) or more directly interacting (caret placement). I think it’s fine that those are less discoverable because you don’t actually need to know they exist unless you want to, and they become obvious when you find them. With, uh, one big exception: the new tab/back button thing is an excellent idea, and I even remember it being announced as a major new Safari feature (on macOS! It might’ve even still been called OS X it’s been around so long). But it’s horribly buggy, leaving phantom tabs and history behind at every turn, and has been the same since it shipped. I think I have a mental model of how it works and its failure modes, but just imagining the explanation is exhausting.
captn3m0 4y ago
> You’ll sometimes see these features pop up in life hack or “I never knew this hidden feature existed” tweets I collect these: https://nitter.net/umanghome/status/1283074787175092224#m https://nitter.net/umanghome/status/1283074787175092224#m (Click Earlier replies to see all tweets, and then scroll down).
soulofmischief 4y ago
I'm a seasoned software developer and UX specialist and iPhones scare me. I have no idea how to use them and try to get them out of my hands as fast as possible. Interfaces like that give me serious anxiety.
notpopcorn 4y ago
Another example of a very hidden feature is "export/print as pdf". If you do share => print, you don't get a pdf option, but you can do a zoom gesture on the preview and then +poof+, it's a pdf you can save. How was I supposed to discover that?
codeptualize 4y ago
What this article misses is that a lot of these features are shortcuts for things that are not essential or you could achieve in other ways. These are generally referred to as accelerators, and are by design harder to discover as they are targeted at expert users. You trade learnability for convenience and efficiency (also less clutter, which should not be underestimated). Good article on this: https://www.nngroup.com/articles/ui-accelerators/ https://www.nngroup.com/articles/ui-accelerators/ Just to clarify, there are indeed also some places in iOS where it’s maybe less ideal, but my point is that there is a place for undiscoverable features.
watermelon0 4y ago
There are also some actions only available via Siri, such as removing all alarms from Clock app. "Siri, delete all of my alarms" is the only way to do this with a single action, since UI only always deleting one by one.
jawadch93 4y ago
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bemmu 4y ago
I kind of want some way to record myself using my computer or phone, and have an expert look at the recording and point out things I’m doing the hard way. Preferably software instead of human so it’d be slightly less embarrassing. I’m afraid there’s a shortcut to something that would save me X minutes per day but that I’ll never even know to ask.
Reason077 4y ago
I don't think the Safari "swipe the URL bar to switch tabs" example is unintuitive. There is a strong hint at their swipeability because you can see the neighbouring tabs poking out on each side. I remember discovering this almost immediately when it was introduced! (It's perhaps slightly less intuitive that you can also swipe the bar UP to access the tab switcher interface)
- spixy 4y ago
  yeah all main browsers on Android (Chrome, Firefox, Edge) support that since forever (almost)
  - Reason077 4y ago
    Hmm. I tried it on iOS Chrome and iOS Firefox. Works in Chrome (but it's not as obvious as in Safari because you don't see the adjacent tabs at the edge of the screen) ... but curiously not in Firefox.
amzans 4y ago
Just a few days ago I learned that iPhones come with a built-in image scanner in the notes app. Interestingly: It was a senior citizen in a local shop who pointed that to me when I needed to scan some documents for him.
jpalomaki 4y ago
It was even worse with the force touch" - sometimes I found myself pushing the screen, with finger turning white, trying to summon some functionality I was expecting to have there.
rchaud 4y ago
Because Apple cannot deign to offer its users even basic physical documentation of how their glass slab works, publishers have filled the void with books with large pictures and screenshots of iOS functionality: 1) iPad for Dummies (they need to get rid of that name) 2) a bunch of random publishers selling magazine-style paperbacks like "iPad OS Guide for 2022". You can find these on mag-sharing websites, as they're low-volume and usually only available at checkout counters at grocery stores, or airport shops.
WhyNotHugo 4y ago
It's important to make features as easy to discover as possible. Especially the basic features. The actions in this article are _shortcuts_. Like a single swipe to switch tabs. It's hard to make it more discoverable (there's a tiny hint on the hide, but that's it). At this point, there's two options: - Overload the UI showing the possible action. Results in overloaded UIs and worse UX. - Leave it as-is and just mention it online or in "did you know" pages. The second option usually makes sense the most. I see a big online trend of "let's remove right click options because they're hard to discover", and I think it's ridiculous. Actions hidden behind right click should be visible elsewhere (e.g.: the options on a file manager are all in the menu bar too), but right click is a fast and convenient *shortcut*.
issung 4y ago
The worst was when I had to Google how to delete a contact (I think it was the contacts list view, or something very similar), I have to swipe it to the side, then a big red delete button appears?? But dont swipe the wrong way because then it's something else? It's probably different now, I ditched the Apple boat long ago.

396 points by otras 4y ago

The iPad is worst for this, I still haven’t got to grips with all the convoluted gesture based multitasking controls.

It took me way too long to accidentally find out that the stock calculator app becomes a (limited) scientific calculator in landscape mode.

dawiddr 4y ago

Well, the screen estate on a mobile device is limited, so the number of actions that are easy to discover needs to be limited too - otherwise the UI would be cluttered. I find Apple good at balancing this. Notice how actions that he mentions are just quicker alternatives to stuff that one can already do in another way.

