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iPhone X Is the “Home Bar” on iPhone X necessary?

newyorksole

newyorksole

macrumors 603
Original poster
Apr 2, 2008
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New York.
I honestly think that Apple should remove the bar from the iPhone X and future iOS products that don’t have a Home Button.

People know gestures on their iPad without needing to see where to swipe up/down from.

The space could be used for other content. I understand maybe showing it when you update your phone or showing it on the lock screen, but other than that... Nope.
 
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There are some who won’t know what to do if they buy an iPhone X and there’s no home bar. They put that there for people who aren’t tech savvy like us.
 
The bar will probably stay for the next few years, basically until Apple's lineup is completely free of Home buttons. Until then, it's still a transition for the vast majority of iPhone users.
 
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Yeah I think so; Removing the Home button led to a drastic change to the UI & Apple needed to make the transition as seemless as possible for not only the IOS aficionados, but especially those new to Apple.

In a few years, it may disappear.
 
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newyorksole said:
I honestly think that Apple should remove the bar from the iPhone X and future iOS products that don’t have a Home Button.

People know gestures on their iPad without needing to see where to swipe up/down from.

The space could be used for other content. I understand maybe showing it when you update your phone or showing it on the lock screen, but other than that... Nope.
Click to expand...
It's an iconic visual cue for the iPhone X
 
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Ralfi said:
Yeah I think so; Removing the Home button led to a drastic change to the UI & Apple needed to make the transition as seemless as possible for not only the IOS aficionados, but especially those new to Apple.
Click to expand...

I agree, except they did not do the same for the iPad :)
 
The home bar is an "affordance", a "clue on how an object should be used". It visually indicates that part of the screen does something differently from the rest of the screen. Apple has been heavily criticized lately for their lack of actual good design, and it's mostly because of the removal of such affordances that help people to understand how to intuitively use a computer. So the removal of it is a step further down the road of Apple's confusing and user-unfriendly design.
 
orev said:
The home bar is an "affordance", a "clue on how an object should be used". It visually indicates that part of the screen does something differently from the rest of the screen. Apple has been heavily criticized lately for their lack of actual good design, and it's mostly because of the removal of such affordances that help people to understand how to intuitively use a computer. So the removal of it is a step further down the road of Apple's confusing and user-unfriendly design.
Click to expand...
no, they are criticised cos of the removal of hardware functions not software: headphone jack, SD slot, magsafe

the homebar is unnecessary. at least dim it out when screen not touched. after one minute of use time people understand the principle.
 
maerz001 said:
no, they are criticised cos of the removal of hardware functions not software: headphone jack, SD slot, magsafe

the homebar is unnecessary. at least dim it out when screen not touched. after one minute of use time people understand the principle.
Click to expand...
No, they are criticized for the removal of design elements that allow people to understand how to use their systems, for the sake of "simplicity", which is really not simple at all. Hiding stuff to make things look clean is not the same as making them simple to use. "Simple" mean intuitive, which involves designing the environment with visual cues on how to do one thing or another. A blank page with hidden gestures from the top, bottom, sides, long press, hard press, etc. are all hidden things with no obvious way to access them. The hardware things you mention are relatively recent; their problems with design and usability have been going on long before then.
 
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orev said:
No, they are criticized for the removal of design elements that allow people to understand how to use their systems, for the sake of "simplicity", which is really not simple at all. Hiding stuff to make things look clean is not the same as making them simple to use. "Simple" mean intuitive, which involves designing the environment with visual cues on how to do one thing or another. A blank page with hidden gestures from the top, bottom, sides, long press, hard press, etc. are all hidden things with no obvious way to access them. The hardware things you mention are relatively recent; their problems with design and usability have been going on long before then.
Click to expand...

Finally someone is talking my language.
 
maerz001 said:
no, they are criticised cos of the removal of hardware functions not software: headphone jack, SD slot, magsafe

the homebar is unnecessary. at least dim it out when screen not touched. after one minute of use time people understand the principle.
Click to expand...

When it really matters, in video playback for example, this is exactly what happens. There is API support for fading out the home bar. It is up to the app developers to implement it.
 
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I actually really like the home bar. Once you know how to get home it’s not necessary unless you forget how. Maybe they could make it an option in future iOS.
 
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nordique said:
I do wish we had the option to customize it such that we could turn it off
Click to expand...

I agree. While I understand having it for a visual indicator, without going thru the first time setup I think many people will have difficulty figuring out how to operate the iPhone X just by trying it in a store on their own because a bar at the bottom is not in any way something you would associate with "home view".

It's just yet another thing in a long list of toggles that would be nice to have for customization and power users.
 
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kasakka said:
I agree. While I understand having it for a visual indicator, without going thru the first time setup I think many people will have difficulty figuring out how to operate the iPhone X just by trying it in a store on their own because a bar at the bottom is not in any way something you would associate with "home view".

It's just yet another thing in a long list of toggles that would be nice to have for customization and power users.
Click to expand...

Thanks for all of your replies.

I agree, it’s nice to have OPTIONS Lol.
 
j800r said:
We’ve been saying that since the device was released yet they had to update the Apple Pay imagery cause people were tapping the screen instead of double pressing the side button. Clearly shows that some people probably do need it.

As for it being “used for content”, you do realise how small it is right?
Click to expand...
People I tried to teach to use Apple Pay tried to scan their finger on the screen rather than the home button.

Apple needs better training materials.
 
You need the home bar to instinctively know which side of the screen you have to swipe up from in order to go back to the home screen.

You might think it's obvious, but it isn't. Sometimes (such as when the status bar is hidden and the content is presented in landscape orientation) there are not enough visual cues on screen to quickly realize the actual orientation of the device and therefore from which side you have to initiate the swipe gesture.

Edit: forgot to mention why you can't compare it to the iPad multitasking gestures. The iPad has no bar to highlight which side to swipe up from to perform multitasking gestures because they are optional gestures, such as for example the swipe from left to right to navigate back to previous pages of content. Such gestures are just a shortcut to save time and you can opt out if don't want to use them.
The home bar replaces the home button, which performs a fundamental function that no iOS user can do without.
 
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Every single day I wish I could get rid of the annoying bar. I have no problem if it is on at first, but please give us an option to turn it off in the preferences.

But it's Apple. Dumb it down for the masses, remove options for the rest.
 
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