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Facebook Paper's gesture problems

scotthurff.com

11–20 of 66 posts

Re: Facebook Paper's gesture problems

#11
post #8

I've been fascinated with phone placement in hands for product shots. It always seemed like a little bit of a cheat - especially when the elongated 5 came out - just to show one handed use of a device is possible. For me at least, the way the phone is positioned is hardly comfortable. The bottom right corner at the base of the thumb exacerbates the problem the author's talking about. When I hold the phone higher in m…

This is the study I used as the basis of the Thumb Zone, etc.: http://www.uxmatters.com/mt/archives/2013/02/how-do-users-re...?

Re: Facebook Paper's gesture problems

#14
Love Paper, 100% agree with you - I hate the Facebook iOS app and never want to open it again, but I'm missing the classic Apple vertical scroll view because it's just soooo good.

I'm probably not adding too much to this discussion since I'm just agreeing, but there it is.

Re: Facebook Paper's gesture problems

#15
I get what he's saying - but the swipe-zone of Facebook Paper is actually quite a large area - well into the "natural" zone. While the user may feel inclined to swipe near the bottom-right corner of the screen, they can actually swipe near the center of the phone's display towards the left-edge, and achieve the same effect.

Re: Facebook Paper's gesture problems

#16
post #15

I get what he's saying - but the swipe-zone of Facebook Paper is actually quite a large area - well into the "natural" zone. While the user may feel inclined to swipe near the bottom-right corner of the screen, they can actually swipe near the center of the phone's display towards the left-edge, and achieve the same effect.

Author here: I disagree that one can achieve the same effect by swiping near the center. A middle-to-left swipe on the phone doesn't make use of Paper's exciting physics-driven carousel. I can barely get any inertia swiping from the middle. Even worse, my thumb covers up most of the content and I have to make a "dabbing" motion to see a steady stream of stories.

Re: Facebook Paper's gesture problems

#17
Simple solution: swipe up on the carousel to make the cards full-screen, then browse. The whole UI works on this paradigm, so it may not be obvious at first, but it will be if this style of app continues.

Re: Facebook Paper's gesture problems

#18
post #15

I get what he's saying - but the swipe-zone of Facebook Paper is actually quite a large area - well into the "natural" zone. While the user may feel inclined to swipe near the bottom-right corner of the screen, they can actually swipe near the center of the phone's display towards the left-edge, and achieve the same effect.

Author here: I disagree that one can achieve the same effect by swiping near the center. A middle-to-left swipe on the phone doesn't make use of Paper's exciting physics-driven carousel. I can barely get any inertia swiping from the middle. Even worse, my thumb covers up most of the content and I have to make a "dabbing" motion to see a steady stream of stories.

I just tried swiping from the middle. I can advance 13 stories by starting from the middle. How is that not enough inertia? Why would I need to swipe 20+ stories in a single motion, when I cannot read any of the titles when they go by that fast?

Re: Facebook Paper's gesture problems

#19
post #15

I get what he's saying - but the swipe-zone of Facebook Paper is actually quite a large area - well into the "natural" zone. While the user may feel inclined to swipe near the bottom-right corner of the screen, they can actually swipe near the center of the phone's display towards the left-edge, and achieve the same effect.

Author here: I disagree that one can achieve the same effect by swiping near the center. A middle-to-left swipe on the phone doesn't make use of Paper's exciting physics-driven carousel. I can barely get any inertia swiping from the middle. Even worse, my thumb covers up most of the content and I have to make a "dabbing" motion to see a steady stream of stories.

I agree about the thumb covering the content, but in the short period of time I've spent with the app, I've found myself swiping from the middle - mostly along the bottom-edge of the screen. And I guess the physics-driven carousel hasn't been a huge problem yet since I've mostly been swiping to pan through the content for skimming. Guess that's the challenge of any interface - that different users may approach it in entirely different ways.

Anyway, nice study on the interaction, and thanks for your reply.

Re: Facebook Paper's gesture problems

#20
post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Author here: I disagree that one can achieve the same effect by swiping near the center. A middle-to-left swipe on the phone doesn't make use of Paper's exciting physics-driven carousel. I can barely get any inertia swiping from the middle. Even worse, my thumb covers up most of the content and I have to make a "dabbing" motion to see a steady stream of stories.

I just tried swiping from the middle. I can advance 13 stories by starting from the middle. How is that not enough inertia? Why would I need to swipe 20+ stories in a single motion, when I cannot read any of the titles when they go by that fast?

Was that swipe comfortable? Could you scan most of the headlines quickly, or was your thumb covering up most of them?

Paper's story carousel is designed to get you scanning headlines quickly with the inertial scroll. I believe that the current configuration — with its gestural shortcomings — does not ideally accomplish that goal.

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