[carletonkung]

My first post here but I had to put this out there. I was at my Fido store looking for a case for my Q5 this morning and I just happen to ask the rep how sales were going for the BB10 phones and the rep said that most customers find the gestures based navigation too complicated and prefer using the home button. Do you think this is another reason why the BB10 phones are not doing as well as hoped. Maybe the gestures are too different and difficult to learn? Cheers from Vancouver.

[Jtaylor1986]

Something new is always going to be intimidating to some people.

[SlcCorrado]

Gestures over home button all day

[jagrlover]

Gestures over home button all day

I agree. I've always used BB's and after getting a work issued iPad I really struggle (I know, "struggle " is a strong word) looking for the home button. I'm so used to picking up my PlayBook and using it in any orientation. You obviously can do the same with the iPad, but the dang home button is always in a different location.

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[geoffsdad]

I thought I would miss a track pad. No way I would go back, gestures are the future.

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[ajst222]

It all has to do with personal preference

[bradu1]

I was sitting at a bar last night with friends, iphone 5's, various androids, one friend just got a new SG4 and he doesn't know how to use it yet, it's his first smartphone and we're all focused on showing him what he can do with it now.

So, like everyone, I have my phone sitting in front of me on the table. People get a text, they pick up their phones, click click, reply what not. My phone just sits on its back, and I'm in a few BBM conversations, so I just one finger swipe up, in condos, out of convos, flick type to reply, never picking up my phone. Not doing it on purpose, it's just convenient. And I see people watching as in swiping away. Finally, someone asks, 'what is that!?' and I have to go in to the 'this is BlackBerry, this is how it works'. People were very impressed, and none but my buddy who here's entirely too much about BlackBerry from me even knew BlackBerry had new phones out.

So, my point is, all these people who love their androids and Iphones, were very impressed with the swipe gestures.

#IchooseBlackberry10 (BBM#25)

[missing_K-W]

Gestures are a revolutionary means of navigation.

Home/back buttons are a very cumbersome means of navigation. Takes away from how seamless navigation could and should be.



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[sandman10]

I find my iPad is a pain in the neck when hunting for the home button, as frequently I change orientation of the screen. frustrating.

[missing_K-W]

Gestures are a beautiful way to navigate. So much time saved. Just a seamless and effortless means of navigation

I really couldn't have it any other way

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[imz]

There are MANY things that are better than BB's, the home button is not one of them.

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[sentimentGX4]

It's so simple that it's stupid; but, it works! Don't change what doesn't need to be fixed. I think its been said numerous times on here that one of the reason BB10 hasn't gained as much traction as it could is because it is unintuitive/too difficult to learn.

Of course, there are dozens of other reasons BB10 has not gained traction so we'll never be able to pin down how severe this problem was. But, it is one of the common concerns floating out there, especially among sales associates that have to actually deal with normal (average tech-savvy) consumers' problems. Fans are more reluctant to admit fault with the product.

[eldricho]

Depends on the user. Now that I have used the BB10 gestures, I actually prefer them over home buttons.

Friends usually like to borrow my phone because it's fun to use the gestures.
Always funny to see someone struggle when you hand the phone over without instructions, see them struggle to find a button and keep tapping the BlackBerry on the bottom and their face when you just swipe up and enter picture password :P

So far, I've only experienced 2 people out of dozens saying it's really complicated, after I explained the basic swipe up, swipe down and side to side gestures

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[Vorkosigan]

I can remember when I first got my PlayBook and how much I loved the gestures right off the bat. It still took me about 2 weeks to realize that I could wake it up by swiping from the top to the bottom.

After the first couple of weeks I started to find it difficult to use the ipads and android tablets at work and at my sisters house. It just seemed so counter intuitive to use a home button. I thought then it was due to the larger form factor. It just made more sense to swipe on the larger screen.

Enter the Z10. Very easy to learn because of my PlayBook experience. And now I can't seem to get used to get a home button on anything. When I'm working on someone's phone I usually find I do 2 swipes before I remember to hit the home button. Every single time. Annoys the heck out of me. Lol.

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[ajst222]

I find my iPad is a pain in the neck when hunting for the home button, as frequently I change orientation of the screen. frustrating.

"Hunting for the home button"...you mean in the same place it's always been? Lol. It's not like it's that much of a pain and it certainly isn't very hard. While I personally find gestures to have potential to do more, it's definitely not frustrating to use a home button.

[stevobbm]

Swipe left, right, up and down. Not rocket science. Honestly? Some people have no direction.

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[Kimberella]

Keep it fluid with gestures. #flow

Feel free to use that one @BlackBerry.

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[sandman10]

"Hunting for the home button"...you mean in the same place it's always been? Lol. It's not like it's that much of a pain and it certainly isn't very hard. While I personally find gestures to have potential to do more, it's definitely not frustrating to use a home button.

