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Comment by modernerd | Hacker News Reader

He's right. The default Home button behaviour should be to go the first page of the SpringBoard. The current behaviour even appears to contravene Apple's own iOS Human Interface Guidelines:

"Give people a logical path to follow. Make the path through the information you present logical and easy for users to predict."

and:

"In most cases, give users only one path to a screen."

From: http://developer.apple.com/library/ios/#DOCUMENTATION/UserEx...

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One trick Apple clearly miss here (IMO) is not having the "Home" screen centered. On iOS devices, page 1 is always at the far left.

i.e.

Screen 1 -> Screen 2 --> Screen 3 ---> Screen 4 ----> Screen 5

On a lot of Android launchers, you can have page one centered.

i.e.

Screen a <--> Screen b <-> Screen 1 <-> Screen x <--> Screen y

What's the benefit? I can get to my two most used screens both within 1 swipe. In fact the most swipes I need to access any of my five screens (from the Home) is 2, on iOS as above it's 4 (for the same number of screens). You could argue that some people use "Search" so much it negates this, but I think search should be accessed in a slightly different way to how Apple have it programmed in now anyway.

> In fact the most swipes I need to access any of my five screens is 2, on iOS as above it's 4

That's the best-case scenario. Another scenario is that you don't have perfect memory and don't always recall where all 80 (5 screens of 16) of your apps live, so you go to the right looking for an app, and you don't find it, so you then have to go to the left, for a total of 6 swipes. I'd bet that this is a pretty common scenario for most people with enough apps to fill 5 screens.

All this discussion of swiping presupposes that it's reasonable to organize things iOS-style. I think that it isn't.

1) I organize my Android's 3 screens by function: (left) Scheduling/Tasks, Home, (right) Social stuff. On each screen are a relevant widget (or two) and related apps.

2) The Android app drawer is much more useful than iOS's app pages because the app drawer is arranged alphabetically, is continuous and is organized top-to-bottom. I use the drawer about 10% of the time and, when I do, I don't need to "recall where all 80 apps live" because I recall the alphabet.

    ... a total of 6 swipes.  I'd bet that this is a 
    pretty common scenario for most people with enough
    apps to fill 5 screens.

Agreed. But only on iOS.

> 1) I organize my Android's 3 screens by function: (left) Scheduling/Tasks, Home, (right) Social stuff. On each screen are a relevant widget (or two) and related apps.

But then the question of 4 swipes vs 2 is kind of moot. You're not using 5 screens to store apps, so comparing your setup to iOS isn't apples to apples.

Personally, I setup my 3 screens (iOS) to have 1. Stuff I use a lot, 2. Stuff I use a little, 3. Stuff I barely use. This works well for me, and going to a left-center-right model wouldn't gain me anything (I expect that it would cost me instead).

> 2) The Android app drawer is much more useful than iOS's app pages because the app drawer is arranged alphabetically, is continuous and is organized top-to-bottom. I use the drawer about 10% of the time and, when I do, I don't need to "recall where all 80 apps live" because I recall the alphabet.

This is debatable. There's something to be said for not forcing alphabetical order. It comes down to personal preference, though.

If you don't want it in alphabetical order, put the apps on your home/launcher screens and organize them how you want. The app drawer is only a fallback for apps that aren't commonly used (therefore, they need to be in a logical order as you aren't likely to remember where they are)

IMO, the left swipe + a letter to search is easer than the app drawer when you actually have a lot of apps. Most common apps, fit on the home screen swipe to the right once for folders of lesser used apps or swipe left once to search for a half remembered app.

Android doesn't work like that, in a manner of speaking.

In popular launchers (including the 'stock' one) there's the "app drawer", accessible from all home screens. It's an alphabetical listing of all installed apps; it is ~5 icons wide and scrolls vertically.

Icons (shortcuts) or widgets added to home screens are merely user-created convenience shortcuts to get to apps.

This is analogous to desktop shortcuts vs navigating the start menu on Windows.

edit: commandar replied with a similar sentiment while I was writing this.

As I said to commandar, I don't really understand the argument in that case. If you don't actually use the left/right screens to store apps, then saying that it's a more efficient way to access apps is meaningless. On the iPhone, where screens 1-N are typically filled with apps, the left/right scrolling would be very unfriendly.

You can assign each home screen a task, and put apps for that task in each screen. You might usually use these apps together, so it gives a bit of a logical ordering. Then you can find apps you don't usually use in the list of every app.

And you could use folders to create logical groups of apps on screen 1 and never have to swipe at all.

My personal experience, and what I've noted of other Android users is that you generally don't fill your screens. Home screens tend to get filled up with your most commonly used apps - I have a page with a handful of social networking apps, one with news apps, etc. Everything else gets left in the app drawer, which is organized alphabetically and can be easily scrolled through or searched.

