[Sigia-l] Decent exposure

[Will Parker]

On Jan 13, 2007, at 9:14 PM, Davezilla wrote:
> On 1/13/07, tOM Trottier <tOM at abacurial.com> wrote:
>> He says the touch screen display is way more accurate than using a  
>> stylus, way more accurate
>> than anything before.  <SNIP>
>
> My biggest issue is not so much the accuracy; I'm sure Apple has
> nailed it better than Treo. It's a common usability issue that Apple
> has no control over. If Web designers are still violating Fitts' Law
> on full screen, how the heck am I supposed to access those links with
> my large, manly fingers? (Ex., having a huge line of text, but only
> making the > linkable)

Fitts' would indeed be a killer except for one iPhone UI feature. On- 
demand zoom.

Some silly git makes it hard to hit the links, you do the zoom  
gesture, make the target twice the size of your fingertip. Click, and  
then 'pinch' the screen back to a comfy size WHILE THE NEXT PAGE IS  
LOADING.

I suspect most people will learn to do the entire gesture sequence  
automatically after they encounter the fourth or fifth site that  
requires it.  Le'see.  / zoom+ / zoom+ / orient / click / zoom - /  
zoom-  /  What's that, maybe 1.5 seconds? Once muscle memory kicks  
in, the time will drop under a second.

Oh! Wait. I forgot. You can zoom/unzoom with a double-click. So, you  
have an even faster alternative for zooming in. Double-tap adjacent  
to link to zoom in, reorient, click link, double-tap away from link  
to unzoom.

It's not an ideal solution, but on the other hand, I don't think it's  
going to be perceived as a flaw in Apple's UI, largely because the  
zoom effect (based on the Core Animation framework) appears to be  
reasonably snappy for this kind of dive-in/jump-out maneuver.

- Will
Will Parker
wparker at ChannelingDesign.com

"The only people who value your specialist knowledge are the ones who  
already have it." - William Tozier