Smart gestures feature. Touch with movement. Double tap or double tap

Gestures in mobile applications

Some critics find this type of control, such as gestures, difficult to understand - and therefore useless. At the same time, the development of gesture technologies is proceeding at a rapid pace; in the world of UI, tactile solutions are on stream. But still, the main difficulty is novelty. Gestures as a control method electronic device appeared in the early 80s, and since the early 2000s they have spread everywhere. Designers are trying to make gestures intuitive - but the process is still in beta.

General gestures

These are gestures that are implemented on many platforms and are familiar to most.

Dan Mooney's research shows that users' expectations regarding the nuances of interfaces largely converge. The study asked participants from nine countries to list 28 UI gestures. And the results turned out to be very similar.

For example, to remove an icon, you need to drag it off the screen.

Standard set of gestures for most applications:

• Click (or tap)
• Double tap
• Drag and drop
• Pinch
• contraction
• Stretching
• Pressing
• Press and hold
• Click and drag
• Screen rotation

It is not always possible to guess that these gestures are present without a hint - at least, this is what the study participants think. This begs the question: how intuitive are gesture interfaces? What are their pros and cons?

It is important to be clear about what operating principle or concept makes gesture UI effective. Otherwise, the usability of such developments will suffer.

Benefits of Gestures

The popularity of gestures is due to two reasons:

• Rapid spread touch devices And
• Film "Minority Report".

The latter can be called a reason with great stretch. Screen with dashboard from this film is a too futuristic example, a metaphor in conversations about touch interfaces. But the times are still very far away when interaction with holographic projections will become part of everyday life.

But still, Tom Cruise's gadgets anticipate the not-so-distant future - and demonstrate. Two nuances are important here: their convenience and, again, intuitive clarity.

Gestures are easy to learn

Touchscreen interfaces only seem simple and understandable when interaction with digital elements is close to physical action. Tactile feedback and on-screen manipulations must be appropriate.

Experienced user without extra effort will understand the most ill-conceived interface. Device owners often skip instructions for applications - and in a few moments they master the controls experimentally. However, without subtle instructions from the designer, the application will be less pleasing to its user. So how to teach people and not distract them from practical actions in the application?

One of the most effective methods- gradual disclosure: gestures and other controls become available as you become familiar with the interface. To begin with, the most important controls are shown - with the help of visual cues or an introductory briefing. The first seems preferable, since most users get straight to the point and do not waste time on instructions.

Visual cues and animations that respond to screen taps may be appropriate. As an example, the “slide to unlock” function, which was previously present in Apple devices.

Slide to unlock

Verbal prompt; the arrow indicates the direction; animation serves as feedback.

The step-by-step disclosure and instructions are essentially useful tips. In the first case, the developer shows a little more respect to the user, since it is assumed that he (the user) will be able to independently understand the structure of the program.

People perform certain actions with minimal intervention from the developer. The design makes it easy to interact with the application. Thus, a habit is formed. This way, the user learns to cope with more complex operations in the application.

The habit formation process involves three stages:

1. Trigger
2. Action
3. Feedback

A trigger encourages action. Example: notifications remind you of something. Then comes the action: the user receives a hint on how to achieve a certain goal. Feedback is something like a reward for work.

The process of forming a habit is a variation (attracting new users). This is also a way to make sure that new users understand how everything works. And also the opportunity to turn random users into enthusiastic fans. This is clearly illustrated by the Lumosity application (especially step #3).

Lumosity- gaming application, which trains memory and attention. Users can set their own triggers. In the future, there is a transition to actions, and, in fact, games. These games are based on gestures, and each one comes with simple instructions.

Thanks to these incentives, users enjoy software product and quickly remember how and what to do. Gesture control is a skill like any other. Due to the entertainment element, the customer retention curve creeps up.

Ease of learning is an obvious advantage of gesture interfaces, and the minimalist aesthetic is another plus.

Screen space

The space on the device screen is limited - it needs to be used wisely, especially when the application is replete with options. This is why many interfaces hide navigation elements in hamburgers.

Hamburger menu hides navigation elements

Gestures used to navigate a website sometimes degrade usability, but in an app, gestures look very appropriate. The Solar app is designed in a very minimalist style, contains useful tips.

The user has more freedom of action - without outside help will understand what to do. Tactile feedback evokes a feeling of completion and successful interaction. So, in devices on iOS and Android vibration confirms that the sound is muted.

Involvement occurs due to the tactile effect. Disney developers are actively using this approach.

This is a little-explored territory - a whole lot that designers can bring to life.

Usability principles and best practices should not be neglected, but sometimes it makes sense to go beyond the usual boundaries - to revive the design, add new colors. Not every development becomes revolutionary, but a little experimentation never hurts.

