» Thoughts on the VIrtual Home Button

So I just posted about a [stupid] iPhone concept rendering I saw at Cult of Mac. There's a couple things wrong with the design. I decided that my previous post was too vague I that I ought to elaborate.

The first is that edge-to-edge-to-edge-to-edge screen. When I've got my phone tilted 90 degrees to play a game or something I need that buffer zone between where the screen starts and where the physical phone starts. Do this: hold your phone horizontally and try typing right up against the edge of the screen. It very, very quickly causes muscle strain in your thumbs. I'll bet that when you hold your phone vertically and type with two hands you don't actually hold your phone with two hands. I would wager that you hold your phone with a single hand and cradle that hand with the other providing distance from the body of the phone to allow for comfortable thumb travel across the virtual keyboard.

The second is that (say it with me) stooopid virtual home button. The problem with a virtual home button is that it has to always be there anyway. Why put it on a screen? You can never have that real estate back anyway. People need that home button. They know that no matter what is happening or where they are in the system that button will bring them home. My wife has seen me use the multitasking bar many times (both the double-tap and gesture varieties) but still simply presses the home button goes to where she needs to be and then selects whatever it is she would like to do next. And now that the home button activates Siri it is even more important that the tactile feedback exists so the user can know they've hit their mark.

Count me out for 4-edge displays or for virtual home buttons.