the multi-tasking/multi-window looks incredibly complicated, full of hidden gestures/commands that aren't really discoverable
I haven't tried it so I don't know.
Edit: “immediately obvious” was a bit strong. They can do it in ways that are significantly easier to discover.
I think an interface that presents you with multiple windows by default, and then lets you drag them, is a lot more discoverable than what the iPad is doing.
I'm not sure, though, what a better approach is on the iPad, assuming that we don't just give a menu bar. I'm pretty interested in a lot of these changes; as silly as it may sound, being able to display two documents from the same app side by side on the iPad will alone solve one of my huge frustrations with the system as it is now, and the changes to the Files app sound like they'll be really useful in practice. I know there will be a lot of folks, particularly in the HN crowd, who will be upset that iPads can't do [Insert Thing They Need], but iOS, er, iPadOS is reaching a point where there's very little it can't do that I personally need. (Adding my proviso that "the iPad can't do this thing I need to do the way I'm used to doing it" should not be conflated with "the iPad can't do this thing I need.")
GTK+3 has a good approach there, I think. It turns the window titlebar into a thick "header bar", which includes a "title" part for easy grabbing as well as a handful of button-accessible menus (fewer than the top levels in a traditional menubar), including a kitchen-sink "hamburger menu" for lesser-used options. It becomes a bit less convenient for mouse&keyboard use, but the touch usability is absolutely there. Too bad that running Linux on tablet-like computers is still way too fiddly, it could be a fierce competitor to the iPad ecosystem for more pro tasks.
Added: And on recent GTK+3 releases, one can shrink the window horizontally and the buttons will simply shift to the bottom when there's not enough room for them in the top headerbar. This solves a flexibility issue with the previous headerbar-only approach (especially on smaller or lower-res screens), while still being quite intuitive.
In case you don’t know, that’s what modeled after macOS. (It had it from the beginning. AFAIK)
(And why on Earth does iOS allow me to split a portrait mode vertically, creating two thin strips that are seemingly useless for any work?)
Because developers can then present the iPhone interface.
> It's frustrating beyond belief knowing that this device could be so much more useful with that tiny basic functionality that has existed in GUIs for decades
Other systems have differently-designed interfaces designed for different kinds of interaction.
If the iPad interface allowed tiling apps top-and-bottom, the iPhone interface wouldn't be usable because the aspect ratio would be wrong and the iPad interface wouldn't be usable because navigation chrome would take up just about all the screen.
I could only see this working if Apple had developers using their iPhone landscape interface on that view, but so many iPhone apps don't have a landscape interface so barely any iPad apps would inherit this.
Depends on what work you're doing. I do it all the time. It's especially useful when you're writing something in Notes in one pane and referencing e-mail in another.
The bottom half of the screen is the keyboard space.
* Pull up a little to go home. * Pull up more to get task list. * Pull down from top to get notifications, date and clock. * Pull down from right top corner to get quick controls. * Pull down from middle of the screen to get siri suggestions. * Pull right to see widgets.
Pretty much the attitude of people learning Windows or MacOS in the late 90's. ("literacy") It's gone from having to win an audience in the early iOS days, to firmly having the audience in the company's grasp.
I'd rather have those capabilities? My drawing apps on iOS all have tons of multi-touch gestures. I appreciate they are there.
Didn’t microsoft try to do this in Windows 8 with little icons in the corners? The problem is that little icons provide only marginally more information, if at all, than the existence of the corner of the screen.
It’s a very hard problem and Apple works on it. They have abandoned previous standards on discoverability because of the inherent limitations of a touch interface on a small screen.
Sacrificing discoverability for usability is the right choice.
I think one issue is that some UI conventions have not been settled on, so I often have to look up how to do something on iOS.
The most recent example of this was “shake to undo.” After looking this up, not only did I learn how to undo typing, I also learned why I would occasionally get these inexplicable warning windows asking if I wanted to undo!
Who says the situation needs solving? I'm just providing perspective.
I'd rather have those capabilities? My drawing apps on iOS all have tons of multi-touch gestures. I appreciate they are there.
That's the same attitude people had about Ctrl and Alt key shortcuts and power user features and function keys.
Of course it needs to be solved. You have finite screen real estate. Lack of physical buttons. Multi-touch gestures is a natural space for user input.