4 Attachment(s)
Brainstorming BB10: Additional Peek and Flow Gestures
Hello CB,
Most of us are familiar with the Peek Gesture, and the "Peek and Flow Right" gesture for entering the BlackBerry HUB from within any application in one smooth move.
Attachment 125811
It is a pretty nice gesture but I think there is room to add two more gestures that would greatly enhance the User Experience and speed up Multitasking all while staying true to the BlackBerry 10 ways of Peek and Flow. After the Peek Gesture, the only move currently supported is to go Right to enter the HUB, there is much potential in going LEFT or just Continuing the Swipe Upwards.
Attachment 125812
The Swipe that goes UP!
It was noted that in BlackBerry 10, closing an active application is a two-step process. First swipe up from within the application to enter the Active Frames Home Screen, and then to Press a little "X" on the Active Frame of the said app. Closing an app could be much quicker and smoother and more "swipey" if the user could Swipe UP from within the application to initiate a Peek, and then Continue the Swipe upwards and take the app out of the screen to close it.
Attachment 125815
Swipe UP and LEFT for App Switching
The Playbook has an excellent swiping gesture that allows the user to switch from one app to the next. On the Playbook this is achieved by swiping in from any side bezel this allows the user to scroll through the open apps. Unlike Playbook, in BlackBerry 10, the Active App will always be the Top Right LEFT one among the Active Frames and the second App will always be to its Right. So i think it would be perfect if the User could Swipe UP from within any application, and then continue that swipe to the Left to pull out the Next App from the Right. I think this would be very intuitive especially for the Playbook users who have used the app switching gesture. The apps could mimic the behaviour of the Playbook apps when such a gesture is initiated, so that the next app does not automatically go fullscreen, instead it waits for a moment allowing the user to swipe and scroll between all the open apps.
Attachment 125816
I think if these gestures are implemented, they would make navigation through the OS more intuitive and fast. These gestures use the same Initial Gesture as required for the Peek and for entering the HUB, so once the User has done the initial Swipe UP from the Bottom Bezel, they have the choice to either go to the HUB, go to the next app, close the app, or return to the app, all without having to lift the finger from the screen :)