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WebKit removes the 350ms click delay for iOS

trac.webkit.org

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Re: WebKit removes the 350ms click delay for iOS

#3

Post by ksenzee »

The change applies only to unscalable viewports. That's a shame, because it means some developers will disable pinch-to-zoom to get a faster click response. That makes this yet another unfortunate conflict between usability and accessibility. The older I get, the more I appreciate being able to zoom (I'm viewing this page at 125% on desktop right now).

Re: WebKit removes the 350ms click delay for iOS

#4

Post by jordanlev »

Ugh... This change is of course totally logical in isolation, but I fear that this will motivate designers and developers to disable pinch-zooming on their sites (more than they already are). I hate when websites do this, and it is generally considered terrible for accessibility.

Re: WebKit removes the 350ms click delay for iOS

#5

Post by nathancahill »

ksenzee wrote: post #3

The change applies only to unscalable viewports. That's a shame, because it means some developers will disable pinch-to-zoom to get a faster click response. That makes this yet another unfortunate conflict between usability and accessibility. The older I get, the more I appreciate being able to zoom (I'm viewing this page at 125% on desktop right now).

Even worse, some sites disable scaling, but let their content overflow the width of the screen without any possible way to see it. If you're going to use user-scalable=no, at least make sure that your code blocks and images resize to fit on mobile screens (or viewable separately).

Re: WebKit removes the 350ms click delay for iOS

#6

Post by untog »

While I do symapthise with those lamenting the lack of pinch-to-zoom, I'm confused: apps don't offer pinch to zoom, so how do you use them? If you can use an app fine without pinch to zoom, you should really be able to use a mobile website fine too.

It seems to me that this is an either/or proposition: either you have a not-mobile, pinch-to-zoom-able web site, or you have a mobile-specific site with an app-like viewport that does not allow pinch to zoom. Both of these seem like fine options to me, and I don't think it's a huge loss to lose the middle ground.

Re: WebKit removes the 350ms click delay for iOS

#7

Post by PebblesHD »

nathancahill wrote: post #5
ksenzee wrote: post #3

The change applies only to unscalable viewports. That's a shame, because it means some developers will disable pinch-to-zoom to get a faster click response. That makes this yet another unfortunate conflict between usability and accessibility. The older I get, the more I appreciate being able to zoom (I'm viewing this page at 125% on desktop right now).

Even worse, some sites disable scaling, but let their content overflow the width of the screen without any possible way to see it. If you're going to use user-scalable=no, at least make sure that your code blocks and images resize to fit on mobile screens (or viewable separately).

This isn't necessarily a problem as more sites become responsive and make a proper effort to accomodate mobile browsers. Where this will be a problem is poorly written desktop only sites that just make the change to get faster mobile interactions. I hope this encourages more of the former and less of the latter.

EDIT: If you don't agree why not explain your point instead of randomly downvoting. I believe this change is overall a good thing as it means designers and developers can stop using nasty hacks to get around the delay as they have been doing. Hopefully it will also mean more developers make the effort to make their sites work on mobile instead of the half efforts that seem to be common now.

Re: WebKit removes the 350ms click delay for iOS

#8

Post by monochromatic »

untog wrote: post #6

While I do symapthise with those lamenting the lack of pinch-to-zoom, I'm confused: apps don't offer pinch to zoom, so how do you use them? If you can use an app fine without pinch to zoom, you should really be able to use a mobile website fine too. It seems to me that this is an either/or proposition: either you have a not-mobile, pinch-to-zoom-able web site, or you have a mobile-specific site with an app-like viewp…

You're right in principle, but in practice a lot of zoom-disabling websites have text that's smaller than it should be. Apps seem not to have this problem as much.

Re: WebKit removes the 350ms click delay for iOS

#10

Post by mattmanser »

untog wrote: post #6

While I do symapthise with those lamenting the lack of pinch-to-zoom, I'm confused: apps don't offer pinch to zoom, so how do you use them? If you can use an app fine without pinch to zoom, you should really be able to use a mobile website fine too. It seems to me that this is an either/or proposition: either you have a not-mobile, pinch-to-zoom-able web site, or you have a mobile-specific site with an app-like viewp…

Because the middle ground is what happens in real life. Many sites have poorly designed mobile experiences that zoom helps fix. I personally have my mobile Chrome set to over-ride site viewport settings to always allow zoom.

For example wikipedia (used to?) disable zoom while making all their pictures small. But what if the picture has the information you want to see?

This is because a lot of content on the internet is long form reading with pictures, and ideally you'd want the middle ground, responsive quick scrolling with the ability to zoom on pictures, infographics, etc. and then zoom out again to carry on reading.

And before you say it, all picture viewers on mobile suck. We already have an amazing, built in solution.

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