lcuff 4y ago
Not 'just' quicker. Easier. Less frustrating. Important elements. This is my experience of using the long-spacebar technique for placing the cursor. Digressing: An AI noticing that someone has moved the cursor several time without ever typing anything could pop up a "Want me to show you other ways to move the cursor?" dialog, and teach the 'hard to discover' technique. I await the day ...
- jonchang 4y ago
  Sounds like a rebranding of the much-reviled Clippy.
  - lcuff 4y ago
    I never used Clippy. Reviled? You mean Microsoft took the idea of 'context appropriate useful suggestions' and bungled the user interface? Inconceivable!
- joshgachnang 4y ago
  AI Clippy!
- rajeshr 4y ago
  The Calculator app could suggest that I can swipe on the display at the top if it notices that I'm using 'C' often. This would not even need an AI. I wonder if there are UI frameworks that support the detection and suggestion of "better" actions?
ncann 4y ago
That excuse doesn't hold for the calculator example, where the 0 button takes up 2 spaces for no good reason, and they could easily added a backspace button instead.
- hk__2 4y ago
  > That excuse doesn't hold for the calculator example, where the 0 button takes up 2 spaces for no good reason, and they could easily added a backspace button instead. It would be a really weird place for a backspace button and you would always tap on it by mistake.
  - ncann 4y ago
    It's literally how the Android calculator is, 0 button -> . button -> backspace button. No one ever complained about it. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.calculator&hl=en_CA&gl=US https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.and...
    - hk__2 4y ago
      Thanks; I stand corrected.
yccs27 4y ago
This seems crucial to me - most of these 'nondiscoverable' actions are shortcuts, and there is another discoverable way to achieve the same outcome. They are similar to keyboard shortcuts in that way, they just help power users who know them. (The calculator backspace seems to be an exception, which is why I also dislike it.)
- kemayo 4y ago
  There isn't a backspace in the calculator, but the swipe is still (basically) a shortcut for something which does have a button. Pressing the C button clears the current input entirely, after all.

adastra22 4y ago

The last two are pretty obvious to me. The first two are brand new to me and very undiscoverable though!

amelius 4y ago
Yes, for the first two you have to think like a UI designer. Do UI designers think that everybody would be good at their job?
- Gigachad 4y ago
  HN users think they would do better than the experts in any field.
  - adastra22 4y ago
    How tf would anyone think that swiping a calculator screen will make the digits go away one at a time, and that this behavior would be organically discovered?
    - codeptualize 4y ago
      As with all design you can have the discussion if there are better alternatives, but it's not that crazy to design it like this considering most old physical calculators don't have a backspace button. They have C and CE (or AC) buttons to either clear the last entry or everything, similar to the app. You could very well reason they are sticking to convention. Also in most basic use of a calculator it's quite fine to input the last number again, it's probably often even more convenient than backspace. This makes the backspace swipe feature an extra, non-essential feature, and it's probably ok to not be discovered organically. Most UI is full of hard to organically discover accelerators aimed at expert users. They are intentionally not visible, to keep the basics simple for novice users. The right question is; can people use the calculator app without knowing about this feature? The answer is yes, as many people do without any problem. Again, you could have a discussion if there should be a visible backspace button, but accelerators are an important part of any well designed UI. To answer your question: They don't think it will be discovered organically, it's by design.

koinedad 4y ago

Yeah it’s hard! Kind of the flip side but related to the text navigation: https://technicallychallenged.substack.com/p/my-favorite-iphone-feature-was-removed https://technicallychallenged.substack.com/p/my-favorite-iph...

jbverschoor 4y ago

While I also hate the "undescoverability". It's possible that all (maybe not all) usecases of an app are still available to anything visible. For older or less tech interested people, this is actually perfect. The problem lies in the following cases: 1) Person accidentally does something 2) Edge case / state / scenario, which cannot be solved without knowing some shortcuts. I think iOS became too complicated for some people. At the same time the UI is a pretty messy and inconsistent at times.

djmcnab 4y ago
In unfamiliar UIs, I often find myself accidentally triggering keyboard shortcuts and getting into weird states, so 1) leading to 2). A classic example is changing into override mode[0] in Microsoft Word or similar[1]. You end up in a mode where typing no longer adds characters, but replaces them. If you're at the end of the document, it would still add characers, but you stay in override mode. Meaning that once you're in this mode, it doesn't strike until you start editing or try to fix a typo, when the computer. WordPad doesn't even have any visual distinction. Visual Studio Code's solution to this is nice. If you enter `Tab Moves Focus` mode, with <kbd>Ctrl</kbd>+<kbd>M</kbd>, the info bar shows the text `Tab Moves Focus` in a (tastefully) highlighted button, clicking which disables that mode. So you will have a moment of confusion upon pressing tab, inadvertently entering the mode, however the situation of 2) is avoided as a helping hand is visible. Perhaps another UI is to have a log of activated keyboard shortcuts always visible, with 'new' shortcuts highlighted more obviously (perhaps with some estimation of decaying familiarity). I'm not familiar with this being implemented anywhere, but I think it at least merits consideration. [0] This is activated with <kbd>Insert</kbd>; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insert_key https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insert_key [1] In the version of Word I currently have installed, this behaviour seems to be disabled/removed. However, Wordpad still changes into override mode upon pressing Insert.
layer8 4y ago
The other problem is the flat design which makes it non-obvious which parts of the UI are tappable controls and which are just read-only design elements or indicators or labels. Another issue is inconsistent placement. For example during iPhone setup, sometimes you have Continue buttons centered in the bottom half of the screen, and sometimes you have to tap the small “Next” label at the top right of the screen. I’ve had family members get stuck in that process because the Next button was so inconspicuous and so far removed from the main elements of the current dialog that it was completely unclear to them how to move forward.

layer8 4y ago

> Going back after opening a new Safari tab I like this feature, but what annoys me is that unlike the regular use of Back, you can’t Forward to undo the Back in that situation, even in the common case that the original tab is at the top of the history (i.e. has no current Forward target of its own).

NaOH 4y ago
>unlike the regular use of Back, you can’t Forward to undo the Back in that situation.... If you've enabled Shake To Undo in Settings>Accessibility>Touch, then you can undo/reopen the closed tab.
- layer8 4y ago
  Right, but the reopened tab doesn’t restore to the previous scroll position as Forward does, and the tab also cannot be closed by Back anymore, both meaning that it isn’t a true Undo. These are just more inconsistencies. The problem is that iOS is full of such smaller and bigger inconsistencies. Another thing that annoys me is when you open a new tab via Look Up > Search Web (which in a sense is quite similar to opening a link in a new tab), then that new tab cannot be closed by Back. I wish Apple would spend a year or two in streamlining all that stuff.

robinson-wall 4y ago

I can forgive the URL bar swipe to change between tabs, because there is a visual cue that the other tabs are there - the URL bars of the adjacent tabs peek onto the screen.

renewiltord 4y ago

What's the recording app that shows the cursor movement? The built in recorded only shows taps and scrolls right?

