new navigation pattern - what you think?

[alexander0311]

MS changed/iterated the navigation buttons' behavior on windows phone several times...yet i still find them a little bad thought.
Currently you have back home search, every one with its behavior on tap and on hold. i believe they should make them more logical since right now they are not so good arranged. I will break my idea of suggestion for them per button, after that, if you like it, you are free to send it on uservoice/feedback app/both.(actually you're welcomed and encouraged to do so, to make us heard)

Back button:
1. Tap: Goes back one page in an opened app. If i pressed Home button, doesnt go back to an app, this way we are able to pause an app exaclty where we want it.(right now if i press home then back, the OS goes back to that app where i was when i pressed home)
2. Hold: Lowers the upper portion of the screen, how right now the OS behaves when you hold the Home button. Since back button is for navigation INSIDE an app, having this function of lowering the screen on back button instead of home button, makes perfect sense.
3. Double-tap: None. Since people always spam back button, having a double-tap behavior would make no sense.

Home button:
1. Tap: Goes on the start screen. Again, is "unbackable", so now when home is pressed, back button doesnt return you to a previous app.(you have to use task manager)
2. Hold: Task- view. Removed from the holding back button, now i believe this is where task view should be present(even the icon of home button suggest it). And as a bonus, having the task-view on the holding home button, MS can span this behavior across devices(imagine tablets with physical home button, laptops, desktops, all having the home button and users knowing that if they hold on home button, the task-view is triggered)
3. Double-tap: Quick-apps. Its ok that now we quick actions, but that area should remain for "Actions". Since camera button from there opens the camera and does not takes a photo, i would say that that is more a shortcut not an action. So here is a solution for shortcuts, "quick-apps". A setting inside the settings app lets you to turn it on or off and to set 4-5 apps, so when you hold home button, even if you are inside an app, these 4-5 apps icons show, allowing you to quick access them, without going to the start screen. (ps: ios and android always had 4 generic apps at the bottom of their home screen. now, we have something better) (Screenshot

Search button/Cortana:
1.Tap: opens text-based search/cortana
2.Hold: opens speech-based search/cortana
3.Double-tap: "Bing on Tap". Recently, google announced "Now on Tap"(search WCentral for details). More recently, MS announced "Bing on Tap" (for android -_-). I believe we should enjoy this feature too, and now i told you how i think it should work.

So, what do you think?? if you like it, please submit to feedback app/uservoice page. its time to have our navigation bar better organised.

 

[Zachary Boddy]

I like the double-tap to open Quick Actions for applications, and possibly the double-tab for Cortana, but I don't think you should switch the Task View and dropping the screen. They're fine where they are.
You also have to remember you have to be careful how many actions each of three buttons can do, because the more there are the easier it is to accidentally press it.

 

[taymur]

i don't see this as better organized. and i feel that the Microsoft arrangement for these buttons is way more superior to its fellow OSs.

if you never used a windows phone, you will never understand how much good it is.

Back should always send you, well... back. at what ever point you are now, back should send you one step back. on android this is a mess. the U turn button does weird stuff, sometimes its back sometimes is up. and when you are on the home screen it does nothing.

Holding a back, makes sense to me, as it gives you a view on the trail history that you just made, assisting you in going as way back as it remembers (which is a lot now on windows 10).

Start, in windows is actually your app switcher/ peek viewer. its where you move from one app to another, you click start and select an app you want to switch to.

Holding the start at the moment doesn't make sense to me, but i guess there is no where else to put it.

Search well it is just amazing, it searches stuff for you, and now it can search everywhere which, as i said, amazing.

holding the search is just a security thing, for preventing Cortana from shouting stuff all the time.

I like windows navigation waaaay more than any other platfrom

 

[alexander0311]

I like the double-tap to open Quick Actions for applications, and possibly the double-tab for Cortana, but I don't think you should switch the Task View and dropping the screen. They're fine where they are.
You also have to remember you have to be careful how many actions each of three buttons can do, because the more there are the easier it is to accidentally press it.

you're right about the more actions the easier to mess up. but i think people can handle this. android devices always had more actions inside the navigation bar. and even worse, some are OEM specific, not a standard. and lets not forget about iphone. with one button doing all, which sometims a find myself screwing and opening siri instead of task view.

and about the switch of the task view. would you like to be able to open task view from holding home button on all your windows devices, being it a laptop a table or a phone? and lets not forget that home button even has that "four windows" logo.

what do you think?

