∞ Lion one week later

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Washington Post:

The same goes for a myriad of mobilized gestures that can get confusing, even for power users. Do I use the three-finger double-tap or the two-finger double-tap to zoom? (It’s the latter — a three-finger double-tap pulls up the dictionary.) After playing around with the system for a while, I found myself regularly going back to System Preferences to disable new touchpad features because I simply couldn’t keep them straight.

Hayley Tsukayama is going through some of the same things I did with Lion. I turned off “natural” scrolling too, but turned it back on and forced myself to use it for week. It’s making more sense to me now, so I’m leaving it on. This is a good overview of how some of Lion’s changes affect how we interact with the OS.


  • http://www.acid-product.co.uk Ian Davies

    I think the people decrying the gestures and other touch-based changed/additions in Lion are missing the bigger picture that there are going to be touch-based Macs in the not-very-distant future.

  • http://www.acid-product.co.uk Ian Davies

    I think the people decrying the gestures and other touch-based changed/additions in Lion are missing the bigger picture that there are going to be touch-based Macs in the not-very-distant future.

    • Anonymous

      Some of those gestures might make sense on a touch screen Mac, but they don’t translate well when used on a trackpad. The problem is the user isn’t interacting directly with the on-screen object – the trackpad is a barrier between the user and the content on the screen. They would perhaps make more sense on a touch screen Mac.

      I’m not yet convinced about a touch screen Mac though. Reaching my arms out like a zombie to interact with the UI doesn’t sound like a comfortable experience. I think touch screen belongs on phones and iPads, where you can hold the device near. Perhaps it’ll work on a MacBook though.