filoleg 4y ago
> The built in recorded only shows taps and scrolls right? Click on options in the built-in one, there is a "show mouse pointer" check you can click. Here is how it looks[0]. 0. https://static1.makeuseofimages.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/macos-screenshot-options.jpg?q=50&fit=crop&w=1500&dpr=1.5 https://static1.makeuseofimages.com/wordpress/wp-content/upl...
- renewiltord 4y ago
  Thank you!
otras 4y ago
I actually cheated and used the built-in recorder with an external mouse (I somehow had a USB->Lightning adapter on hand). You can then, in the Accessibility settings, enable an always visible cursor under Pointer Control, though Pointer Control is only visible _after_ you have the mouse plugged in. Ironic to have such iOS struggles for a post about iOS struggles...
- renewiltord 4y ago
  Nice. Thank you.

thih9 4y ago

> I don’t think any of these are intuitive or easily discoverable. Then again, perhaps they don’t need to be universally intuitive / discoverable; i.e.: the users who need these features may instinctively search for them and eventually discover them. Anecdotally, I’ve been able to discover three out of four actions mentioned in the article (the fourth one was about the calculator app, which I don’t use that often).

culopatin 4y ago
What does anyone have to gain by making it a quest to find these features? It doesn’t benefit the user who found them anyway and obviously doesn’t help the user who didn’t find them. Does it make you part of a UX VIP club to find them?
- thih9 4y ago
  The benefit is that the app ends up being simpler. The users who don’t need these features don’t have to know about them, don’t have to click through tutorials, or be pestered by hints.
  - romwell 4y ago
    >The users who don’t need these features don’t have to know about them, don’t have to click through tutorials, or be pestered by hints. Welcome to the new iCalculator! To simplify your experience, the only operator button is "+", which now takes half of the screen, and is therefore easy to find and press, adding to the pleasure of using the calculator. You might ask, where's the "-" button? Was it stupid to remove it? No, it's brave! Don't be so negative about it; our UX studies show that "+" is statistically the most used button, and so your needs don't matter. If you need to subtract, swipe "+" button down; to multiply, swipe "+" right, and to divide, swipe "+" down. Swipe "+" up to raise to an exponent. To quickly square numbers, hold "+", then perform a square gesture clockwise aronud the button. To take a square root, perform it in reverse. You may notice that we have removed the digit buttons as well. That's because you don't need to type the numbers in - just say them out loud! Swipe the screen diagonally from the bottom left corner to the top right one to activate voice input. Note: digit buttons can still be enabled from the accessibility options in the system dialog. Note 2: voice recognition of operators is coming in a future upgrade. To clear your input, you can simply restart the app, no buttons needed. Note 3: you can enable a haptic shortcut in system acessibility settings: "Clear input by shaking phone". Finally, you can read this instruction manual by telepathically tuning into the lead engineer's mind, as it's not available anywhere else. Enjoy your intuitive iExperience!

ice3 4y ago

I'd also add - double tapping the top of the screen to scroll to the top.

jeffbee 4y ago
That, I believe, is just a single tap.
- ice3 4y ago
  Huh, I always assumed it’s a double tap, and I’ve been using iPhones sines 4, but just checked and it’s a single tap. Talk about action discoverability.

iforgotpassword 4y ago

It's a little ironic how at the advent of the iPhone, the desktop os was mocked as being clunky and full of those things you just have to know, rather than being discoverable. The iPhone was limited and simple. And it really helped adoption of smartphones. Now it's assumed everybody is already familiar with smartphones and welcomes yet another shortcut or gesture to make usage quicker. Take Android and the removal of the three buttons at the bottom, in exchange for some gestures. Just so the interface looks cleaner. Imagine someone who has never used a smartphone before would be starting out with that. Just hand them the phone and see how long it takes them to return to the home screen after opening the first app. Not to say this is good or bad, just an observation mostly.

nightfly 4y ago
First thing I did on my new phone was put those dots back...
jeroenhd 4y ago
I like the way Xiaomi enabled gestures on my phone. The default was the three button layout, with the option to switch to gestures. The moment you enable gestures, you get a little interactive tutorial on how to use them so you don't get confused.
i80and 4y ago
The removal of the three dots completely throws me for a loop. I simply could not get the gestures to stick in my brain. And not to sound entitled, but... I shouldn't have to? Anyway I'm ride or die for the three dots and am pretty worried they'll kill off the option to bring them back.
- saiya-jin 4y ago
  I don't use gestures, never had, if possible never will. Phone works 100% fine for me as it is (samsung s22 ultra), i am as efficient with it as I want and need. Whatever works for you is how you should use the product. Plus, lets not be pathetic with wasting life on phone, real life happens outside screens. Its good to keep reminding oneself this little truth regardless how shiny new gimmicks manufacturers bring to keep us glued to their products and ad-based services.

scary-size 4y ago

Took me two years to learn that I can hit the volume down button to trigger the camera…

knolan 4y ago
In fairness this has been around since feature phones.
wolpoli 4y ago
Sounds like they could help by putting an icon next to the volume down button.

hs86 4y ago

I moved to iOS over a year ago after using Android exclusively, and I agree that this was a discoverability downgrade. Editing text with various multi-finger gestures, shaking the device, or even putting the entire Photos app into a different mode to select multiple items are outright downgrades to what Android does. The iPhone innovated finger-touch-based on-screen keyboards while everyone else was still typing with a stylus on a tiny keyboard, but since then, they seem to stagnate. iOS 16 just got haptic feedback on its keyboard in 2022(!), and I am still making more typing errors compared to Android with Gboard.

skizm 4y ago
> Editing text with various multi-finger gestures What multi-finger text editing gestures am I missing out on?
- svendahlstrand 4y ago
  Undo and redo: Undo the last edit: Swipe left with three fingers, then tap Undo at the top of the screen. Redo the last edit: Swipe right with three fingers, then tap Redo at the top of the screen. https://support.apple.com/guide/iphone/type-with-the-onscreen-keyboard-iph3c50f96e/16.0/ios/16.0 https://support.apple.com/guide/iphone/type-with-the-onscree...
shepherdjerred 4y ago
> iOS 16 just got haptic feedback on its keyboard in 2022 Wow thanks for letting me know. I finally have haptics again after switching to an iPhone 6 years ago. I totally agree with iOS having a worse typing experience. On Android with Gboard I could swipe/type extremely quickly with few errors. On iOS I make a mistake every few works, and the swipe accuracy is significantly worse. I know that there is Gboard with iOS, but I've had a lot of trouble with custom keyboards on iOS, so I've given up.

theptip 4y ago

This drives me mad too. However, not sure it’s the end of the world. In many cases these are extra shortcuts, analogous to key bindings. Power users are (should be?) aware of the existence of such things and look them up. It’s hard to make keyboard shortcuts discoverable (though IntelliJ does a good job). I think it’s extremely problematic when these are core UI actions instead of shortcuts. Manipulating long form text is quite annoying without the space-bar trick for example. Hard to see how you’d make that discoverable though. (An interesting UX thought experiment!)

