Gruber Said:

Regarding MagicPad, the upcoming iPhone notes app with text selection and copy/paste, a few readers have emailed to point out that Safari uses double-tap-and-release (tap, up, tap, up) for zooming, whereas MagicPad is using double-tap-and-hold (tap, up, tap, drag) for selection — and that so therefore there isn’t any conflict between those two gestures.

I just don’t see how typical iPhone users could be expected to make that distinction. On the Mac, double-clicking in text means “select this word,” whether you release the button after the second click or not. Single- vs. double-tapping is complicated enough for most people; double-tap-and-hold vs. double-tap-and-release would be baffling.

Is he serious? I’m beginning to think this is one of those I’ve-already-been-corrected-but-just-have-to-continue-arguing-just-to-make-it-seem-like-I-still-make-sense arguments.

Don’t get me wrong, I have the utmost respect for the guy as far as UI design goes – but seriously, this is just ridiculous.

You cannot compare “usage” to the Desktop side¹… else it would legitimize the argument that double clicking on a browser page on the desktop should ZOOM the page, and not select text. So let’s just drop the whole desktop vs. iPhone approach and stick with the iPhone.

I disagree that “typical iPhone users” will not make make the distinction because ever since the iPhone was released, double tapping and releasing would zoom the page… if you hold it down, it won’t do anything – and we don’t hear “typical” iPhone users complaining about that now do we? It’s a non-issue.

But I do think that it shouldn’t be a double tap and immediate drag… there should be a delay to differentiate the intention to drag from a [mistaken?] double-tap to the intention to make a more advanced function.

I’m thinking double-tap then hold for a few moments… like how the text loupe works. So it’s like a double-tap-then-loupe sort of trigger. So if you engage the loupe from a single tap, you’re simply navigating text (normal default usage)… if you engage the loupe from a double tap, then you engage the more advanced functions – in this case, cut/copy/paste. I think having it popup the loupe for that as well, but have an indicator that you’re in a different mode (cut/copy/paste).

Then we could use a second finger tap to do whatever else – whether it be popping up a menu to select from the clipboard (paste) and replace the selected text… or copy/cut the selected text to the clipboard. Or actually once you have a selection they could just do it like Windows Mobile that tapping and holding on selected text would bring up a context sensitive menu. The trick here is how to differentiate between selecting a block of text, and just positioning the cursor between letters (how it works now).

But in any case, given the cards, the double-tap-hold approach sounds intuitive to me, certainly a better trigger than the one from this video

Of course the crux of this argument is how it could conflict with possible systemwide implementation – which is non-existent at this point. And should Apple decide how to treat the double-tap-hold in the future, I’m sure the MagicPad author would adjust accordingly.

Seriously, it’s a non-issue.