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Home button must go (on the front at least)

B

bnmcj1

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Apr 13, 2014
398
180
Has Apple totally lost it? I won't buy another phone with that home button. Seems like iPhone 6 will keep it based on rumours. I must laugh. See, I want a bigger screen. 5.5" is obviously the sweet spot for a smartphone. But I will never accept that big bezel with home button. The phone will just get too big for a 5.5" phone, which does not have to be big. So old school a design. Looks terrible by todays standards.

Place a fingerscanner on the back or let it go.
 
Dont think so, that circular home button is a trademark just as the apple logo on the back, if they remove it the phone would look just like another phone from the outside.

Dont know about the functionality but that button is doing wonders for the marketing department.
 
Moving it to the back would be poor ergonomics. If the Touch ID sensor is on the back of the device, users will lose visual cues - as they grasp the phone with the screen facing them, they'll be feeling-around in the back for the sensor. They'll have to rotate their wrist to put their finger in position, and grasp the phone so that their palm doesn't block access to the sensor. Protective cases will need rear cut-outs that don't block easy access...

The scanner will only get more use over time - once it becomes an electronic wallet, once Apple goes to a multi-user environment... the last thing Apple will do is make it harder to get to.

If it was just the fingerprint sensor that was at stake, it'd be one thing, but the Home button multiplies the ergonomic issue many times over. Either the Home button is moved on-screen (a use of screen real estate that Apple has avoided), or Apple keeps a smaller, physical Home button on the front and puts the larger scanner on the back. Apple's not likely to add another physical button, either.


I get it, to some people height may be an issue. But I don't think that's most people. For most people, ergonomics/ease-of-use will trump height. If the new iPhone is more awkward to use than the old one, the new one will be panned by critics and will cost Apple customers.
 
sunking101 said:
Like what? Touch ID can use the screen, and a home button can again use the screen or be capacitive.
Click to expand...

You can't hard reboot a phone or out it in DFU with an onscreen button.

Also, try putting on a blindfold and finding that onscreen button. Apple has been praised by the visually impaired community over that physical button which is easy to find without any sight, allowing them to use the iPhone with Siri etc

Trust me, that button will always exist in some form. They might move it to the side rather than the front but it will be there. And folks will continue to gripe about the new spot as well. Even if they some how code it into the volume buttons so like if you press both at the same time it is the 'home' button folks will gripe about why there has to be physical volume buttons and they are pointless and check out this jailbreak hack that proves they are pointless.
 
bnmcj1 said:
Has Apple totally lost it? I won't buy another phone with that home button. Seems like iPhone 6 will keep it based on rumours. I must laugh. See, I want a bigger screen. 5.5" is obviously the sweet spot for a smartphone. But I will never accept that big bezel with home button. The phone will just get too big for a 5.5" phone, which does not have to be big. So old school a design. Looks terrible by todays standards.

Place a fingerscanner on the back or let it go.
Click to expand...

So if its on the back, what would you do for a case? A big hole? No I don't think that will work. On the rare occasion I have to help my mum with her Android tablet, having no home button drives me crazy.
 
Apple fanboy said:
So if its on the back, what would you do for a case? A big hole? No I don't think that will work. On the rare occasion I have to help my mum with her Android tablet, having no home button drives me crazy.
Click to expand...

They all have a home button, it's just that modern tech is moving away from physical 'hard' home buttons. Only Apple and Samsung seem to be holding onto it. I think it feels strange having a touchscreen device and then having to press an old tech button several times during each process, not to mention that it takes up valuable real estate. Arguments for the Touch ID and visually impaired are lame IMO. Why does a visually impaired person need a top of the range touchscreen smartphone if they cannot use many of the features? Surely a lower range device would be more suitable.
 
sunking101 said:
They all have a home button, it's just that modern tech is moving away from physical 'hard' home buttons. Only Apple and Samsung seem to be holding onto it. I think it feels strange having a touchscreen device and then having to press an old tech button several times during each process, not to mention that it takes up valuable real estate. Arguments for the Touch ID and visually impaired are lame IMO. Why does a visually impaired person need a top of the range touchscreen smartphone if they cannot use many of the features? Surely a lower range device would be more suitable.
Click to expand...

How thoughtful! I'd have thought features like Siri would be very useful for the visually impaired.
 
In terms of brand psychology, having a trademark feature that comes inseparably connected to a sensory experience - the typical soft 'click' of the home button - is about as valuable as it gets. You can press that button without looking or touching the rest of the device and instantly know that it's an iPhone or iPad.

Apple's iOS devices have a button that makes probably at least 75% of the users feel instantly safe and at home directly through the body, not a single thought needed, with each press strengthening the conditioned relationship between the product and the customer. Is that something Apple would pass up? Not in a million years.

Bear in mind also that most iOS users are not very 'tech savvy'. I chose an iPad for my mother because then she has a physical, easily understandable button to press when all else fails - knowing how often she touches the screen wherever by accident. Most people will find the physical button reassuring, rather than be frustrated that the device isn't all-touch oriented.
 
Having a physical home button is actually a good thing!

they then can't scam you by saying the screen is 5 inches but real world usage is actually 4.7 inches like my nexus 5. It's like the new htc one (m8) they increased the screen size but due to the buttons not on the screen unlike before, the difference is probably the same if not worse, except when viewing a movie or an app that has immersive mode ( which is rare i have found , almost no apps have it, even google made apps! on my nexus 5)

I'm switching back to iPhone and this is one of the main reasons to be honest!.

