ubuntu-phone team mailing list archive

[Lou Greenwood <lougreenwood@xxxxxx>]

Hi all,

This is my first contribution to the list. I've only recently discovered 
the Ubuntu Phone effort, but it looks like it will be very interesting, 
powerful & beautiful, kudos to the artists!

I've just been looking through the design guidelines for Ubuntu Phone 
and something stuck out to me. I hope this is the right place to raise 
the concern and I'm not stepping on anyone's toes.

Specifically, on the 'Page Stack' guidelines page 
(http://design.ubuntu.com/apps/building-blocks/page-stack), I noticed 
that the back button will always be hidden in the toolbar. Putting 
usability concerns aside that such an important exit method is hidden by 
default (see iOS and it's omnipresent back buttons), I wonder whether 
using a gesture for navigating back has been considered, perhaps a 
pinch, or my favourite, tracing out the shape of the back icon (e.g a 
swipe upwards and to the left or more naturally, a circular motion from 
6 o'clock anticlockwise to 9)? The vision for the OS seems to be very 
gesture focused, it seems it may have been over looked in this case.

I imagine that the page stack will be a very common view, having to 
swipe up and then stretch and tap, just to go back, could become 
fatiguing. Perhaps once I get my hands on a working set-up my concerns 
will be unfounded.

Thanks

Kind regards

Lou