Minuses

Oddly enough, in the design world there is a fairly large camp of those who consider gestures a departure from the canons of usability, no matter how futuristic this method of control may be.

Meaningless gestures

A large part of the reason is that designers often ignore standard warnings about UX and usability. Designers tend to conform. They read thousands of articles about " best practices” and apply the same techniques and patterns to almost all types of applications and interfaces, even when it goes against common sense.

Usability-related problems are duplicated in many developments. Even in popular gesture interfaces. For example, in Google systems and Facebook, you can see that icons are given preference over text links. To save space, designers use images instead of text. However, the problem is that people perceive images differently. There are many interpretations. And to assume that people will easily understand the purpose of a particular icon is a toss-up game. Example - Bloom.fm.

What does drop shaped mean? Is the snowflake on the left a warning of bad weather? Why is this note on top of the “hamburger” in the right corner?

Of course, some users will figure out this mess through trial and error. But the point is that not a single application icon serves as a visual clue. This interface cannot be called intuitive.

Bloom.fm designers would do well to eliminate all this dissonant symbolism. And the options - whatever they mean - are placed in hidden menu. After all, is it necessary to music player something else besides the main buttons: play, pause, rewind, repeat.

The unfamiliar causes dissatisfaction

All this is the origin of another problem with gesture interfaces: their functionality and controls are always hidden. depend on how familiar the audience is with the basics of gesture control.

This means that any deviation from the rule will be inconvenient, unusual, something that is beyond the user’s competence. Adding to the complexity is the fact that there is no uniform standard gesture interfaces. It's like the Wild West, but with more clicking and less shooting. Double tap V different applications performs different functions. Sometimes the purpose of gestures changes with the release of an update. In the photo hosting application Imgur, the double tap was previously needed for zoom, but now it performs an upvote (increases the popularity of the post).

The learning curve, depending on attention to the nuances of usability, can be quite steep.

On the one hand, it is not difficult to understand the function of a gesture, on the other hand, a wide field opens up for research and implementation of new design patterns. That is, touch UIs can be very different. Hence their unpredictability, which, in turn, distances them from main goal- intuitive clarity.

Good interfaces are kept within certain limits, at their core visual information(animation) and in some cases verbal prompts - so that the connection between the gesture and the function is fixed in the user’s mind.

Bottom line

Despite all the shortcomings, touch as a way to control the interface is the technology of the future. The smooth learning curve (at least for basic functions) proves this. You just need to make it a little more functional. Any experiments should be within reason; you should not deviate too much from the usual. It is in the designer's interest to choose the right time and a place to show off the new controls without becoming an example in someone else's article about usability bugs.

All the features listed below are tested on Android 9.0 Pie. In other versions of the OS or third-party shells, some gestures may work differently or not work at all.

1. Double swipe down from the screen border - full extension of the settings panel

A standard swipe down from the top of the screen only shows notifications. To push everything top panel and access quick settings system, you need to do another swipe. But you can replace these two gestures with one - exactly the same, but performed with two fingers. This double swipe pulls out the entire panel.

2. Long press on a notification - quick access to program settings

If one of the programs starts constantly sending notifications, there is a strong desire to reduce their number or simply turn it off. To do this, you have to open the application and delve into it in search of required settings. But you can just tap on the notification and hold your finger for a few seconds - a button will appear for quick access to the desired settings.

3. Horizontal swipes along the address bar - flipping tabs in Chrome

To switch between Chrome tabs, you must first click on the number with the number of tabs, and then select the desired one. But there is alternative way, with which it is convenient to switch to adjacent tabs. All you have to do is swipe right or left, sliding your finger across the address bar.

4. Long press the shutdown button - go to safe mode

If the device starts to slow down and rebooting does not help, it is appropriate to test its operation in safe mode. In this state the device is not affected third party programs, so the problems they cause are easier to fix. To go to safe mode, hold down the Power key until the Power Off button appears on the display. Then hold your touch on it - after a second you will see a proposal to switch to safe mode.

5. Pinch and long press in Google Photos - convenient photo management

Gestures greatly simplify the use of a smartphone. For example, you can quickly change the display format of pictures by pinch, without even going into extra menu. Just pinch and spread two fingers over the list of photos, and the application will switch the view: normal, by day, by month, by year.

Plus, you can quickly select multiple images. To do this, hold your touch on one of the desired pictures and, without lifting your finger from the screen, move it over the others.

6. Double tap on the map and vertical swipes - changing the scale in Google Maps

Zooming the map using the traditional pinch gesture is not very convenient on the go when you are holding your smartphone with one hand. The developers took this nuance into account and added an alternative method. To resize a map with one finger, quickly tap it twice and, without lifting your finger, swipe up or down. The scale will change.

