Before you click a button or link you subconsciously weigh up the consequences of doing so. What will happen? What are the risks that it will trigger some negative or unexpected experience?
On a desktop application or website there’s usually plenty of information to help you determine the risk of clicking on something. Tooltips commonly appear when you hover over buttons and icons explaining what it’s for. Other links are textual, offering an unambiguous description of what you’re about to do.
However, this comfortable status quo does not translate well from the desktop to smaller, touch screen devices. On smartphones, where screen real estate is limited and tooltips do not exist, the consequences of each action can be hard to anticipate.
When Apple announced the Magic Trackpad in late July, it was one of their more intriguing new products. At first glance, it’s much the same as the trackpad found on MacBooks; you can move the cursor around, click, swipe and use all of the other gestures you’d expect. Yet how this works on a practical, day to day basis is not apparent.
I need to buy luggage and I’m in a hurry. I don’t have a great deal of time to do research and I’m not familiar with the common brands. What do I do?
The BBC has released the BBC News iPhone app in the UK, having been held up for several months by the BBC Trust. Although overshadowed by the politics surrounding it, the app contains one interesting detail: an interaction known as ‘pull down to refresh’.
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