Gigachad 4y ago
The space bar trick is clearly explained in the iOS manual. Probably even in the Tips app too. At some point there is just no way to get people to know every feature short of forcing them to read the manual and locking the phone with a quiz on it at the end.

traeregan 4y ago

Where I work we've been developing mobile apps since the first iPhone, and we still have these "How the hell was I supposed to know?" moments quite often. A couple of my friends who don't work in tech. are sort-of hobbyist iOS fanboys, and they always get a kick out of it when they show me some feature or gesture that I wasn't familiar with.

carom 4y ago

I do find myself regularly saying things like - >Ah yes, the three finger force press double tap right swipe, of course. What bothers me about these is how non technical people who don't search will never find them. On the other hand, it might be good to have things hidden so someone non technical can't get their phone into a bad state.

crazygringo 4y ago

It's funny how I've witnessed a complete 180° change from how, in the 1990's, software was supposed to be entirely discoverable and it also came with a manual that documented literally everything, to now there's a ton that's hidden, often without any manual whatsoever... but you can Google everything you need to know. Probably the single most useful skill I've had to learn in my life is, whenever you wonder something, just Google it. If you don't think your software does X... don't just assume it. Look it up. I've been astonished at how often a feature was added 3 years ago to a program I've used for 8 years, or there's a secret swipe that avoids a bunch of menus, or an unofficial command-line flag. And it really leaves me feeling deeply conflicted. Because on the one hand, I still believe in the virtue of learning your tools inside and out. I would read the manual and be proud I knew exactly what every program/language could and couldn't do. But on the other hand, is that really just a waste of time? Programs have so many features now, that instead of learning all the things via discoverability or a manual, we just learn them by... querying how to do things when we need them. I don't really like the idea of so fundamentally relying on Google and forums and tutorials and Reddit and YouTube videos as the main way of learning how to use software. But at the same time, software does so much now and adds new things so quickly that it appears to be the only reasonable way.

agumonkey 4y ago
This pattern is quite global. Everything is "more available" now, real time streamed, there's no apparent need for apriori organization since we can correct on the fly. Or so it seems. Games are patched live, browser in constant update etc etc
layer8 4y ago
> we just learn them by... querying how to do things when we need them. The problem with this is that you don’t learn any new features that you wouldn’t have come up with on your own. I loved reading the well-written manuals and “on-line” (integrated into the software) help of the 90s (and 80s) that explained all the concepts and features of the particular software. You’d learn a ton of new ideas and possibilities. It was really fun and exciting, and it gave you the perception of a well-designed and well thought-out whole. You built up a consistent mental model of the software, and you thus ended up with the feeling of mastery and control over the software. Nowadays it feels more like poking the software with a stick in an attempt to build a mental model and discover its capabilities by trial and error, often remaining in doubt about the actual intent of how exactly things are supposed to work.

vidanay 4y ago

I've been an Android user since day 1 and had never used an iPhone until about a year ago when my company replaced my work phone (Android) with an iPhone. It took me two months before I realized there is a difference between swiping down from the top on the left and swiping down from the top on the right. I don't think Android is necessarily better though - I simply have more experience with it.

Gigachad 4y ago
I remember that top swipe situation being the same on my Nexus 7 (2012)

cjohansson 4y ago

I would say most people don't know 90% of how to use the iOS interface but ppl are in general not interested in learning it and wouldn't read a manual if the box included one or even watch videos of it. People just what Apple to read their minds, to get their stuff done in as little effort as possible and people are willing to pay a lot of money for that experience

_thisdot 4y ago

What I find most annoying in iOS UX is how much information is tucked behind the "Share" icon. Having to click the share button to access "Find on Page" is super unintuitive.

dnissley 4y ago
You can also just type in the url bar to find on page (also super unintuitive)
PNWChris 4y ago
To add insult to injury, sometimes the share sheet is really, really slow! Like several seconds with no UI feedback to indicate anything is going on! That’s quite frustrating when I want to quickly invoke my password manager or search on page. I agree, the share sheet is just too confusing. Favorites management, my password manager, air drop, texting, find on page, and the kitchen sink are all in there and are quite undiscoverable if you don’t know to look for them. To add some confusion on top of that, some features and extensions go in the similarly un-discoverable “aA” button in the URL bar, so it’s not even like everything goes in the share sheet. That button is really tough to remember even exists since it goes away when you scroll.
layer8 4y ago
You don’t have to use Share for Find on Page. Just type in the address bar, then “On this Page” will be the bottom option. Obviously, that doesn’t seem to be sufficiently discoverable as well.
- Gigachad 4y ago
  It is a general pattern that the share menu is the collection of everything that didn’t justify its own icon.
- WhyNotHugo 4y ago
  I have to close the keyboard or scroll out-of-view for this to be visible. It could have been the second option shown TBH.

