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The Back Button Dilemma

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Re: The Back Button Dilemma

#11

Post by pavpanchekha »

zyb09 wrote: post #9

I think this is only a problem for people not familiar with Android. Once you get used to it, it's pretty straightforward and intuitive. Fact is, the back button always takes you back to the previous screen you where on, and it works systemwide. So when you opened an email from a notification, you get taken back from wherever you opened that notification. Yes, apps can mess with that behavior, but only bad apps do an…

I'm not too familiar with iOS, but may it be that iOS is emphasizing a "silo" view of apps (where you consistently stay within one app until you "escape" to the root), which Android deemphasizes the app in particular, in favor of a more unified feel?

Re: The Back Button Dilemma

#12

Post by ugh »

Pewpewarrows wrote: post #8

No. Just... no. If I go from a notification to the inner workings of an app, hitting back _should_ bring me right back to the view I was when I selected the notification. If that was the home screen, bring me back to the home screen. If I happened to be writing an e-mail and I got an @-reply on Twiiter with a notification, pressing back after reading the tweet should throw me right back to writing the e-mail. I said…

Sounds like a dilemma to me, for the user at least. It doesn’t really matter who is to blame, right?

Re: The Back Button Dilemma

#13

Post by LukasMathis »

zyb09 wrote: post #9

I think this is only a problem for people not familiar with Android. Once you get used to it, it's pretty straightforward and intuitive. Fact is, the back button always takes you back to the previous screen you where on, and it works systemwide. So when you opened an email from a notification, you get taken back from wherever you opened that notification. Yes, apps can mess with that behavior, but only bad apps do an…

It's not that the behavior is unclear, it's that going back is not always what you want to happen.

Sometimes, you jump directly into an app, but then, you want to do other things inside that app; since the back button normally is used to move up inside an app, it's not always obvious how to do that (and it's sometimes not possible at all).

Re: The Back Button Dilemma

#14

Post by LukasMathis »

Pewpewarrows wrote: post #8

No. Just... no. If I go from a notification to the inner workings of an app, hitting back _should_ bring me right back to the view I was when I selected the notification. If that was the home screen, bring me back to the home screen. If I happened to be writing an e-mail and I got an @-reply on Twiiter with a notification, pressing back after reading the tweet should throw me right back to writing the e-mail. I said…

I agree that back should bring you back.

Not sure about Gmail. First of all, it doesn't behave the way you describe on my Nexus One. It always goes to the home screen when I switch to it, regardless of how I do it.

Second, is this really the best behavior? Or is the behavior you describe the best behavior? If you get a new message notification, and you tap on it, don't you usually want to see the new message?

And lastly, do you propose that applications should always implement "up" explicitly, or only when necessary? Because most of the time, they would just be duplicating functionality that already exists, thanks to the back button. But if you only show it when necessary, you're creating a situation where casual users won't really understand when and why they should use which UI element.

Re: The Back Button Dilemma

#16

Post by Splines »

Pewpewarrows wrote: post #8

No. Just... no. If I go from a notification to the inner workings of an app, hitting back _should_ bring me right back to the view I was when I selected the notification. If that was the home screen, bring me back to the home screen. If I happened to be writing an e-mail and I got an @-reply on Twiiter with a notification, pressing back after reading the tweet should throw me right back to writing the e-mail. I said…

This can be taken too far. Imagine clicking on a mailto: link in your browser and being taken to email - while you're there, you read a few emails and end up back at your inbox. You're done, and you're "at the top" of the app. You want to get back to your browser. How do you do that? I've seen an email app that, under these conditions, pressing back makes you go through every single email you already read. In other words, it traces you back through every single Inbox-->Email-->Inbox loop you ever did. Not to mention what happens in the same app when you muck around the settings screen. Be prepared to go visit the settings screen again!

The problem here was that there are two ways to go "back" when reading an email. Press the back button, or clicking an on-screen UI element that took me back to the Inbox. One of them pops an item off the undo stack, and the other pushes one onto it. It's consistent, but frustratingly so.

I realize that I want to have my cake and eat it too, but at some point having an undo stack that is 30+ items deep doesn't really help me all that much.

I suppose it just goes to show that the meaning of Android's back button is way too overloaded (I think WP7 suffers from this across their other buttons as well).

