Re: Touchscreen Compatibility [was: Feature proposal: combined system status menu]

[Allan Day <allanpday gmail com>]

Juanjo Marín <juanjomarin96 yahoo es> wrote:
...
> But also some problems has arisen in the effort of being compatible with touch devices.For example, I think 
> that the UI of new applications like Documents are very touch friendly, but it's weird for keyboard + mouse 
> users. It is weird because the interaction is very different from other core applications like Nautilus 
> (Files). In Nautilus, double click opens a file, but only one click opens it in Documents, and the way of 
> selecting elements and doing actions with selected elements is quite different. I think Documents works 
> great in touch screen devices and it is a little bit clumpsy with mouse, and Nautilus works great in mouse 
> and keyboard but not so good for touchscreen devices.

Right, so the selection design pattern is probably the most prominent
place where touch compatibility has had an impact. It should be
emphasised that it is somewhat unique in this regard.

The selection pattern has been evolving a bit, and we have a round of
design changes planned which we will hopefully happen this cycle. Me
and Jakub literally have a list of things that can be done to the
selection mode to make it better with a pointer. Once we're done I
don't think it will be any worse than the selection mechanisms that we
have in nautilus today.

It should also be said that this pattern does have benefits when you
are using a pointer. An obvious example of this is the difference
between single/double click. Not only is double click not exactly
ideal on a touchpad, but it is also used inconsistently and is
non-discoverable (some places you need double click to open, others
you need single.) In general, using single click consistently is a
much better approach, especially when combined with discoverable
mechanisms for selection.

Allan