How to Design Mobile Apps for One-Hand Usage

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/futurecalc-futuristic-calculat...

I've been pretty disappointed that Apple has not pushed harder in this area, has kept this first party by not updating native components, and has not updated their HIG. We've had to move to third party libraries. It has been at least 3 years since they started using this paradigm.

They would love to have a camera on hand to capture spontaneous moments around their young children. But choosing a smartphone is a compromise between buying a low-level phone that is small enough to be operated with one hand, normally leaving you with a terrible camera, or one with a decent(-ish) camera that is a pain/impossible to use day to day due to the screen size.

BTW just using a camera on a smartphone with one hand is no joke; the trigger buttons generally assume a right-handed or two-handed hold. You can test this by operating your phone with your right hand held behind your back.

I'd love to see more UI designs that take into account that some people have non-standard configurations.

Honestly it's the still pinnacle of cute and clever UX for me.

Edit: Found it~ It was Settings > Labs > Quick Controls https://cdn57.androidauthority.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/0...

I want a smaller display but they're just not being made anymore. For the past few years if you wanted better specs, you _had_ to get the bigger model.

iPhone SE still being in demand indicates that there's a market for people who want smaller phones, if given the choice.

And so far it's been mostly annoying. Sure, the larger display is great, but the lost ability to operate the phone with single handed is a real bummer.

I wonder why the smartphone manufacturers don't at least offer a single device small enough to allow one-hand usage. There just has to be a market for that, given how many people complain about large phones.

Before the N9 I had a Windows Mobile 2003? And even though it had touch support, it was designed to be used with a stylus. With a stylus you need two hands, or a table, but you can reach anywhere on the screen, and the pen is very accurate, so you can have higher information density. Android nor iOS is designed to be used with a stylus though. Modern phones have the same screen resolution as desktop monitors, so in theory using a stylus/pen (and sharp eye-sight) you could have the same user interface on the mobile as on the PC. Also writing on a virtual keyboard using the stylus is not that bad, although not as fast as typing on a keyboard, but faster then typing by touch.

Many years ago, back when everyone was just discovering smartphones (we used to call them smartphone back then, now we just call them phones...) and figuring out that widgets need to be larger in order to be easier to touch, I was having a beer with a colleague who was doing design back at the time and we were making an inventory of all the ways that this is going to change things.

And we thought this was going to be one of them, and we had the math to prove it! Fitts' famous law considers all axes of motion equal -- i.e. it's a model that describes moving horizontally, diagonally, horizontally or anything in-between as equally difficult.

This isn't the case for phones, especially not when they're used with a single hand. Horizontal motion at the bottom of the screen is very hard, because your thumb just don't bend that way. So is vertical motion on the right-hand side of the screen (for right-handed users -- left-hand side for left-handed users). Diagonal motion is easier because, well, that's how the thumb bends. It's not just about the difficulty of making the motion happen -- the motion is inherently imprecise (this is what Fitts' law effectively cares about, not necessarily the amount of physical effort).

We tried to sketch a "revised" model but it was a little unwieldy to plug into the beautifully-logarithmic Fitts equation. I think I still have that notebook.

Unfortunately, we never pursued it further. I'm a lowly programmer and not really interested in UX design anymore. My colleague was so burned out by academia that he didn't want to touch anything even vaguely resembling a research project with a ten-foot pole and I didn't even dare suggest publishing something 'cause I sort of valued our friendship.

However, it's something that's been lurking in the community for a while. I've mentioned it every once in a while, and almost every time I've heard something along the lines of "huh, I think I've seen this, too, I wonder if we could make a useful UI like this".

Turns out you can and it's finally happening!

My thumb can't reach the other side of the screen when I'm holding it with one hand.

The lower yellow space is where my thumb can reach best.

Always wonder why no phones use them anymore.

It's not sexy but it's (IMO) much more ergonomic.