7. Triple tap and swipe - zoom the interface and images

If you want to quickly look at a small fragment of a photo or read a tiny font on a website where standard zooming does not work, you can use a hidden gesture. To do this, you need to press the screen three times and, without lifting your finger, swipe in different sides. But the method will work if you first activate the “Gestures to zoom” option in the “ Special abilities» in the smartphone settings.

8. Horizontal swipes along the spacebar - cursor control in the Google keyboard

When a typo creeps into the typed text, you have to put your finger in the right place between the small letters to correct it. This is, to put it mildly, not very simple. Luckily, you can control your cursor much more in a convenient way. Simply slide your finger over the spacebar and the cursor will move along the text.

Perhaps you know other not entirely obvious gestures? Share in the comments!

Dear friends who are starting to master a smartphone!

If you have switched from a regular push-button mobile phone to a smartphone with a touch screen ( touch screen- touchscreen), then some of you initially experience Difficulties in mastering the touch screen. It is not very clear to you how to touch the screen, how long to hold the touch, how to move around the page, etc. In this article I will try to briefly describe the main features smartphone control.

I must say right away that the transition from mechanical buttons to virtual ones is a huge step forward in development mobile devices. It allows you to increase the screen area to almost the entire front surface of the smartphone and make it easier to control. But at the same time, at first there appears some inconvenience. Regular phone you could pick it up in your hand any way you wanted and touch any part of the front panel and screen. With smartphones, you need to be more careful, since any accidental touch to the surface of the screen can cause an unwanted action. You need to develop the habit of holding your smartphone in your hand without touching the screen unnecessarily, at least while it is unlocked.

So here you go basic management techniques touch screen:

Single touch (tap)

This fast(virtually no delay) touching the screen one finger. The delay should not exceed 0.5 seconds. Any touch is easy enough to do, as modern capacitive touch screens very sensitive (unlike the resistive ones that are already a thing of the past).

On the home screen (and any work screen - desktop), a single tap on the application icon launches the application. This analogue of pressing the left button mouse on regular computer. In other cases, within the application this may be selecting an option from several offered, selecting a contact in the contact list, confirming an action, etc.

Single touch in text fields inserts the cursor where you touched it.

Delayed touch (long tap)

This is touch one finger With delay more than 1 second (until the result appears). The result may vary depending on the situation. In most cases, this action leads to the appearance context menu (analogue of the right button mice).

Pressing and holding an icon on the main screen causes this icon to “stick” to your finger, which makes it possible to move it around the screen, including to the adjacent work screen, as well as delete the icon (not the application itself) to the trash bin that appears on the screen.

In text fields, the delay causes selecting a fragment text under your finger with the ability further expansion selection using the emerging end marks, a menu appears at the same time Copy, Select All, Cut, Paste. Pausing on the cursor mark causes the menu to appear Insert(last clipboard contents), Paste from clipboard(any of the 20 most recent clipboard contents).

Double tap

Double tap with one finger with a short interval between taps (no more than 0.2 seconds). Used to alternately zoom in and out of a web page in a browser, a picture in the Gallery, etc. You need to click exactly on the area of ​​the screen that you want to view larger and in more detail.

Tap & drag

This is touch one finger with immediate (delay no more than 0.2 sec) start of movement finger across the screen without releasing your finger. Further delay in one place after the start of movement does not matter: the contents of the screen seem to stick to the finger until the moment of release. This is how you scroll through desktops (screens), pages in the browser in any direction, scroll through lists (for example, contacts), etc. This gesture also serves to move the sliders of various virtual controls (for example, volume, brightness, etc.).

Swipe

This one-finger action is similar to the previous one, but it is only done without prolonged movement across the screen, reminiscent of a quick brush stroke on paper. In this case, the content of the screen continues to move even after lifting your finger from the screen in the process of “smearing” with a gradual slowdown. I remember the video of the first demonstration of this effect by Steve Jobs at a presentation Apple iPhone 2G received a storm of applause in 2007.

Now let's look at touch techniques two fingers. In this case, the fingers can be on the same hand or on different ones, it doesn’t matter.

Pinch (pinch) and spread apart two fingers (pinch, zoom)

This technique is used to smoothly reduce and, accordingly, increase the scale of an image on the screen (pictures, web pages). You place both fingers on the screen almost simultaneously, and then make a pinch or spread motion. The direction of movement of the fingers (right-left, up-down or intermediate movements) does not matter.

Rotate with two fingers (rotate)

This is another technique used to rotate the image on the screen. After touching the screen, two fingers each move along an arc of a circle in the same direction (clockwise or counterclockwise). Or one finger stands motionless at the center of rotation, and the other moves in an arc around this center. This method is used quite rarely. For example, I used it when editing an image in the MDScan application to obtain scanned copies of documents.