svendahlstrand 4y ago

The Back Tap feature is my favorite "hidden" action on the iPhone. You can double (or triple) tap the back of the phone to trigger whatever action you want. For example, toggle the flashlight or lock rotation. Show Spotlight or run a Shortcut. https://support.apple.com/guide/iphone/back-tap-iphaa57e7885/16.0/ios/16.0 https://support.apple.com/guide/iphone/back-tap-iphaa57e7885... I think Apple does a decent job telling people about iOS features across the User Guide, Tips.app, and the Apple Support YouTube channel. The "undiscoverable" features in the article are all there. Delete the last digit: If you make a mistake when you enter a number, swipe left or right on the display at the top. https://support.apple.com/guide/iphone/calculator-iph1ac0b5cc/ios https://support.apple.com/guide/iphone/calculator-iph1ac0b5c... Turn the onscreen keyboard into a trackpad. 1. Touch and hold the Space bar with one finger until the keyboard turns light gray. 2. Move the insertion point by dragging around the keyboard. https://support.apple.com/guide/iphone/type-with-the-onscreen-keyboard-iph3c50f96e/16.0/ios/16.0 https://support.apple.com/guide/iphone/type-with-the-onscree... To access other open tabs, you can swipe left or right on the tab bar. https://youtu.be/30tfnCxLWSg?t=21 https://youtu.be/30tfnCxLWSg?t=21

inetknght 4y ago
- shepherdjerred 4y ago
  This is a very low-effort comment that is trying to disagree with the parent in every way possible. I'm guessing that you just don't like Apple, which is fine, but the way that you're disagreeing isn't particularly useful. It would be constructive if you at least posted a comparison of how Android (or your favorite phone maker) does it better, or even what you'd improve. > What "User Guide"? The parent linked to it in their comment, here's the home page: https://support.apple.com/guide/iphone/welcome/ios https://support.apple.com/guide/iphone/welcome/ios > Tips.app? You mean that piece of trash that tells me a bunch of useless noise? The first thing I do when setting up iOS is delete the stock apps, including Tips.app. I just downloaded it to see what it actually is, and flipped through it for a few minutes. I'm not sure what useless noise you're referring to. After going through the app, it contains a very good list of things to know about using an iPhone, such as how to navigate, how to set up features like Medical ID and use Emergency SOS, as well as personalize your iPhone will wallpapers, sounds, font sizes, etc. Tips does a very good job of not being information overload -- there are 5 sections under "Get Started", with each section having a 5-10 short sentences about each feature. It also contains a link to the full iPhone User Guide. There's no upselling or suggesting that you buy some subscription in the app, nor any ads. I'm not sure what you have against this app, even someone who's had an iPhone for a while will probably learn one new thing after spending 5-10 minutes in it. > Apple Support Youtube Channel? I have to use a competitor's product to learn about the iPhone? This is ridiculous. > So I have to move my fingers from the keyboard at the bottom of the screen to some imaginary place at the top of the screen? It's hard enough getting the damn phone to understand a left/right swipe instead of an up/down swipe! You're switching from the topic of discoverability to Apple makes poor features.

knolan 4y ago

I’ve found watching the WWDC keynotes where they announce a new version of iOS or MacOS a good way to learn many of the new gestures and features. For your average user many of these features will remain hidden and I suspect that’s partially by design. They want such users to have a simple experience.

irrational 4y ago

Huh, I’ve been using an iPhone since the very first one. This is the first time I’ve ever seen any of these actions. I had no idea.

arthurofbabylon 4y ago

I fail to see the flaw here. When catering to large groups of diverse people, I don’t expect homogenous use of a product. Everyone should be able to find their own high-value solutions within a product, according to their real needs. We could call the presented paradigm needs-based discovery. It inherently means that some people won’t be aware of solutions that benefit others – that is, until their need or exposure evolves. And that is okay. More than okay, it’s great. To return to the basics… people don’t like being inundated with features they don’t want and they do like discovering solutions to problems. This is excellent design. Could those features be better presented? Always. The iPhone interface has an incredible array of constraints: it needs to serve literally every type of person on the planet. That’s beautiful. I have huge respect for designers capable of connecting with such diverse stakeholders. It is masterful design in the most pure sense.

yakubin 4y ago

My least favourite “feature” of iOS now is shake-to-undo. I’ve never triggered it intentionally. It’s too weird of a thing to remember when I actually want to do it. It would also feel ridiculous even if I remembered it. The only times I trigger it, it’s by accident, and then I need to cancel it.

svendahlstrand 4y ago
You should turn it off then. :) Search for shake in the Settings app.
nicoburns 4y ago
On the contrary it's one of my favourite iOS features. If you're writing any volume of text on mobile it's super useful to undo accidental mistakes. Android just doesn't have undo at all and your text is gone. Probably would be better as a long press menu option though.
layer8 4y ago
I actually use that quite frequently, because it’s often quicker than the equivalent text editing operations. You can turn it off in Settings > Accessibility > Touch > Shake to Undo.
easton 4y ago
The one that bugs me sometimes is shake to send feedback, because the feedback form isn’t useful whenever I trigger it by accident. The funniest implementation is Microsoft Teams, where if you shake it pops up a feedback form that then says you can’t send feedback because it can only be sent via Mail.app, not Outlook (you know, the Microsoft email client that your IT department makes you use instead of Mail.app?).

baggy_trough 4y ago

Worse than undiscoverable features are landmine features where an accidental gesture triggers some huge mode change that can’t easily be reverted.

doe88 4y ago

Is there a guide / (giant) cheatsheet of all these hidden features, collected somewhere? It would be a great ressource.

sbuk 4y ago
There's the user guide...

glacials 4y ago

These features aren't nondiscoverable; discovery just takes place outside the operating system, in communities like this one. Good designers know that communities are a constant of the power user UX just like a settings menu or instruction manual. You don't have to pollute the UI with hints and copy about every little thing because power users are their own discovery engines.

shepherdjerred 4y ago
> Good designers know that communities are a constant of the power user UX Maybe power users are a part of those communities because they can't figure out how to use your product in the first place?

simonswords82 4y ago

When I tell people about the long press spacebar feature they react like I’ve changed their (mobile) lives.

