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> Sure, Jobs may have surrendered to the trend of larger screen sizes, but he would've insisted on something that wasn't so plainly awful as Reachability. Like

by abalone 12y ago

> Sure, Jobs may have surrendered to the trend of larger screen sizes, but he would've insisted on something that wasn't so plainly awful as Reachability. Like what? A different way of shrinking the screen, or are you thinking there's a way to enable one-handed use without shrinking? Here's a comparison of the existing shrinking techniques.. you be the judge: http://www.phonearena.com/news/Whose-one-handed-mode-do-you-like-best-Apple-Samsung-LG_id60607 http://www.phonearena.com/news/Whose-one-handed-mode-do-you-... The cool thing about Apple's approach is that it doesn't actually shrink any tap target sizes. Also it seems easier to enable (2 light taps vs. swiping from the bezel edge). Having said that, I never use it, I just shift the phone in my hand, like a ninja.

Mithaldu 12y ago
The samsung one is pretty much perfect, since it solves the issue of screen height AND width. I wish i had that available for my Sony Xperia Z1 Compact, since even for that medium sized phone my thumb is too short to even reach across.
potatolicious 12y ago
> "Like what? A different way of shrinking the screen, or are you thinking there's a way to enable one-handed use without shrinking?" This is a hard problem - one that I would've preferred avoiding altogether by keeping screen sizes sane ;) But alas, that ship has sailed. I wasn't aware of the Samsung or LG way of doing it - IMO both of them are pretty shitty also and an admission of defeat. This is the vendor saying "totally unusable one-handed without throwing away half the pixels". Apple's way seems marginally slicker, but still sucks. Unfortunately the best idea I have is probably not particularly tenable - we have to abandon the top of the screen for interactive elements. Google has already in some ways done this with material design - back, home, and switcher are all lined up along the bottom, and all primary actions confined to the Floating Button, also at the bottom. But getting third party apps to buy into abandoning the top third of the screen is probably not going to happen. Alternatively this is a chance for more gestures to come and play. On iOS the top of the screen is predominantly taken up by the Back and Confirm actions (top left and right, respectively). We already have the edge swipe for back, which works so well that I practically never use the actual back button anymore. Perhaps what we need is an equivalent gesture for "Confirm". That way the two most common uses of the top corners won't require touching the button at all.
andrewfong 12y ago
Honestly, the LG / Samsung method seems vastly preferable. Swiping from the bezel edge is a much easier motion than the double tap on the home button (which is sort of awkwardly placed for easy access given where you hand needs to be to balance a larger phone). Tap targets shrink, but they're not any smaller than they would have been on a smaller form-factor phone.
- abalone 12y ago
  > Tap targets shrink, but they're not any smaller than they would have been on a smaller form-factor phone. That's only true if the screen was a "magnified" version of a smaller screen to begin with. That may be the case with many Android phones but the iPhone 6 has the same PPI as the 5, meaning the 6 maintains the same tap target sizes and actually fits more information on the screen. In other words, if you can comfortably shrink a screen's tap targets then it wasn't an optimal screen to begin with.

by abalone 12y ago

Mithaldu 12y ago

The samsung one is pretty much perfect, since it solves the issue of screen height AND width. I wish i had that available for my Sony Xperia Z1 Compact, since even for that medium sized phone my thumb is too short to even reach across.

potatolicious 12y ago

> "Like what? A different way of shrinking the screen, or are you thinking there's a way to enable one-handed use without shrinking?" This is a hard problem - one that I would've preferred avoiding altogether by keeping screen sizes sane ;) But alas, that ship has sailed. I wasn't aware of the Samsung or LG way of doing it - IMO both of them are pretty shitty also and an admission of defeat. This is the vendor saying "totally unusable one-handed without throwing away half the pixels". Apple's way seems marginally slicker, but still sucks. Unfortunately the best idea I have is probably not particularly tenable - we have to abandon the top of the screen for interactive elements. Google has already in some ways done this with material design - back, home, and switcher are all lined up along the bottom, and all primary actions confined to the Floating Button, also at the bottom. But getting third party apps to buy into abandoning the top third of the screen is probably not going to happen. Alternatively this is a chance for more gestures to come and play. On iOS the top of the screen is predominantly taken up by the Back and Confirm actions (top left and right, respectively). We already have the edge swipe for back, which works so well that I practically never use the actual back button anymore. Perhaps what we need is an equivalent gesture for "Confirm". That way the two most common uses of the top corners won't require touching the button at all.

andrewfong 12y ago

Honestly, the LG / Samsung method seems vastly preferable. Swiping from the bezel edge is a much easier motion than the double tap on the home button (which is sort of awkwardly placed for easy access given where you hand needs to be to balance a larger phone). Tap targets shrink, but they're not any smaller than they would have been on a smaller form-factor phone.

abalone 12y ago
> Tap targets shrink, but they're not any smaller than they would have been on a smaller form-factor phone. That's only true if the screen was a "magnified" version of a smaller screen to begin with. That may be the case with many Android phones but the iPhone 6 has the same PPI as the 5, meaning the 6 maintains the same tap target sizes and actually fits more information on the screen. In other words, if you can comfortably shrink a screen's tap targets then it wasn't an optimal screen to begin with.