iPhone Copy/Paste prototype | February 13th, 2009
By now we’ve all heard these words or uttered them ourselves, “why the hell didn’t they (Apple) build copy/paste into this damn thing!?” In an effort to improve on my idea + sketch + prototype process I threw together this little movie walking through a potential copy/paste solution for the iPhone OS.
Arguably and obviously there are many ways you could employ to trigger the copy/paste interaction. I chose the “3 finger tap” for this example. “Pressing” the screen for a set duration is another viable option that would trigger the copy/paste feature that came to mind, but I liked the “3 finger tap”. I’m sure there are tons of viable ways to launch the interaction and I’ve already had some questions about the ease of executing a “3 finger tap” as I put this together but the goal for me isn’t to be right, it’s to have the conversation. So here ya go! What’s your solution?
The movie
The initial sketch
February 16th, 2009 at 5:14 am
This very topic came up at the tail end of the last IxDA get together, and we went over some of the options. I really like the 3 finger method over the ‘press and hold’ for two reasons:
1. less ‘wait frustration’. Holding a button for a period time longer than what would register as a simple tap can be an effective way to implement a secondary, less common function on a single object, but loses the immediate gratification of control. (Sometimes you’re forced into using it on displays that aren’t multi-touch.)
2. less opportunity for error. “Accidentally” triggering the event linked to a single touch when not ‘pressing’ long enough.
Another option we came up with was a “one-two punch”: Touch one finger down near the start of what you are wanting to copy, and while that’s held in place, tap the second finger down further along the path of what you are copying. There is no period of time that the first finger needs to be held in place (therefore avoiding the problems of point #1 above) because the tap of the second finger triggers the event.
February 16th, 2009 at 5:22 am
Wow. I totally missed that conversation and I was at the other end of the table!
February 16th, 2009 at 5:25 am
I Know! thus the need for a venue with large round tables!
February 16th, 2009 at 9:40 am
@sbergmann. I think you’ve got something here! Your alternative solution is very similar to an idea I’ve had lately. You noticed that in the calendar it’s impossible to enter a new appointment at a specific time? My intuitive solution was to hold one finger at the starting time, and then drag a second finger to the end time, thus selecting a time slot. This method of selecting might be applied elsewhere. I do have to solve how in safari for instance, this will not be confused with a zoom. What might work: while holding first finger, drag horizontal with second finger is zoom, drag vertical is select. This is consistent with current safari zoom, that seems to work only with horizontal drag. Ha!