stonegray 4y ago
The long-press spacebar wasn't even really a great design, it was a hack to replace an older, better feature. iPhones prior to the iPhone 11 used to be able to sense the pressure you touched with on the display, and a firm touch had a ton of neat but hard to discover user interactions, from previewing links in safari without opening them to preventing accidentally hitting the flashlight on the lockscreen on X/XS by requiring a bit of pressure. One of the best (imo) features was the ability to move the cursor in any direction by dragging firmly anywhere on the keyboard. No delay, no press and hold, just instant access to a cursor. The new "haptic touch" way of doing this makes it difficult if not impossible to scroll down, and needing to press and hold ensures it will always be slower. 20 second video demo of how it used to work: https://youtu.be/XlcCgiYF2Fs?t=25 https://youtu.be/XlcCgiYF2Fs?t=25
- romwell 4y ago
  >One of the best (imo) features was the ability to move the cursor in any direction by dragging firmly anywhere on the keyboard. Must be tons of fun to use with Swipe-type input (aka Flow, etc)
  - cyral 4y ago
    You really had to press hard to get it to happen. iOS has also natively had swipe input for a while now (not sure if it was at the same time though)
- cyral 4y ago
  I really miss the haptic touch features. The flashlight one was particularly cool because you could instantly enable it by just clicking it like you'd click on an actual flashlight (usually the on button requires some pressure). Now it's an awkward half second delay that is still hard to discover and now feels less natural.

nfw2 4y ago

The actions listed in the article are fairly non-essential, but many fundamental iOS functions also have discoverability issues, as well as some head-scratching design choices. For example: - seeing notifications requires swiping down specifically from the top left - turning on the flashlight requires swiping down specifically from the top right. Swiping down from top left also gets you a flashlight button, but it is not actionable. The flashlight button on the home screen is also not actionable. - universal search requires swiping to the left of the app pages. Swiping past the right end of the app pages also gets you a search bar, but it will only show you apps - Seeing your open apps requires swiping up slowly from the bottom of the page. - turning the phone off requires holding two unrelated buttons Mobile UX generally is heavily-dependent on gestures, which inherently creates discoverability challenges, but it seems like Apple goes out of its way to hide every basic function behind a very specific swipe. It makes me wonder if they intentionally design their products to be exclusively usable by tech-savvy people. Another possible explanation is that design requires users to develop muscle memory over time that will improve experience in the long run and makes competitors feel unnatural.

fiddlerwoaroof 4y ago
> The flashlight button on the home screen is also not actionable. The button is actionable, it just takes a long press to avoid accidental activation.
- romwell 4y ago
  Great, add that to the list of undiscoverable and incoherent design choices in the OP's comment.
  - mobiledev2014 4y ago
    As you hold your finger down the button grows. The designers considered that to be an affordance, whether successful or not (the swiping between tabs mentioned in the OP also has a fairly obvious affordance IMO) The search discoverability nfw2 brings up is fair but has been entirely fixed in iOS 16- a prominent search button was added to the Home Screen (thankfully can be disabled if you prefer the old way)

comex 4y ago

I found swiping on the Safari URL bar to switch between tabs a bit too “discoverable”: I was constantly performing it by accident when trying to switch between apps. I quickly switched back to “Single Tab” mode in settings.

shp0ngle 4y ago

one thing I discovered just now, four years after switching to iPhone: you can actually tap and drag the scrollbar! You need to find the correct time for it to appear, and you need to tap it just right - not too much on the top or on the bottom. And then you can very quickly go up or down, without stupid scrolling like idiot. Very useful if you want to scroll more quickly. Scroll like it’s 1998!

dangus 4y ago

Discoverability isn’t important to shortcut functionality like this. You don’t have to navigate text with the spacebar, you can touch the text directly and touch and hold. You don’t have to delete numbers in the calculator, you can hit C to clear the current number and retype it (a lot of people think that doing this will totally clear your operation, which isn’t true: C is different than AC). You can hit the tabs button in Safari to switch between tabs, swiping the address bar is a shortcut. I would also argue that the safari address bar swipe is very discoverable. You can see the next tab’s address bar on the side of the interface, so it’s implied you can scroll to it. Basically, an analogy to this argument is that the author of this article should be telling us that keyboard shortcuts should be banished because they’re not discoverable. Also, I don’t think discoverability is the same on touch screens as in desktop operating systems. Nobody complains about the discoverability of pinch to zoom or tap and hold because it’s so obvious and intuitive. On the desktop, drag and drop is a similar feature that could be seen to be not so discoverable.

gayn1gga 4y ago

[flagged]

wgx 4y ago

A factor in all of this is how familiar we get with our phones. An app or website we only use once a week or once a month needs to be more obvious and discoverable than the iPhone we pick up 100 times per day.

vavooom 4y ago

"Using the spacebar as textbox navigation" is life altering as a rabid Notes user.

allanrbo 4y ago

I used iPhone 2008-2012, Windows Phone 2012-2015, Android 2015-2022, and then recently bought an iPhone again to see what it's like these days. I was baffled by how unintuitive it has become. So many "secret codes" you need to know these days to use an iPhone. Swiping down from the top on the left or the right bring you different dashboards? Swiping up from the bottom and hold to switch between tasks? How is anyone supposed to guess guess this stuff?

Gigachad 4y ago
They could read the onboarding steps you are forced to click through when you set up the phone. Or the “Tips” app that comes preinstalled. Or even the full and extensive manual on iOS.

at_a_remove 4y ago

I was very late to the smartphone game, transitioning somewhat suddenly from a Nokia to an iPhone SE. I found the discoverability to be against everything I was taught as a programmer. It really felt like I was expected to have grown up with the iPhone from the first generation. Worse yet, the gestures ... I searched in vain for a decent printable sheet of the commonly used gestures, only to make my own set of diagrams for an iPad I tried to get my mother to use, leaving her with a set of laminated sheets: the green one detailing the parts of the iPad, the red sheet showing the different screens and how to get there, and finally a blue one with the gestures. I think iOS really needs a "Tutorial mode" app bundled with it. This of course requires that someone resist the temptation to interject with all of the bundled apps that Apple wants you to know about but aren't needed to do the basics. No Focus, no Stocks, no Apple TV ... just show me how to get around in some Settings, practice locking and unlocking a screen, drills for all of the basic gestures.

hk__2 4y ago
> I think iOS really needs a "Tutorial mode" app bundled with it. Another commenter on this thread writes that there is an on-boarding process that was introduced with the iPhone X: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32966383 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32966383
int_19h 4y ago
It's worse than that. If you started with iPhone from the first generation, you'd have remembered how to use the home button (which also had a lot of functionality crammed into it, with double- and even triple-clicks). Which eventually got removed, so anyone who got used to that - like, say, my parents - had to re-learn once they upgraded.

