ubuntu-phone team mailing list archive

[Alberto Mardegan <alberto.mardegan@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On 14/01/2016 14:34, Jouni Helminen wrote:
> I think the slightly increased affordance that accommodates both touch
> and mouse is better, most of the time, than the possible confusion and
> added complexity of visual changes between form factors.

Maybe, but you are looking at the best case, where no UI change is
needed. While indeed every app should aim at that, sometimes it's just
unfeasible:

> There are some applications  (3d modeling, photoshop etc) where you need
> every mm of space because there is a lot going on  - but it's unlikely
> you would run those on a small screen, so they will probably stay
> desktop only, and use pointer optimised UI toolkits.

Right, then suppose you are using such an application on your
convertible laptop. At a certain point you fold the laptop screen and
what you have now in your hands is essentially a tablet. What should the
application do?

As an app developer, what I would try to do is switch to a
touch-optimized UI, where the application is still usable, just with
wider controls and touch gestures (which I wouldn't use in desktop mode,
as that would make people there less productive).
What I'm arguing for, is that applications need to receive a hint that
the device is now in tablet mode.

Ciao,
  Alberto