ubuntu-phone team mailing list archive

[Rodney Dawes <rodney.dawes@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Mon, 2015-06-22 at 14:24 +0100, Daniel Wood wrote:
> I've been working on a CAD like drawing application for viewing dxf
> and svg files. All the apps I have tried in the past have been awful
> to use on a small screen [1] [2].
> 
> 
> My initial thought was to limit the functionality on a smaller screen
> to viewing only and then show drawing and modification tools when in
> desktop mode. With the help of Nik90 I have used a bottom edge panel
> for the drawing tools and it works brilliant on a phone size display
> and I would like to investigate using a phone to perform drawing
> tasks. 
> 
> 
> Are there any designers that have experience with this type of app or
> would like to discuss potential ideas for improving usability on
> smaller screens?
> 
> 
> The main problem is accuracy when using fingers to select points or
> existing elements. 

Precision is one of the big problems when trying to use a touch screen
interface for such tasks. Even on my workstation, I don't use my
standard mouse, when I am working on SVG icons for example. It has a
very high DPI precision, but it's for gaming, and so it's great at
moving across a large screen, or rotating the view in an FPS, very
quickly, but it's very poor for doing slow precision movements, such as
when adjusting the lines and points in an SVG. Instead, I switch over to
using a Wacom pad with a mouse.

If you could get a Wacom stylus working with your app though, it might
be a good way to provide the necessary precision.

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