What is discoverable about long press?

[Rogifan]

John Gruber writes (of force touch on the Watch):

It’s a very clever idea, and on the Watch in particular it makes for an effective use of severely limited screen real estate. But for most users, if they can’t see it, it might as well not be there. I think most Apple Watch users are completely unaware of any of the features exposed by Force Touch.

WWDC 2020: The Little Stuff You Might Have Missed

Link to: https://sixcolors.com/post/2020/06/wwdc-2020-the-little-stuff-you-might-have-missed/

daringfireball.net

This might be true but some of these features are now behind a long press or Apple is saying move them to settings. How is long press any more discoverable than Force Touch? People have figured out over time that long pressing on the screen brings up options like select, cut/copy/paste But there is no visual clue, nothing to see. Yet I don’t see Gruber or anyone else saying Apple should get rid of long press. Things on the Watch that get moved to settings or a menu item how will people know about that other than being told or stumbling across it? It seems to me Apple’s removal of 3D Touch and Force Touch have less to do with discoverability and more to do with cost or hardware considerations. Long press doesn’t require special hardware to work.

 

[GreyOS]

Yeah, agreed. Long press is no more discoverable than force touch, it’s just cheaper.

 

[C DM]

Yeah, agreed. Long press is no more discoverable than force touch, it’s just cheaper.

And can do less in a slower manner.

 

[Eso]

I would imagine his point about many users not being aware of force touch functions is accurate. I really don't think it's an issue of force v. long press though. I think it's more a matter of context of what you are performing the action on. A force or long press on a tappable element is fairly natural extrapolation
It's as if to say, "if I tap on this, X happens - so maybe if I tap and hold, I can instead chose to do w, y, or z."

That's not how it works on the Apple watch though. Your force press does not activate a particular element - it just shows options for that given screen. Typically what that means is that on a given screen you can do x, y, and z (based on the on-screen elements) and when you force touch, you can also do u and v. I don't think that logically follows nearly as well as contextual menus like right-clicking or long pressing.

 

[Rogifan]

I would imagine his point about many users not being aware of force touch functions is accurate. I really don't think it's an issue of force v. long press though. I think it's more a matter of context of what you are performing the action on. A force or long press on a tappable element is fairly natural extrapolation
It's as if to say, "if I tap on this, X happens - so maybe if I tap and hold, I can instead chose to do w, y, or z."

That's not how it works on the Apple watch though. Your force press does not activate a particular element - it just shows options for that given screen. Typically what that means is that on a given screen you can do x, y, and z (based on the on-screen elements) and when you force touch, you can also do u and v. I don't think that logically follows nearly as well as contextual menus like right-clicking or long pressing.

In the mail app on the iPhone the only way to insert a photo/video or document is by long pressing in the body of the message. Then you get a list of actions. There’s nothing discoverable about it. IMO 3D Touch and Force Touch were better than long press because they were quicker and you got haptic feedback (though long press seems to have it too now). I don‘t think Apple is getting rid of them because of discoverability but rather because some long press/haptic touch hack is cheaper. It looks like on the Watch they’ve added a circle with an ellipse to get more options.

 

[TETENAL]

Long press is as undiscoverable as force press (maybe even more so).

Every functionality that is available by these gestures should be available by visible user interface elements. Force or long press should be shortcuts for power users.