They deffo need to get rid of most of the top and size bezziles though, looking at the mock ups and leaks, the iPhone just looks a bit outdates compared the the lg g3 etc
 
charlituna said:
Also, try putting on a blindfold and finding that onscreen button. Apple has been praised by the visually impaired community over that physical button which is easy to find without any sight, allowing them to use the iPhone with Siri etc
Click to expand...

To be fair, you can activate Siri by simply raising the phone to your ear.
 
Robstevo said:
Having a physical home button is actually a good thing!

they then can't scam you by saying the screen is 5 inches but real world usage is actually 4.7 inches like my nexus 5. It's like the new htc one (m8) they increased the screen size but due to the buttons not on the screen unlike before, the difference is probably the same if not worse, except when viewing a movie or an app that has immersive mode ( which is rare i have found , almost no apps have it, even google made apps! on my nexus 5)

I'm switching back to iPhone and this is one of the main reasons to be honest!.

They deffo need to get rid of most of the top and size bezziles though, looking at the mock ups and leaks, the iPhone just looks a bit outdates compared the the lg g3 etc
Click to expand...

The good thing about the on-screen buttons is that they move when you change to landscape mode. They are always on the bottom of the screen, but I agree that the screen size should increase accordingly to make room for them.

I prefer soft buttons. They are more in keeping with a touchscreen device and just as importantly, there is nothing to wear out. My iPhone 4 home button developed a fault and my iPhone 5 home button is occasionally unresponsive. There are arguments for and against the hard home button, but I'm in the 'against' camp.
 
sunking101 said:
The good thing about the on-screen buttons is that they move when you change to landscape mode. They are always on the bottom of the screen, but I agree that the screen size should increase accordingly to make room for them.

I prefer soft buttons. They are more in keeping with a touchscreen device and just as importantly, there is nothing to wear out. My iPhone 4 home button developed a fault and my iPhone 5 home button is occasionally unresponsive. There are arguments for and against the hard home button, but I'm in the 'against' camp.
Click to expand...

Isn't a dedicated button needed for Touch ID?
 
I7guy said:
Isn't a dedicated button needed for Touch ID?
Click to expand...

It doesn't need to be a button, just something to 'swipe'. Apple have incorporated Touch ID into the home button but the sensor could be put anywhere on the phone.
 
We're never going to get into buttonless territory on any device. That is taking a step backwards. Some of you guys hate that home button, I'm not too much of a fan of it either, but mostly because I always thought it was fragile. But the new Touch ID button is a lot better in that respect.

I think if you came from a background (like I did) of having to reset your device with two hands, and maybe borrowing someone else for a few minutes, you would be more grateful for the few buttons smartphones now have. There was a time where you'd have to hold both volume buttons, the power button, your home key, and a button at the back of a device to completely reset it. For hard reboots, it would be at least three different buttons aswell.

I never want to go back to that.

And yes, the accessibility of just that one button is a huge deal.
 
I would venture to guess that Apple will eventually elaborate on some of the already existing gestures like lifting the phone to your ear, or shaking it, etc. (what with that motion sensor and all) - but for now the home button still represents great usability, especially for those non tech-savvy people.
 
I'm still struggling to see what a hard button can do that a soft button can't :-/
Hard buttons are fragile and take up more space (externally and internally) than a capacitive or on-screen button.
If the whole argument is so that non-tech people can use them easier, or blind people, then I'm not buying that. There are infinitely more 'techy' things involved in using a smartphone than pressing a home button. How do these people manage to do *anything* except return to their homescreen? So what, they can get back to the start by pressing a big old-tech button but what else can they do???
 
sunking101 said:
I'm still struggling to see what a hard button can do that a soft button can't :-/
Hard buttons are fragile and take up more space (externally and internally) than a capacitive or on-screen button.
If the whole argument is so that non-tech people can use them easier, or blind people, then I'm not buying that. There are infinitely more 'techy' things involved in using a smartphone than pressing a home button. How do these people manage to do *anything* except return to their homescreen? So what, they can get back to the start by pressing a big old-tech button but what else can they do???
Click to expand...

The home button is a starting point. It doesn't do everything, but it is the one button you push when you're lost and need to go back to the home screen.

You can toggle things like VoiceOver, invert the screen, and Assistive Touch too. Why would you want that in a home button? Because VoiceOver is very cumbersome, it's getting better on the Mac side, but it's still a PITA on iOS without the little tweaking that you can do in OS X. So if you don't need that all the time, it's easy enough to toggle it on and off as needed.
 
The Home button is a very functional feature; the Touch ID alone has demonstrably changed the way I use my phone for the better (i.e. I actually have security enabled whereas before it was too much of a bother for me).

Complaining about the bottom bezel and then clamoring for onscreen buttons makes no sense to me; why waste screen real estate with buttons that you may or may not be using at the moment when you can stick something on the bezel and let the screen be for displaying content? Yes, the Android screen buttons can be dismissed by some apps, but you then have to go through more steps to get back to the homescreen whereas the iPhone home button gets you there in a single click.

I do not like the onscreen buttons; I feel like the Home button on the iPhone is more functional in general (again, particularly with Touch ID) and as others have pointed out, is a big plus for the disabled community.
 
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