How Apple’s 3D touch could effect web design and beyond
by James Herd
From Apple’s soon to be release of the iPhone 6s, 3D touch seems to be just another gesture. Adding to the touch screen repertoire of tap, swipe, pinch, zoom and scroll. However, this is much more than just a gesture, it is a way of displaying hyper relevant call-to-actions to a user in an instant.
This might seem like a logical step forward, but it is breaking a fairly fundamental design rule that has been a part of Apple products since the inception of the app store.
The design rule being broken here is that digital interfaces have largely been subjected to the following process:
- Tap on an app
- Select from a menu of actions
This is something that has been slowly morphing over time, with more integrated native functionality such as notifications for mobile and similarly how chrome extensions work on desktop. 3D touch has the potential to be a great leap forward in progressing this transition. It is essentially limiting the choice of the user to a few options that have the highest probability of being what the user wants. This is fantastic because choice paralysis is a real thing defined in The Paradox of Choice by Barry Schwartz. As data and options increase, a users likelihood to enjoy the choice of their actions decreases due to feelings that are similar to regret, striking the user with the horrible hypothetical of ‘what if…’
…But what problem is it solving?
Great question me. When someone uses an app for the first time, changing the screen completely without an animation is akin to spontaneously dropping a person in a town they have never been before. This process actually presents a high cognitive load and can wear down a users patience incredibly quickly without the user (or developers) realizing.
Simply, 3D touch is a way of disabling choice paralysis and only showing the user what they will most likely need. As opposed to completely changing the screen they are looking at (going to a new app) and the user having to re-orientate themselves.
This all increases the push to go native
3D touch just makes it slightly easier to do so. bringing more functionality into the home screen and using probability to gauge users expectations.
So how does this affect the web?
This slide toward native functionality will become a more and more demanded feature of almost all digital technologies. This is where it feeds into websites. So there’s no way of telling the future, but here’s my list of where it may head:
- Heavily integrated native advertising
- Less clicks and more knowledge for the user
- Content and Calls to action distributed between complementary services
- Meta-SaaS offerings (grouping together of multiple websites into an integrated service package)
- Ability to achieve all tasks from one place though omni-channel products
5 things, great. How did I get here?
It all stems from digital products being designed to meet user expectations. These five ideas are more of an extrapolation on the influence that 3D touch could have on digital products as a whole.
Yes, android has had more native notifications for years. But my opinion would be that Apple’s iOS influence as a singular OS has far greater potential to set new precedents for design and user expectations.
So for now, things like native advertising are slowly growing in the wake of Ad Blockers and Meta-SaaS offerings are starting to pop up like FoundersKit. But in general, websites are relatively static in the way they present content and options to their users. However, it is my thought that there will be a fast shift toward integrated content from affiliate or complimentary services. In some cases, this will not be immediately recognizable to the end user as paid advertising or affiliate program content and has the potential to become something more ominous. However, I think it can become something good for understanding more about how people work and use technology by giving them the options they need to be productive and enjoy digital experiences.