Re: The Back Button Dilemma

#17

Post by MatthewPhillips »

LukasMathis wrote: post #13
zyb09 wrote: post #9

I think this is only a problem for people not familiar with Android. Once you get used to it, it's pretty straightforward and intuitive. Fact is, the back button always takes you back to the previous screen you where on, and it works systemwide. So when you opened an email from a notification, you get taken back from wherever you opened that notification. Yes, apps can mess with that behavior, but only bad apps do an…

It's not that the behavior is unclear, it's that going back is not always what you want to happen. Sometimes, you jump directly into an app, but then, you want to do other things inside that app; since the back button normally is used to move up inside an app, it's not always obvious how to do that (and it's sometimes not possible at all).

It actually doesn't move up. It always moves back, just like the back button on the browser. If you want to move "up" that is handled by the developer's UI preferences.

Android doesn't know what the correct "up" activity would even be. Unless they've changed that in 3.0, I have only used the 2.2 and 2.3 sdks.

Re: The Back Button Dilemma

#18

Post by MatthewPhillips »

kaolbrec wrote: post #7
drivebyacct2 wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, but I see no reason that that makes any more sense, the user experience is that they navigate to their browser, surf, drop directly into a message and then go back. Especially since I think you're still thinking about things from an old mindset where users use the homescreen to switch apps. That's fine, but for those of us that want to leverage Android multitasking (and presumably iOS multitasking allows you to j…

I can assure you I am not thinking of using the homescreen in that way, since I never experienced android when it worked that way. In the context of checking inboxes, adding an "inbox" activity does make sense, especially if you receive multiple notifications. Although I don't see why there couldn't be a way for the inbox activity to only be added when necessary.

If you receive multiple email notifications it does take you to the inbox. If you only have 1 you go directly to that message.

* note: this is the Gmail app, I'm unfamiliar with the generic email app.

Re: The Back Button Dilemma

#19

Post by MatthewPhillips »

Splines wrote: post #16
Pewpewarrows wrote: post #8

No. Just... no. If I go from a notification to the inner workings of an app, hitting back _should_ bring me right back to the view I was when I selected the notification. If that was the home screen, bring me back to the home screen. If I happened to be writing an e-mail and I got an @-reply on Twiiter with a notification, pressing back after reading the tweet should throw me right back to writing the e-mail. I said…

This can be taken too far. Imagine clicking on a mailto: link in your browser and being taken to email - while you're there, you read a few emails and end up back at your inbox. You're done, and you're "at the top" of the app. You want to get back to your browser. How do you do that? I've seen an email app that, under these conditions, pressing back makes you go through every single email you already read. In other w…

The normal flow for this would be.

Browser -> Email Message -> Inbox -> Email Message > Inbox -> Email Message > Inbox > First Email Message > Browser

You'd only be 3 back button presses to get to your browser session. Of course it's possible for users to create gigantic stacks of history where you wouldn't want to go all the way through them. If that's the case you can get back to your browser using the Multitasking UI or by going back to your home screen.

I think most users use the back button frequently however. If you do, you're always only a few presses to be back to your original activity.

Re: The Back Button Dilemma

#20

Post by MatthewPhillips »

pavpanchekha wrote: post #10
Pewpewarrows wrote: post #8

No. Just... no. If I go from a notification to the inner workings of an app, hitting back _should_ bring me right back to the view I was when I selected the notification. If that was the home screen, bring me back to the home screen. If I happened to be writing an e-mail and I got an @-reply on Twiiter with a notification, pressing back after reading the tweet should throw me right back to writing the e-mail. I said…

To add to what you're saying: bad developers are often under the impression that their app is the universe within which user activity happens. This is somewhat understandable, since their app is all that developer think about. But it's important to remember that while adding a button go up might be the optimal thing to do within your app , it is unlikely to be the optimal thing to do overall. Design for the user, not…

I'm not sure it's even the correct action to do within your app. Most of the time there is going to be more than one way to launch an activity even within an app. So going up can ruin the user experience even within your app.

The only time I see a reason to override the back button is in games. When playing a game you don't want the back button to accidentally bring you back to the main menu screen. Most override the button and either ignore it or bring up a pause menu. In non-game apps overriding it just causes problems.

I've also seen apps override it when they choose to have a lot of different functionality in a single activity. This is poor app design.

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