1-6 4y ago

Data centers hate this one neat trick: The best one is the kinetic (inertial) scrubbing they brought to videos on iOS 16. For example, open a YT video from Safari (don’t open on the YouTube app), go full screen and the flick to scroll backwards and forwards! I bet we’ll all consume more data as a result of this UI addition. I certainly use the YT mobile web version as a result.

janaagaard 4y ago

The article argues that blue text is obviously a clickable link, but that swiping from the left to navigate back isn’t. While I do think it makes a difference that the link is visually different, I also think that what is affordable or discoverable is ultimately a subjective thing. You could argue that for anyone born in this millennia, swiping down to refresh is just as intuitive that blue text being clickable.

jonplackett 4y ago

Shake to undo a - surely the weirdness iPhone design decision.

sbuk 4y ago
Never had or played with an etch-a-sketch?

mrkwse 4y ago

I think the swiping back on new tab feature is a very well thought out piece of UX. If a user taps a link that is set to open in a new window/tab, while the bottom/top (depending on user config) URL bar does animate to show the transition, the user may still expect to be able to navigate back to where they came from (especially in such a case where they haven't deliberately made the decision to open in a new tab). I'd argue it would be worse UX for the back swipe to not navigate to the previous page in such circumstances than that it does but closes the tab (which is reasonably signalled by the URL bar animation).

jwalton 4y ago

My favourite is the “double tap with three fingers to zoom in the display”. This happened to me by accident while my phone is in my pocket. The first time it happened, I had to borrow someone else’s phone to look up how to undo it.

armchairhacker 4y ago

these features may be hard to discover but they are all really useful. Imagine if Apple just didn’t add include because they couldn’t find any way to do so intuitively. And once you know them, they’re not complex or hard to use. “Intuitive and easy” > “unintuitive and easy” > “intuitive and hard” > “unintuitive and hard” > “non-existent”

culi 4y ago

The worst degradation for my UX with my iPhone has been when they added some Siri smart search stuff to searching. I'm someone who's given up on memorizing the layout of my apps and I always just swipe down and search by the name of the app. This used to be extremely efficient. Usually a single letter is enough to have the app be in the top 3 results Now they also search a bunch of other apps and I think Siri does something with your searches, possible even looking for web results. All I really want is for the app results to show up first and not have them bogged down by all the other stuff being searched Edit: Seems I'm not the only one.[0][1] Also what I was talking about was called "Spotlight search" now its in "Siri & Search". Doesn't seem like there's a real solution [0] https://discussions.apple.com/thread/7887520 https://discussions.apple.com/thread/7887520 [1] https://arstechnica.com/civis/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=1483913 https://arstechnica.com/civis/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=1483913

bashy 4y ago
Siri & Search in Settings. Can configure what’s shown. Although it’s true what they say in your [1] link with the speed.
- culi 4y ago
  Yeah sorry I should've specified I already tried turning Siri results off and it didn't help. I see you can also turn off "Show Content in Search" for each app... I guess I can spend 10 minutes doing that on my 100+ apps
  - jamiek88 4y ago
    I do the same and instead just search from the App Library screen that shows only apps. Like I just swipe to that screen which is my second screen and enter the first letter and it’s done. Same amount of swipes just right instead of down! Doesn’t help if you have pages of apps and have to swipe five or six times to get to the App Library but I hide them all in two folders, one for Apple apps and one for installed apps so searching is key. (this was before the option to add to App Library only, indeed before App Library existed I’d basically created my own!)

imgabe 4y ago

I never understood the cliché about Ikea furniture being difficult to assemble. I always admired how they sidestepped the problem of producing directions in many languages by just using pictures. It's a marvel of clarity to me.

pottertheotter 4y ago

> I also think about the category of things that aren’t intuitive and require some guidance, like... putting together IKEA furniture. Woe is the fool who tries to discover a complicated IKEA piece through action! Do people try to do this? I've never considered not using the IKEA instructions.

JFKKFJ 4y ago

naet 4y ago

I was surprised when I needed to use my partner's iPhone I had no idea how to complete certain basic actions, despite using a similar Android smartphone every day. Maybe I had gotten used to the undiscoverable features on my phone, but I felt that a modern iPhone was borderline unusable for me without learning about certain hidden actions like swiping from different edges of the screen and knowing where certain settings are.

rocket_surgeron 4y ago

I love articles like this because they make me feel like a super-genius even though I am completely average. Every single one of those esoteric morsels of forbidden knowledge is in the Tips app, which I read from top to bottom when it was first released. Here are the instructions on how to delete a number in the calculator, the first arcane incantation the author discovered through his or her intense study of the dark arts: https://imgur.com/a/3BgTg1K https://imgur.com/a/3BgTg1K Something which I've known for years, because I RTFM. I'm willing to bet, but not bothered enough to check, that every single "TOP TEN FEATURES APPLE IS HIDING FROM YOU" is thoroughly documented, with full-color illustrations where warranted, in Tips.app. It has been a long time but I believe that Tips.app comes preinstalled and there are some nag-notifications for you to read it. I am sure many people smarter than I instantly deleted Tips.app the second they set up their phone to which I can only say "Careful, Icarus". And yeah, I read the manuals that come with my all of my products, usually while on the toilet. Who doesn't want to know the amperage a NES Mini draws from its AC adapter? I grew up in the technology era where if you didn't read the manual you were screwed, and my Apple IIgs Toolbox book, which I read from cover to cover to learn how to program my IIgs is still on my shelf surrounded by hundreds of other reference books. Tips.app is just the 2022 Apple IIgs Toolbox and I'm not haughty enough to look down on it.

YmiYugy 4y ago

I actually like the way Apple is doing these things. There is almost always a way to achieve the same things using established patterns, that takes slightly longer and is a little less convenient. It's not like you can't use an iPhone without knowing about these little "shortcuts". Admittedly, most users won't discover these hacks, because of poor discoverability. They could add a ton of UI like dedicated buttons for all these hidden gestures, even label them to make it more obvious what they do. The downside is, that the UI would quickly become a complete mess. Another way would be to have the user sit through a tedious tutorial upon opening the app for the first time and then remind them from time to time how to do things. This gets annoying really fast. The real alternative Apple would choose however is to simply omit these little features and "streamline" their apps. Because they aren't core the usability of the phone, I consider them welcome extras, which means I'm delighted every time I learn a new one rather than bummed out about the ones I don't know about.

cbsks 4y ago

The Apple Books app has a iPhone User’s Guide for download that has all of these tricks documented. Apple should make it more obvious that there is official documentation there.