Then how is the question of screen swipes even relevant? If you're not using the left and right screens, then it's kind of a moot point. I'm not trying to be rude here. I seriously just don't see how the left and right screens can be considered a benefit if people don't use them.

It's relevant because we still do use the home screens, just not for every app. I'd say 90% of the functions I use my phone for are available on my home screen or one swipe away.

I still use the App Drawer (the alphabetical list of all installed apps) occasionally for the rare app I don't use frequently to merit a prime spot on my home screens.

I think you misunderstood me. I do use all 5 screens. I just don't completely fill every screen because there's no need for me to. I like organizing my apps on home screens into small, logical groups based on what I use most often. Apps I use on a day-to-day basis are never more than a couple of swipes away, and getting "lost" among 80 apps like you suggested isn't a problem because I have nowhere near 80 apps on my home screens.

If it's not something I use all the time, it can live in the app drawer rather than be in my way on a home screen.

Again, though, this isn't apples to apples with iOS. You're using several screens to store a few apps on each. But then you've got the app drawer full of apps. How many swipes do you have to go through to get through all of the apps in your app drawer? Is your worst-case actually better than an iPhone user who has all their apps on 5 screens instead of in the app drawer?

As for accessing things quickly, an iOS user can stick all their "social" apps in a folder on their main screen. The 5 screens can easily become a single screen, with 1 click to open any folder. Left and right swiping don't even mean anything here.

As I said, it's not Apples to Apples. Saying that iOS should have left/right screens because it works on Android doesn't make sense if the usage patterns are different.

Personally I only use one home screen on Android. I have my app draw available on a down swipe, and can scroll through the app draw (ie. not pages). I find it far eaiser to use the app draw even for things I use occasionally, as it is just a swipe and scroll away.

What is an "app draw"?

Bostonian for drawer?

Some people don't use them. commandar for one, obviously. However, others make a lot of use of them. (Myself, cristoph and CoffeeDregs in this set of comments, for example). So for the people who don't use them, it's a moot point, but for people that do, it's a nice advantage.

(I think you may not have realised commandar's and cristoph's replies were not written by the one person)

I knew they were from different people. I think my point stands, though. If you do use 5 pages filled with apps, then the "swipe the wrong way" problem seems inevitable. And if you don't, then the comparison is kind of moot.

Certainly, offering the option to put apps on the left of "screen 1" is not a problem if that's what you prefer. I'd probably never use that if I were on Android, though. Of course, Apple already uses "screen 0", so the "swipe left" option is already taken by search.

That depends. I use 5 pages but each page has a clear purpose. From left to right: Games, social, organisation (calendar + clock), Internet (bookmarks + search widget), media (music, videos, YouTube and so on). The only app I use on a regular basis that could fit on multiple screens is YouTube, and I can easily remember the position of one app. Swiping the wrong way does not cone into that.

Your point only applies if you fill the 5 pages with apps as they're installed, iPhone style.

You could easily create folders and fit all of those on Screen 1 on iOS. 1 click to open any folder.

As I've said a number of times, the usage patterns are too different. If you're using your screens as folders, then maybe you want the left-swipe functionality. If your screens contain every app you install, then that might not make so much sense.

I'm not saying Android is wrong to have left/right screens, merely that the behavior would generally be wrong for iOS.

Why don't they just categorize apps like desktop linux on Catorise on the n900?

I've never used an Android phone, but surely that's a little confusing for casual users – at a glance is it easy to tell which is the "main" screen?

The key on Android are the home screen widgets which make each screen more recognizable than on iOS where every screen is a grid of similar icons. A lot of phones ship with a big clock/weather widget on the "main" screen that makes it easy to recognize. Users then quickly learn how to customize and add widgets, after some use the look of each screen becomes ingrained and instantly recognizable.

You are right, my home screen is a clock and calendar widget. A couple important contact shortcuts (for super speed dial), email, browser and navigation. The absolutely most used things on my phone.

One screen to the right are the rest of my social media things and various camera apps plus the powerbar widget for turning on and off various things on my phone without heading into settings (flashlight, wifi, GPS, etc.)

One more screen to the right are my various nerd tools, an ftp server, a terminal emulator, file manager, heck I even have a tricorder app and the tron bit on there.

Going left I have productivity apps, google docs, drop box, a folder full of various audio apps like pandora and Tune In radio, The Kindle app, a comic book reader, etc.

And finally all the way left I have games, emulators, calculators whatever sort of entertainment junk I want.

I know immediately where I am on my phone at a glance and can almost navigate to it without looking.

If I start to run out of space, or want more organization, I just dump a category of apps into a folder...or my Launcher lets me add more screens if I want.

Yes, everything defaults to that screen. To quit an app for example, you hit the home button and it automatically flips to the middle "home" screen.

