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Apple’s 3D Touch Is the Start of a New Interface

wired.com

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Re: Apple’s 3D Touch Is the Start of a New Interface

#21

Post by IanCal »

I'm unsure on this. Long pressing at least has the description of "press, wait for X".

"Press this, no, hmm try harder, no not that hard, no the other one you need to press lightly, wait maybe that's too light..."

Some things obviously lend themselves well to this. The piano example is good, as is drawing. However, things with a threshold sound less obvious.

> “There was a physical thing on the screen,” he says. “You had to select the button and move it over.” It was better than the existing ideas, sure, but what was that button? It moved too freely, you didn’t know how it would move or how to make it stop.

You didn't know how it would move or how to make it stop? Really?

Re: Apple’s 3D Touch Is the Start of a New Interface

#22

Post by eecks »

wodenokoto wrote: post #19

I went by an apple store today and I thought the force-touch on a Macbook felt much, much more realistic than 3D touch. Anyone know why that is? I thought it was the same tech.

They call the MacBook Pro Force Touch and the iPhone 6S 3D Touch.

I have a MacBook Pro with Force Touch and honestly haven't used it much yet. I think it's for the same reason as another poster says. I'm not sure where it's available and what it will do? In safari it previews links and gives definitions.

The preview links thing is a bit redundant because clicking a link and swiping back is just as fast.

Re: Apple’s 3D Touch Is the Start of a New Interface

#24

Post by Intermernet »

I find it interesting that both Apple[1] and Samsung[2] applied for patents early last year regarding pressure sensitive touch screens.

Apple at the end of January, and Samsung at the end of February.

I also noticed that the Android API has had a getPressure[3] call since really early API versions, so I assume they were aware this was an option a long time ago.

Any ideas why this is suddenly being touted as "the Start of a New Interface"? Has the accuracy / latency / sensitivity finally become good enough to be useful? Or is this just the Apple PR juggernaut pushing an old idea as a new feature?

[1]: http://pdfaiw.uspto.gov/.aiw?docid=20140028575

[2]: http://pdfaiw.uspto.gov/.aiw?docid=20140055407

[3]: http://developer.android.com/reference/android/view/MotionEv...

Re: Apple’s 3D Touch Is the Start of a New Interface

#25

Post by szastupov »

The problem that it's still a piece of flat glass. What I really want (and see as the next big thing) is not glass, but a material that can take form controlled by software. Imagine all those buttons that really pop up from your screen so you can feel them. Just think about how software defined tactile interfaces can benefit gaming, accessibility, music production, etc...

Too bad the tech isn't there yet :(

Re: Apple’s 3D Touch Is the Start of a New Interface

#26

Post by mnem »

jafingi wrote: post #14

I think the biggest reason that 3D Touch will take some years to get adopted by the users is, that it's not visible whether or not there are any 3D Touch actions available. It's simply not intuitive as of now, until apps get updated to take advantage of it. Sure, I can preview a link in Safari or Mail, but what about when someone posts a link on Facebook or Messenger, I can't deep press on it to preview that link. So…

Well, it's been about a week, lets see how the fragmentation is doing in a month or two once people have had time to write the code :)

Re: Apple’s 3D Touch Is the Start of a New Interface

#27

Post by mnem »

onion2k wrote: post #18
[deleted] wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[deleted]

We're not born with the knowledge of how to operate things, but we do learn it very quickly. A two year old can use a touch screen because the way you interact with it is largely the same as the way you interact with the world - touch something and see things change. With most real world devices that you put pressure on to use it's the distance you push them that selects the input - e.g. a car accelerator pedal doesn…

I suspect you may find artists will disagree with you there. They've been using pressure sensitive interfaces for thousands of years.

Re: Apple’s 3D Touch Is the Start of a New Interface

#28

Post by mnem »

microtonal wrote: post #7
onion2k wrote: post #3

One of the designers where I work added 3D Touch to a prototype of a website he was working on this week. During a Demo session no one knew the feature was there until he told them. That's the hard bit about UI design once you go beyond visual things - people are conservative in the ways they interact with devices, so unless there's an indicator, or instructions, no one will find the fancy new UI feature. And if no o…

3D Touch is great, and has loads of potential, but it's going to be hard to make it genuinely useful. I see one big exception and that is games. Phones are limited when it comes to controls and 3D Touch can be a welcome addition. Discoverability isn't as much of a problem for games, because there is usually a tutorial anyway. Of course, it will be a while before games will be designed around 3D touch, because older i…

I wonder if the upcoming Apple TV remote is pressure sensitive, or if it just does touches. If it was pressure sensitive, that may drive a lot of games to adopt it in some fashion.

Re: Apple’s 3D Touch Is the Start of a New Interface

#29

Post by threeseed »

onion2k wrote: post #15
wingerlang wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I always saw it as an interface like right clicking, which is genuinely useful.

Long press is a better alternative for that, and that's available on iOS (UILongPressGestureRecognizer) and Android (android.view.ContextMenu). The fact it's rarely used despite having been an available option for years might indicate it's not actually very useful.

Long press already has a meaning on iOS though.

It means "rearrange". For example apps on the home screen, movies in my streaming app etc.

Re: Apple’s 3D Touch Is the Start of a New Interface

#30

Post by arrrg »

onion2k wrote: post #15
wingerlang wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I always saw it as an interface like right clicking, which is genuinely useful.

Long press is a better alternative for that, and that's available on iOS (UILongPressGestureRecognizer) and Android (android.view.ContextMenu). The fact it's rarely used despite having been an available option for years might indicate it's not actually very useful.

Long press is annoying to use. It’s just so, so, so slow.
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