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Text editing on mobile: the invisible problem

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Re: Text editing on mobile: the invisible problem

#421

Post by p1mrx »

scottjenson wrote: post #92
craighay1 wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But the author works at Google, so can surely pass the message on up the chain that this design decision is stifling innovation in touch-based text editing?

I'm the author. I've been trying...

I suggest focusing on the minimum viable product: an app with a single text field.

Maybe add the option to load and save txt files, but even clipboard I/O would be sufficient. Just let people play with the editor. If it's actually good, the next steps should become obvious.

Re: Text editing on mobile: the invisible problem

#422

Post by raverbashing »

satvikpendem wrote: post #403
Nition wrote: post #398

> We saw this in our user testing when users tried to place the text cursor accurately: they would miss by a few characters... One small thing: I don't know how it works on Android, but I used to have an N9 and then the Jolla phone and you could tap anywhere in text to place the cursor there. iOS doesn't let you, except confusingly on the very first tap that activates the cursor. For subsequent taps, you can tap exac…

Hold down the space bar and you can move the cursor wherever you want, also on Android. I'm surprised more people don't know about this feature.

People don't know about it because it's not discoverable.

I knew it, but I had to be told, and it's not too intuitive

Re: Text editing on mobile: the invisible problem

#423

Post by ghostpepper »

satvikpendem wrote: post #403
Nition wrote: post #398

> We saw this in our user testing when users tried to place the text cursor accurately: they would miss by a few characters... One small thing: I don't know how it works on Android, but I used to have an N9 and then the Jolla phone and you could tap anywhere in text to place the cursor there. iOS doesn't let you, except confusingly on the very first tap that activates the cursor. For subsequent taps, you can tap exac…

Hold down the space bar and you can move the cursor wherever you want, also on Android. I'm surprised more people don't know about this feature.

How would they? Apple loves to put useful features that are completely hidden unless you know the secret incantation to activate them.

Re: Text editing on mobile: the invisible problem

#424

Post by stavros »

justsomehnguy wrote: post #396
hollandheese wrote: post #347

Earlier quoted context omitted.

T9 was so terrible I didn't use text messaging until I got my first iPhone. Actual Keyboard >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Touch screen typing >>>>>>> T9

T9 was terrible for you. You could literally type the message without taking the phone out of the pocket because it was extremely predictable and you knew the menu structure by the gut.

Agreed, I would routinely text without looking. I do now too, with SwiftKey, but it's much less deterministic.

Re: Text editing on mobile: the invisible problem

#425

Post by livrem »

I mostly just use emacs in termux. I think vim makes more sense to be honest, since the modal edit mode is perfect for touch screens, but I do not know it well enough. Keyboard-combos in emacs are not great without a real keyboard, but at least I know what to press and it is often possible to navigate around using very few key-presses with some thinking and things like avy-mode.

Re: Text editing on mobile: the invisible problem

#426

Post by kurthr »

Sloppy wrote: post #404

Very nice ideas, please please please someone pick this up! Doing anything on a mobile device is far more painful than people assume. A generation of people are now unfamiliar with using a PC and although it has its problems, the use cases are far easier. Are these really solved cases? - multiple tabs in a browser. Why not put tabs/shortcuts on the desktop (errr mobile top?) - apps in general, why do they exist at al…

Please add some form of controllable undo.

Not some weird shake dialog (iOS), or complete absence (Android).

Re: Text editing on mobile: the invisible problem

#427

Post by teolandon »

ricardobeat wrote: post #153
lbotos wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If I'm remembering correctly the main difference is that it was fast -- the space bar cursor is fine but I do feel like I lost something that made my input on mobile better. Before: I'm typing quickly, and I want to move cursor, I press slightly harder. Now: I'm typing quickly, and I want to move the cursor, I press and wait. iOS17 has a "faster" haptic touch setting and it helps, but with 3d touch I was much faster.

When in an input field, you simply tap to place the cursor. If you need finer placement you use the spacebar. The tap works 90% of the time since you’re usually editing whole words. Also, iOS has kept a software implementation of force touch around, even after removing the hardware: a hard press goes directly into cursor placement, it takes a bit more force than it used to. I imagine it’s a mix of gyroscopes and dete…

Just tried this a bit on a 14 Pro and a hard press and a soft press have no difference in how long it takes to enter force touch.

Re: Text editing on mobile: the invisible problem

#428

Post by kouru225 »

Nition wrote: post #398

> We saw this in our user testing when users tried to place the text cursor accurately: they would miss by a few characters... One small thing: I don't know how it works on Android, but I used to have an N9 and then the Jolla phone and you could tap anywhere in text to place the cursor there. iOS doesn't let you, except confusingly on the very first tap that activates the cursor. For subsequent taps, you can tap exac…

I also used to move my cursor with high accuracy and I wish it was still an option.

Re: Text editing on mobile: the invisible problem

#429

Post by kagevf »

satvikpendem wrote: post #403
Nition wrote: post #398

> We saw this in our user testing when users tried to place the text cursor accurately: they would miss by a few characters... One small thing: I don't know how it works on Android, but I used to have an N9 and then the Jolla phone and you could tap anywhere in text to place the cursor there. iOS doesn't let you, except confusingly on the very first tap that activates the cursor. For subsequent taps, you can tap exac…

Hold down the space bar and you can move the cursor wherever you want, also on Android. I'm surprised more people don't know about this feature.

> I'm surprised more people don't know about this feature.

I have an iPad without that feature, and it's maybe 5 years old? I think it's a newer feature.

Also, in the past you could tap and hold on text and it would magnify the view around where you were tapping, but that feature was dropped at some point.

Re: Text editing on mobile: the invisible problem

#430

Post by Phemist »

Phemist wrote: post #402
nanna wrote: post #21

Wholeheartedly agree with the author but don't think he's radical enough about solutions. Thumb-key takes a radical approach, and I've watched someone who has become comptetent at it (which i haven't) type elegantly on it. https://github.com/dessalines/thumb-key But I always wonder why noone has tried building a hardware chord keyboard for a phone. It seems perfectly suited.

I tried this out for the past hour or so. It takes the 9 most common letters in English and makes them easily accessible through one touch down, whereas all the other letters require a touch+swipe. Multi-lingual support is problematic, the 9 most common letters differ per language, even if you stick to those based on a latin script. So either you end up learning multiple layouts for multiple languages, or end up doin…

Point is, I doubt this system will ever be faster (for me) than typing on the qwerty keyboard where all keys are available at a single touch.

I would also be interested if this method would improve my ability to type blind, but I think it still suffers from the lack of tactile feedback there, I still dont know where my finger is exactly.

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