IN Samsung devices Galaxy S has gesture support. In particular, users will find the following features very useful:

1. “Instant overview” function, which allows you to scroll through photos in the gallery and switch tracks using a palm gesture.

2. “Contactless call acceptance” function. It allows you to receive calls using a gesture and automatically turns on speakerphone. This is damn convenient when your hands are dirty or wet and you don’t want to take your smartphone or even touch the screen: in the kitchen, during renovations, etc.

Enable swiping and answering calls using gestures

1. Open the notification panel.

2. Click on the icon Options:

3. Go to the tab My device.

4. In the area Input and control select Movements and gestures:

5. Click the switch on the right to turn on the mode Gesture control.

6. Click on left side the same line to enter the gesture settings:

7. Enable features Instant overview

8. If necessary, turn on Contactless call acceptance:

By the way, the function Glance allows you to view the time and find out if there are missed calls or new SMS messages.

In order to globally enable or disable gesture control on your smartphone, you can use the corresponding switch on the notification panel:

On smartphones small screens, and in order to improve the ease of use they come up with various methods input and elements that make everyday work easier. For example, such as gestures. Applications that expand and complement the basic functionality by supporting gestures will be discussed in this review.

We will look at the three most popular solutions that have been in the forefront for quite some time. current programs on Google Play. This is an unusual iGest, interesting Finger Gesture Launcher and simple Gesture Magic. And at the end you will find an in-person comparison of the participants and a summary of the consideration of this software segment.

The test equipment used was Xiaomi smartphones Redmi Note(Miui V8 on Android 4.4.2 OS, Dalvik runtime, MediaTek processor MT6592, 8 x 1700 MHz, Mali-450 MP4 video co-processor, 700 MHz, 2 GB RAM) and Jinga Basco M500 3G (OC Android 5.1, ART runtime, MediaTek MT6580 processor, 4 x 1300 MHz, Mali-400 MP2 video co-processor, 1 GB of RAM), as well as a tablet Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 (CM 13 based on Android OS 6.0.1, ART runtime, TI OMAP 4430 processor, 2 x 1200 MHz, PowerVR 540 video coprocessor, 384 MHz, 1 GB RAM).

iGest

Acquaintance

Ease of use, quality of work and a high number of functions are the main advantages of iGest. What else is so interesting and unusual that can be noted in this application what kind does he have? underwater rocks? Let's try to figure it out.

Advantages of the iGest application:

• Many functions and gesture control will significantly speed up working with the device;
• Gestures can be used directly on the lock screen. Now, in order to open an application or make a call, you don’t even need to turn on the phone;
• Protection of personal information. Set a gesture password for gallery, chat and other applications;
• There is a fingerprint scanner on the lock screen;
• A convenient floating button allows you to use gestures anywhere;
• Perfect accuracy of gesture recognition. A unique algorithm adapts to your handwriting and recognizes any gesture;
• Simple and user-friendly interface will help you quickly set up the necessary gestures;
• iGest is the only application among its analogues that supports multi-touch gestures.

iGest program features:

• Launch applications;
• Lock apps with a gesture password;
• Make calls;
• Open web pages;
• Open files;
• Lock your phone screen;
• Create SMS;
• Create Email;
• Turn on the flashlight;
• And much more…

Beginning of work

When we first get acquainted with iGest, we will immediately be prompted to create the first gesture and proceed to use the program.

Regarding functionality, free utility iGest can do many things, namely: open certain applications, make calls, write SMS messages, take photos and much more. I can't even imagine a feature that this program might be missing.

True, we will be able to view web pages in a browser, open files and create E-mail only in the extended version of iGest. This creates certain inconveniences, since advertising is also present in the application.

When creating a gesture, we must draw the intended figure five times, thanks to this recognition will be the most accurate. Gestures can be both simple and complex, that is, they can consist of several separate lines, which will help better protection from false positives.

To type or draw a gesture, whichever is most convenient for you, you need to open the app and draw on the translucent canvas. However, you can activate a floating button in the application, which, when clicked, will open the above-mentioned panel. This will allow you to avoid searching for the application shortcut every time. Similar actions are also available on the lock screen.

Settings

There are basically no settings in iGest, but I would like to adjust the speed of gestures, input accuracy and other parameters.

Testing

The functionality of the application did not disappoint, but what about the quality of gesture recognition, accuracy, speed and other performance parameters? I didn’t notice any particular problems with it; moreover, I was pleased with the quality of work, especially the recognition of multi-gestures (from several lines). On average, the program could make a mistake once or twice in 15-20 gestures - no more.

iGest with all its capabilities includes three workflows and still consumes little RAM. Therefore, with the operation of the application special problems no, except for the floating button and lock screen, on third party firmware These features do not work with modified interfaces. This has been tested on Miui 8 and Flyme 5.