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I have never found the back button to be confusing. The problem is that we call it a "back button". To me it's the "anywhere but here" button. When I don't want

by enjo 14y ago

I have never found the back button to be confusing. The problem is that we call it a "back button". To me it's the "anywhere but here" button. When I don't want to be where I'm at I just start pounding on it until I arrive at something I do want. Either something in my history or the home screen. I actually really like the implementation of it.

batiudrami 14y ago
It's a nightmare for usability, now that I think about it, but I also do this.
- darrenkopp 14y ago
  It's a nightmare for usability when done wrong, though it's amazing for usability when done right. For instance, a wrong way to do it is when I use the task switcher to go back to Google Voice which opens up the last conversation and when I hit the back button it dumps me to the home screen, when what I really wanted was to be dumped back into the inbox. This could be solved by pushing an explicit intent or whatever onto the stack for the inbox above the conversation so that the back button works as expected. Where the back button works awesome is where I open a link from Tweetdeck and when I hit the back button it puts me back into Tweetdeck.
  - batiudrami 14y ago
    But, what the button is supposed to (as given in the article), is to take you back to your previous screen - the home screen. The button on the top left is supposed to take you back to your inbox.
    - darrenkopp 14y ago
      Perhaps, but if you are taken to a conversation regardless of how you launch the app (ie, the previous state, which is standard behavior), then I would say, no. Which is what is happening in the Google Voice application. I should state that what actually happens in this scenario is this. 1. View conversation, leave Google Voice. 2. Re-enter Google Voice somehow, currently viewing conversation. 3. Hit back button, taken to wherever you came from (previous app, home screen, etc) 4. Re-launch Google Voice, now the starting screen is the inbox.
DeepDuh 14y ago
That's a nice definition. I thought of a name for it: Monte Carlo UI. Google seems to like that so much with their 'I'm feeling lucky' button that they had to integrate it system level into their mobile OS.

by enjo 14y ago

batiudrami 14y ago

It's a nightmare for usability, now that I think about it, but I also do this.

darrenkopp 14y ago
It's a nightmare for usability when done wrong, though it's amazing for usability when done right. For instance, a wrong way to do it is when I use the task switcher to go back to Google Voice which opens up the last conversation and when I hit the back button it dumps me to the home screen, when what I really wanted was to be dumped back into the inbox. This could be solved by pushing an explicit intent or whatever onto the stack for the inbox above the conversation so that the back button works as expected. Where the back button works awesome is where I open a link from Tweetdeck and when I hit the back button it puts me back into Tweetdeck.
- batiudrami 14y ago
  But, what the button is supposed to (as given in the article), is to take you back to your previous screen - the home screen. The button on the top left is supposed to take you back to your inbox.
  - darrenkopp 14y ago
    Perhaps, but if you are taken to a conversation regardless of how you launch the app (ie, the previous state, which is standard behavior), then I would say, no. Which is what is happening in the Google Voice application. I should state that what actually happens in this scenario is this. 1. View conversation, leave Google Voice. 2. Re-enter Google Voice somehow, currently viewing conversation. 3. Hit back button, taken to wherever you came from (previous app, home screen, etc) 4. Re-launch Google Voice, now the starting screen is the inbox.

DeepDuh 14y ago

That's a nice definition. I thought of a name for it: Monte Carlo UI. Google seems to like that so much with their 'I'm feeling lucky' button that they had to integrate it system level into their mobile OS.