Providing Context to iOS Multitasking
A step towards making multitasking on iOS practical.
This is my humble first offering at making multitasking on iOS and other mobile Operating Systems just a bit more usable.
Multitasking -
Let me first clarify that I am using the meaning of multitasking commonly attributed in the context of mobile devices.
Multitasking in this context primarily refers to a modality of navigating and exchanging information between multiple full-screen applications.
iOS currently finds itself in an uncomfortable middle ground of technically supporting multitasking, and simultaneously doing almost nothing to facilitate its practical use.
iOS uses the now ubiquitous ‘Card’ metaphor for organizing multiple apps, queuing full-screen apps sequentially to the left and right of each other.
Unfortunately, on iPhone the only way to access the multitasking view or switch to another app using the card metaphor is to double-press the home button. Limited to this interaction, using multitasking is exactly one press less efficient than just bouncing back to the home screen and re-opening the app you want to switch to. In its current state, multitasking on iPhone is not accesible enough to confer the speed and ease of use benefits it is possible of offering.
iPads are better off in this respect than iPhones. The three and four-finger multitasking gestures available on iPad are a simple, fast, and easily understandable modality of navigating multiple full-screen apps.
I really hope Apple eventually enables these same gestures on iPhone!
iOS multitasking gestures are a good start to usable inter-app navigation, but a big usability problem still lurks!
Problem — Where am I?
A major usability issue with the current implementation of swiping between full screen apps is that no affordance or context for this interaction is provided to the user.
Simply put, there is no way to orient one’s self before attempting to swipe between apps. To make matters worse, when using the full multitasking card view and switching to a non-neighboring app, the arragement of the apps is changed without any indication to the user!
What this equates to is a lot of time spent frustratedly swiping over to the wrong app, as the app you were just using has inexplicably moved.
Solution — Signposts
Luckily, I believe a very simple and unobtrusive solution can mostly remedy this situation!
Simply provide pop-over reticles on three or four fingers down, which display the icons of the neighboring apps:
These reticles provide a visual affordance, making the user aware that there are neighboring apps that can be accessed. Additionally, the reticles provide context to the user, allowing confident and informed inter-app navigation!
Here is a video the concept in action:
I feel like this technically simply addition could offer a good improvement to the usability of iOS multitasking.
I would love to hear other’s thoughts on this small concept. Please feel free to get in touch! See below.
This is my first humble contribution to a field I am in love with, product design. Thank you so much for taking the time to read it! This is also my first post on Medium. I would be very grateful if you felt this post was worthy of clicking Recommend at the bottom of the page.
If anyone would like to chat about Product Design or Philosophy, I can be reached directly on:
Twitter:
@Evan_Sullivan