The "back" button goes back to the last thing you were looking at (a sort of stack based approach kinda like a web browser, but across the entire OS).

So if you are in an app, launched from the left-most screen, and want to get to another app on the left-most screen, you might hit "back" and it'll background the app and put you on the left most screen.

Given the same scenario, if you want to go to the right-most screen, it's easier to just hit "home" and swipe twice.

When you hit the home button, you go to the hoem screen. There are also visual indicators that show on which screen you are.

Psychologically, I prefer scrolling right to scrolling left. Don't ask me why - maybe it's the "going forwards" versus "going backwards" mental model. Or maybe starting from the home screen, I don't like having to make a decision to go left or right, and would rather just keep flicking right until I find what I need.

My Nexus One has the layout you propose, and I don't prefer it to iOS.

Give LauncherPro a whirl. It'll let you pick which screen you want as your default, so you can scroll right all you'd like.

It’s likely because we read from left to right. And bear in mind that ‘right’ being correlated with ‘forwards’ is a cultural convention—other cultures may code such relationships differently.

It seems like the N9 solves these types of problems perfectly. Three dedicated home screens in 'carousel', each with vertical scrolling, no other menus and a swipe to exit an app. Very simple but very powerful. Every screen is at max two swipes away and usually just one, from an app. Can't wait to try it out, it might not work as well as it seems.

I also like their idea of 'just swipe'. But I see one big issue - phone cases. Swiping from the edge of the screen is very difficult when you have a protective case.

I'm pretty hyped about it too. But party of me worries about what happens when the new car smell wears off.

Apple's current choice is entirely logical. The home button takes you to the "desktop". Resetting the "desktop" to the "home screen" state is not a more logical path. It might or might not be a better choice, but it's not more logical, and it certainly wouldn't fit their guidelines any better.

As for the "one path" argument, making the button take you directly to the home screen doesn't reduce the number of paths. You exit the app via the home button and it takes you to one place. That's one path. Whether the path is to the home screen or back to the state you were in is a design choice that has no effect on the number of paths.

Personally, I think Apple made the right choice. It would be pretty obnoxious to be on screen 3, launch the wrong app on accident, and then be dumped back to screen 1 when exiting. I'd much rather be able to hit the home button and then immediately launch the app I intended to launch.

If the "I launched the wrong app" problem is really why Apple did it like this, then they're optimizing for a rare use case at the expense of more common use cases.

I don't think the "launched the wrong app" is really that uncommon a use case. And after launching the wrong app and already being annoyed, the last thing I want is my phone to say "screw you" and make it harder for me to get to the app I intended.

There's also the use case where you have a related apps on the same screen or in the same folder. If you open a Facebook app, how likely is it that you'll want to check out Twitter next? If you get done checking the NYT headlines, might you want to open CNN or Flipboard next? Sick of Angry Birds so you open up Words With Friends? These scenarios don't seem that unlikely to me, but the "go to screen 1" behavior breaks them.

I might be in the minority, but none of these are things I do. I never need to check Twitter and Facebook at the same time, or play two games right after each other, or open several news apps. If I have a few minutes to waste, I open one of these apps. If I have a lot of time to waste, I open Instapaper or the Kindle app or a game I can play for a long time.

Even so, presumably, if these apps are important to you and you open them regularly, you have them on the first or second screen, so making the home button take you to the first screen doesn't seem like a huge additional burden.

I agree with dpark, the rage factor is definitely a lot higher for me if Apple adopt your idea.

It's called "home" button for a reason.

Thanks for the insight. Now we can discuss whether "home" means "screen 1" or if it means the "desktop app". Either could fit the word "home". Apple has so far chosen then second meaning.

Sure, we can discuss whatever we want. Of course, it's a screen 1. You can see it on any promotional picture. This, for example: http://www.apple.com/iphone/gallery/

What Apple chose is very clearly not the "first screen of apps". If that's what "home" meant to Apple then we wouldn't be discussing it, because that's all the "home" button would do.

Even if you go out through the window, it is still easier to come back through the front door.

Don't forget, when Apple gave it that name, there were no additional app screens, nor a search screen. Home was screen 1; there was no other option

It's easier to go to the first page by press the home button again than to swipe to the fifth page all the time. If we press the home button accidentally, it's easier to open the same app if it's on the fifth page although we could double click the home button. The way it is now is good if we have a group of apps on the fifth page that we use for a certain situation.

If you exit an application accidentally, you can get back using the task switcher, like you say.

The other situation you describe (you have a set of applications on a screen far away from the first home screen, and want to launch many of them at the same time) seems uncommon. It's typically bad to have a UI that makes the common case worse in order to make an uncommon case better.

The unfortunate thing I don't think a lot of regular users even know about the Task Switcher tray, and really they shouldn't have to.

But I don't have data to back up "a lot of regular users", just anecdotal experience with them.

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