No, what I mean is that it is quite common for me to pick up our ipad and randomly chose an orientation. Or some apps require me to flip it 90 degrees. When I need the home button, or its dark in the room. I have to think about it. Or hunt for it. Is it on the left? The right? The top? The bottom? Totally dumb.

With the PlayBook I have and still use. I have zero issues. No matter which way I hold it.

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[mjs416]

No.

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[Troy Tiscareno]

Anyone can LEARN the gestures, but even the very fact that gestures are how you navigate in BB10 (or Meego or WebOS) isn't OBVIOUS to a brand-new user.

The problem is that most non-techie customers go into a cellphone store, pick up a phone, and try to use it with NO prior knowledge. On systems with a Home button, it's OBVIOUS to nearly everyone how to navigate, which means its INTUITIVE (people can figure it out without any help). BB10 fails this very important test: most people picking one up are going to be lost, and will give up rather than spend the time and energy to figure it out. That alone is a big reason that BB10 (and WebOS, and Meego) haven't been commercially successful. Sure, some of the techie folks LOVE it, but the average consumer quickly gets frustrated and gives up.

If BB was smart, they'd have built BB10 with a home button (a virtual, on-screen one like a Nexus device) AND allowed gestures to be used. They could have also made turning off the virtual buttons, and relying strictly on gestures, to be an OPTION. This would have given new users a simple, intuitive way to TRANSITION from whatever they used before to BB10, while taking nothing away from those who love the gesture interface.

BB10 asks the average consumer to make too big of a leap too quickly, and most of those customers didn't make the leap - they saw how wide the chasm was and turned away to another phone/OS that was more intuitive. Why BB didn't see that coming, I'll never know.

Again, there is nothing wrong with the gesture interface (though it's really not significantly BETTER, it's just DIFFERENT), except that it simply isn't intuitive for most people. It isn't "60 second try-out friendly", and a new platform NEEDS to be. How many BBOS users have found the BB10 interface confusing and frustrating? Answer: a whole lot of them!

Apple is SLOWLY adding in gestures over time, and maybe the Home button will eventually go away, but they aren't about to rush their customers into that change. It will be GRADUAL, so that they are barely aware that a change happened. That's one of the reasons Apple is so successful with the ordinary consumer: they take those kinds of things into consideration, and always have.

[anon(5624621)]

I love the gestures... i like that it can be "lazy" swiping instead of targeted tapping.
And I agree about home button hunting...i do that on the iPad cause it depends which orientation it has when you pick it up. But that could be because I don't use my iPad that much compared to my Z10. I do use the iPad version of multitasking gestures which are ok but I find them more awkward (could be partly due to the form factor)

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[just jack]

My first post here but I had to put this out there. I was at my Fido store looking for a case for my Q5 this morning and I just happen to ask the rep how sales were going for the BB10 phones and the rep said that most customers find the gestures based navigation too complicated and prefer using the home button. Do you think this is another reason why the BB10 phones are not doing as well as hoped. Maybe the gestures are too different and difficult to learn? Cheers from Vancouver.

There is no doubt that gesture based is the future, home button technology is over 10 years old, but as always, BlackBerry starts the trend, don't forget they invented the smart phone, then the more popular brands or those better at marketing themselves takes the technology and promotes it their own or as the ones that perfected it.

BlackBerry has to get out in front of this and tell the world that their products are the furture.

Home button limits the development of the technology, that's why Apple has not been able to really do anything with the iPhone other than making it more polished. From 1 to 5 it is the same device. Look at a BlackBerry from 6 years ago to today, they are light years apart.

BlackBerry all the way.

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[Dave Bourque]

Ipad gesture to home is horrendous...

Z10STL100-3/10.2.0.1803

[Taigatrommel]

This is an "issue" which has been discussed ever since the first BB10 device was available. Joe Average seems to have quite a hard time in the stores playing around with the device. Even unlocking the display was something a few customers didn't manage to do. Once you hit such an early, disappointing wall, you'll give up quickly. Even if they manage to unlock it, they're lost when it comes to closing an app they just opened.
Having a home button is an easy way to get back to the starting point. Even some sales reps aren't trained well or simply don't bother with the gestures.

However once you get around it, it is a great an convenient system. I still find myself trying to swipe around on other phones because I simply get really used to the gesture based navigation my Q10 offers.

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[zten]

Almost everything is gesture based, Ya some devices kept a physical or haptic home button but they use gestures aswell.

Iphone 4 and up - swipe around to get various menus

Samsung s4, Nexus and most android devices - swipe up for Google now, swipe from top of bezel for notifications and settings

Windows Phone and Surface - swipe from bezels to switch between metro and desktop, swipe to charms bar, swipe between apps.

How are gestures confusing when everyone does it?

People just enjoy ragging on blackberry for absolutely no reason.

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