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Comment by everdrive | Hacker News Reader

I'd also like to add the impossibility of knowing what all the gesture controls are. Currently they seem to assume that you have been using an iPhone for years and pay close attention to every product launch. In other words, they assume that you learned them as they evolved. If you didn't, there's not a very good way to uncover them or customize them. Individual apps behave differently as well, and it's pretty vague regarding how you do different things.

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This is what fucked me off about apple and their fandom from the get go. They called this gesture bs 'intuitive'. It isnt. Randomly swiping around the screen until something happens is not intuitive UX design.

My mum used her iphone for 4 years before she learned how to multitask with it, under my tuition, and she still struggles. She is good with computers.

iPhones with a physical button are great for this because all you really need in iOS is to get back to the home screen - switching apps that way isn't ideal but it works. Or you can just double-click the button, which is still easier than writing bee dances with your fingers. My 85-year-old grandmother can handle that.

But a modern all-swipe iPhone? No way.

She was rather upset when they took that button away too. She was one of those that just went back to the home screen with it.

the situation is ripe for a new gesture protocol of some kind :pray:

Even if you haven't. My partner is an iphone loyalist for years and was very disappointed that they removed the "open tabs" button out of safari. I (new to iPhone) had to show them the pinch-out gesture to show your tabs.

It's beyond unintuitive. At least in the latest OS release, they've stopped hiding the searchbar in the ridiculous 'scroll past the top of the list' idiom.

The verge also has this wonderful paywall which completely breaks safari scroll such that you can't show the toolbar. The only way to 'go back' once you're hit with the paywall is to know about the hidden 'swipe from the far side' gesture in safari (cumbersome given the size of phones).

I sometimes wonder if people actually use the devices they make.

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