.....

first, mind you that am using window phone for years now. so stop assuming you are the greatest and others talk without knowing the real experience.
secondly, nope windows phone is not by far superior to the other OSs....they are all equal when it comes to navigation...and by equal i mean equally awful.
finally, the back button is a mess here and on android too(PS: on wp back is not history -_-, is called task view, those are opened apps, not recently used apps, so who is the one who acts like never used WP now?). about your argument about how is it better to return you to the previous app: tell me, i open an app, i put it to do something to which i will return later, i hit home, i open other app, i do my job in it, then i hit back back back to close it and (by mistake) one more to return to the previous app AND one more to close the previous app. this way i ruined what i've put my first app to do. do you see this as a good implementation? nope. home is home. when i press it, im in home. if i want to return to a background/suspended app, thats what task-view is supposed to do. but mind you, im not saying that ms should make the back button like on android. as you pointed out, android has an awful back button management. im just saying that ms should make home button "unbackable", thats all.

oh and i almost forgot...about home... nope, you dont understand the issue. our start screen is better than any other OSs, no reason to argue, true. but it has one good feature which is a curse sometimes too: it allows scrolling. sometimes you hit home (or currently, back) to find yourself on start screen and to start scrolling to find the needed app. android and ios always have those 4 apps at the bottom, no matter on which page of the menu they are. and i find this awesome. but we can do better: what if we can access those 4 apps even when we are on another app?(similar to how you can open action center inside games, which is nice)

 

[Zachary Boddy]

you're right about the more actions the easier to mess up. but i think people can handle this. android devices always had more actions inside the navigation bar. and even worse, some are OEM specific, not a standard. and lets not forget about iphone. with one button doing all, which sometims a find myself screwing and opening siri instead of task view.

and about the switch of the task view. would you like to be able to open task view from holding home button on all your windows devices, being it a laptop a table or a phone? and lets not forget that home button even has that "four windows" logo.

what do you think?

first, mind you that am using window phone for years now. so stop assuming you are the greatest and others talk without knowing the real experience.
secondly, nope windows phone is not by far superior to the other OSs....they are all equal when it comes to navigation...and by equal i mean equally awful.
finally, the back button is a mess here and on android too(PS: on wp back is not history -_-, is called task view, those are opened apps, not recently used apps, so who is the one who acts like never used WP now?). about your argument about how is it better to return you to the previous app: tell me, i open an app, i put it to do something to which i will return later, i hit home, i open other app, i do my job in it, then i hit back back back to close it and (by mistake) one more to return to the previous app AND one more to close the previous app. this way i ruined what i've put my first app to do. do you see this as a good implementation? nope. home is home. when i press it, im in home. if i want to return to a background/suspended app, thats what task-view is supposed to do. but mind you, im not saying that ms should make the back button like on android. as you pointed out, android has an awful back button management. im just saying that ms should make home button "unbackable", thats all.

oh and i almost forgot...about home... nope, you dont understand the issue. our start screen is better than any other OSs, no reason to argue, true. but it has one good feature which is a curse sometimes too: it allows scrolling. sometimes you hit home (or currently, back) to find yourself on start screen and to start scrolling to find the needed app. android and ios always have those 4 apps at the bottom, no matter on which page of the menu they are. and i find this awesome. but we can do better: what if we can access those 4 apps even when we are on another app?(similar to how you can open action center inside games, which is nice)

[Win] + [Tab] opens Task View on laptops and desktops, and if you're on a tablet there's already a dedicated button on the Taskbar.
I think Windows Phone needs refinement, but not redesign. The Back button could be implemented a little better but it's still far better than Android in my opinion.
Back: Press once to go back a single page in your opened application, and if you're on the home page of that application, close it. Long press to bring up Task View which is a list of your opened applications. I think this works.
Start: Press once to return to the Start Screen. Long press to have the top half of the screen slides down. I'm not a fan of the "one-handed use" action as I don't find it useful but the more I think about having Quick Actions to open applications the more I realize I'd hardly ever use it. All the applications I use regularly are on my Start Screen and if I have need of an application not on my Start Screen it's in All Apps. It's always two taps away. Having yet more ways to do the same thing is just cluttered. I can see it in the Action Center, as there's already Quick Actions there and it would be nice to customize them further. But a whole new UI element? I don't know.
Search: One press for text search. Long press for voice search. Nothing wrong here.

 

[Paolo Ferrazza]

I always liked being able to go BACK to the last app that I was using when I'm on start screen.

 

[alexander0311]

I always liked being able to go BACK to the last app that I was using when I'm on start screen.

then maybe an option to disable it? for me personally is THE MOST annoying thing on wp, killing multitasking, and i never got used to it, not even now after 2-3 years of WP

 

[Paolo Ferrazza]

then maybe an option to disable it? for me personally is THE MOST annoying thing on wp, killing multitasking, and i never got used to it, not even now after 2-3 years of WP

While an ption is always a good thing, I yet have to understand how it kills multitasking for you and why would you press back on home if you do not want to go back to the last app you used?