current status Contour - activating/opening a resource with an arrow

[Aaron J. Seigo]

On Wednesday, June 15, 2011 17:48:04 you wrote:
> I just tested the current implementation of Contour with the idea of
> opening a resource with a slide-In with the arrow - well, actually i
> think thats not that well usable.

that's unfortunate.

> Its a real tricky movement with your fingers

it's the same movement as in the activity switcher. it works well there. so 
the question would be: why does it work well in the activity switcher and not 
the resources?

one possible reason i can think of is that in the activity switcher the arrow 
is already there so you are pressing on the target immediately, but in the 
resource case it appears when you press on the resource .. if that is true, 
then the "tricky" feeling is wholey "in the mind" and not in the finger.  
which leads me to wonder how well it would work if used for an hour, a day or 
a week.

another possible reason i can think of is that opening is a more common action 
and that whlie the movement is tricky, it doesn't matter so much in the 
activity switcher because it isn't used as often. so a bit of "pain" there 
doesn't impact the interaction much.

> and mostly your finger will cover the arrow completly (unless
> its like the current implementation, where you slide the arrow to the
> left in direction of the next resource to the left, not optimal...).

that's why the slider extends, so that the finger doesn't cover the arrow. 
otherwise that would, indeed, be remarkably silly :)

as for overlapping with the resource to the left, can you explain why this is 
non-optimal?

drag and drop is not support, so it can be that. the locus of attention is the 
pressed item, is it so important that other items are perfectly un-obscured?

> I actually would stay with the learned pattern: one touch opens a
> resource. The arrow-thingy makes it more complicated in my opinion. I
> agree that unintentional opening of resources could occur in this case.

particularly if you aren't using your device in a nice steady environment like 
on a desk. maybe i hold my hand too close to the screen while using it, but 
the number of wrong presses on my smartphone that i make while usng it on the 
bus is often maddening (to the point where on some routes i just put it away 
entirely)

-- 
Aaron J. Seigo
humru othro a kohnu se
GPG Fingerprint: 8B8B 2209 0C6F 7C47 B1EA  EE75 D6B7 2EB1 A7F1 DB43

KDE core developer sponsored by Qt Development Frameworks
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