> A button would mean I'd answer endless calls by accident
That's honestly not a design issue.
The design of the following device was never criticized because answering a phone call was "too easy"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nokia_3310
Anyway, I've never said to use a button, I said "swiping is a terrible gesture"
My parents have enormous issues swiping to answer phone calls. So they answer by accident to a lot more calls than they did when the phone had buttons, because they answer while trying to hung up. It's not clear at all that they could not do anything and the call will automatically end after a while. It's not clear at all that they could silence that phone call, without silencing all phone calls.
It's even worse than that: most of the times they call me back because they could not swipe "the right way" and were unable to answer.
But they are not stupid, they've gone through life pretty well, they worked with precision instruments in health care, where people lives were at stake, it's the interface design that is stupid!
There was a time when things were designed to be used by people leveraging human natural abilities, not forced onto people because they look cool in ADS.
> Yes, my leg, through my pocket fabric, can push buttons
on
Don't keep your phone in you front pocket then!
Anyway, I don't know how big you are, but the pockets of my jeans can't handle more than half a smartphone.
And previous generations of phone never activated on their own while in my pockets (yes, they could fit, because they were sized to be handhelds not small tablets)
But, more importantly, you're not considering more ergonomic gestures than swiping, like a long press.
You are assuming that your habits are the best possible implementation.
EDIT: there's also this: swiping can reveal physical characteristics of the user which could be considered not exactly a good thing, in this era of data harvesting and targetization.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S107158191...