Linda703 4y ago

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tehnub 4y ago

Even the basic spotlight search is pretty hard to discover. I'd say about half of the iPhone users I meet have never heard of the feature, and are surprised when I swipe down on their screen and show it to them. With iOS 16 though, they've finally added a button, so that should help on that front. Another feature that isn't well known is swiping between recent apps by swiping horizontally along the bottom of the screen. I didn't know about that feature until somebody posted about it on HN a while back.

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soheil 4y ago

I like the surprise of finding these nuggets when I do discover them over time. Why does everything have to be so freaking obvious that even a toddler can discover it with eyes closed?

soheil 4y ago

Finding little gems like these by accident gives an impression of something bigger, something mysterious and grand. Seems like the author wants a giant red arrow saying gem here on a treasure hunt.

eyelidlessness 4y ago

Today I learned the calculator app allows character deletion. Weirdly you can swipe both left/right and they both behave as backspace. That’s pretty weird! I knew the other gestures, which are nice conveniences. The lack of clear controls in the calculator is a good example of poor discoverability. The other examples are actions which all have more obvious alternatives, either visible in the UI (tab switching of various sorts) or more directly interacting (caret placement). I think it’s fine that those are less discoverable because you don’t actually need to know they exist unless you want to, and they become obvious when you find them. With, uh, one big exception: the new tab/back button thing is an excellent idea, and I even remember it being announced as a major new Safari feature (on macOS! It might’ve even still been called OS X it’s been around so long). But it’s horribly buggy, leaving phantom tabs and history behind at every turn, and has been the same since it shipped. I think I have a mental model of how it works and its failure modes, but just imagining the explanation is exhausting.

captn3m0 4y ago

> You’ll sometimes see these features pop up in life hack or “I never knew this hidden feature existed” tweets I collect these: https://nitter.net/umanghome/status/1283074787175092224#m https://nitter.net/umanghome/status/1283074787175092224#m (Click Earlier replies to see all tweets, and then scroll down).

soulofmischief 4y ago

I'm a seasoned software developer and UX specialist and iPhones scare me. I have no idea how to use them and try to get them out of my hands as fast as possible. Interfaces like that give me serious anxiety.

notpopcorn 4y ago

Another example of a very hidden feature is "export/print as pdf". If you do share => print, you don't get a pdf option, but you can do a zoom gesture on the preview and then +poof+, it's a pdf you can save. How was I supposed to discover that?

codeptualize 4y ago

What this article misses is that a lot of these features are shortcuts for things that are not essential or you could achieve in other ways. These are generally referred to as accelerators, and are by design harder to discover as they are targeted at expert users. You trade learnability for convenience and efficiency (also less clutter, which should not be underestimated). Good article on this: https://www.nngroup.com/articles/ui-accelerators/ https://www.nngroup.com/articles/ui-accelerators/ Just to clarify, there are indeed also some places in iOS where it’s maybe less ideal, but my point is that there is a place for undiscoverable features.

watermelon0 4y ago

There are also some actions only available via Siri, such as removing all alarms from Clock app. "Siri, delete all of my alarms" is the only way to do this with a single action, since UI only always deleting one by one.

jawadch93 4y ago

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bemmu 4y ago

I kind of want some way to record myself using my computer or phone, and have an expert look at the recording and point out things I’m doing the hard way. Preferably software instead of human so it’d be slightly less embarrassing. I’m afraid there’s a shortcut to something that would save me X minutes per day but that I’ll never even know to ask.

Reason077 4y ago

I don't think the Safari "swipe the URL bar to switch tabs" example is unintuitive. There is a strong hint at their swipeability because you can see the neighbouring tabs poking out on each side. I remember discovering this almost immediately when it was introduced! (It's perhaps slightly less intuitive that you can also swipe the bar UP to access the tab switcher interface)

spixy 4y ago
yeah all main browsers on Android (Chrome, Firefox, Edge) support that since forever (almost)
- Reason077 4y ago
  Hmm. I tried it on iOS Chrome and iOS Firefox. Works in Chrome (but it's not as obvious as in Safari because you don't see the adjacent tabs at the edge of the screen) ... but curiously not in Firefox.

amzans 4y ago

Just a few days ago I learned that iPhones come with a built-in image scanner in the notes app. Interestingly: It was a senior citizen in a local shop who pointed that to me when I needed to scan some documents for him.

jpalomaki 4y ago

It was even worse with the force touch" - sometimes I found myself pushing the screen, with finger turning white, trying to summon some functionality I was expecting to have there.

rchaud 4y ago

Because Apple cannot deign to offer its users even basic physical documentation of how their glass slab works, publishers have filled the void with books with large pictures and screenshots of iOS functionality: 1) iPad for Dummies (they need to get rid of that name) 2) a bunch of random publishers selling magazine-style paperbacks like "iPad OS Guide for 2022". You can find these on mag-sharing websites, as they're low-volume and usually only available at checkout counters at grocery stores, or airport shops.

WhyNotHugo 4y ago

It's important to make features as easy to discover as possible. Especially the basic features. The actions in this article are _shortcuts_. Like a single swipe to switch tabs. It's hard to make it more discoverable (there's a tiny hint on the hide, but that's it). At this point, there's two options: - Overload the UI showing the possible action. Results in overloaded UIs and worse UX. - Leave it as-is and just mention it online or in "did you know" pages. The second option usually makes sense the most. I see a big online trend of "let's remove right click options because they're hard to discover", and I think it's ridiculous. Actions hidden behind right click should be visible elsewhere (e.g.: the options on a file manager are all in the menu bar too), but right click is a fast and convenient *shortcut*.

issung 4y ago

The worst was when I had to Google how to delete a contact (I think it was the contacts list view, or something very similar), I have to swipe it to the side, then a big red delete button appears?? But dont swipe the wrong way because then it's something else? It's probably different now, I ditched the Apple boat long ago.