touch-packages team mailing list archive

[Matthew Exon <mat.ubuntu@xxxxxxxxx>]

I have a bunch of comments :-)  I have constant problems with rotation
on my phone and I really want them fixed.  Exactly which changes need to
be made I'm not sure, and I don't know if this bug in particular is
valid or not.  But it seems close enough that submitting a new bug
doesn't seem right.

I find that mostly I hold the phone flattish, with it tilted up at the
top-left or top-right corner depending on which hand I'm using.  This is
because it is low down at a comfortable holding level, and off to the
side so it doesn't interfere with what I'm actually doing.  So it's
normally sitting right on the boundary between landscape and portrait.
If the accelerometer is made very sensitive it'll constantly flip
between them.  But if the accelerometer is made relatively insensitive
then getting the phone to display the correct orientation requires
holding it at an unnatural angle.  The rotation animation is also far
too slow, and once it's decided to rotate the entire interface locks up
until it's finished.  So while the "how to reproduce" instructions might
sound unlikely, that's just because they've been made extreme.  In
practice this happens to me all the time, just at much shallower angles.

Making things worse is that the lock screen doesn't rotate at all.  So
typically what happens to me is I turn on my phone, enter my PIN, move
to press the button I want to press... but then everything starts
flipping and the button I want zips away from under my finger.  This
even if I thought I was holding the phone in landscape mode while I
unlocked it: I wasn't holding it at a steep enough angle.  So I have to
rotate the phone to an unnatural angle, wait for the phone to decide
it's time to rotate, wait for the rotation animation to complete, then
bring it back down and again find the button I want to press.  As far as
responsive UI design is concerned, it's pretty disastrous.

So my first thing is: a rotation animation doesn't make sense at all
unless the phone is actually moving from one state to another.  When the
phone is switched on, make a decision whether it's in landscape or
portrait and display the lock screen accordingly.  If the app underneath
the lock screen is in the wrong orientation, pre-rotate it, don't make
me wait for a rotation animation that makes no sense in context.  If the
lock screen only supports portrait mode, then the app will have to be
put in portrait mode - unless it's absolutely clear that I am really am
unlocking the phone while holding it sideways, which doesn't sound
likely.

I think fixing the lock screen so it rotates will probably help me a
bit.  But hopefully you can see that it won't solve the fundamental
problem.

There's a second problem which might have already been filed in a
separate bug, but is related.  When I swipe to flip between apps it
shows snapshots from whatever orientation they were in when they were
last active.  When I select one, that snapshot occupies the screen, and
I go to press a button.  But then the button slides away from me.
Instead, if the phone has rotated, all suspended apps need to be brought
back to life, repaint their screen in the background, be snapshotted,
and then put back to sleep in their new orientation.  Then the
concertina effect can show the apps as they will really be displayed if
I want to use them.

And since rotation is so slow and jerky (I'm using an MX4), I think it
would be really nice if there was an option to turn off the animation
entirely, or replace it with a very quick fade-out/fade-in or something.

Trying out an iPhone it seems that it's better mostly because it's just
much less sensitive to rotation.  Another possibility is to make this a
user setting.

Perhaps yet another idea would be when the phone is close to deciding to
rotate, some other UI element could show up alerting the user to that
fact.  At least then whatever else is wrong the rotation wouldn't come
as so much of a surprise.

-- 
You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu
Touch seeded packages, which is subscribed to unity8 in Ubuntu.
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1500633

Title:
  orientation sensor "last vertical" seems to be remembered and applied

Status in QtMir:
  Incomplete
Status in Ubuntu UX:
  In Progress
Status in qtmir package in Ubuntu:
  Incomplete
Status in unity8 package in Ubuntu:
  Incomplete

Bug description:
  latest rc-image

  1. download and install machines vs machines
  2. open machines vs machines
  3. open browser, rotate to landscape
  4. lay flat on table so that browser is still in landscape
  5. switch back to machines vs machines with launcher
  6. raise top of phone as to make the phone vertical in portrait, lay back down flat
  7. switch to browser

  expected: browser would be in landscape
  actual: browser rotates

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