Late last week, President Trump tweeted that “the button on the iPhone was far better than the swipe.” As far as everyone is aware, Trump uses multiple smartphones. He sends his tweets from one iPhone, while voice calls are made from another handset. The ‘Button’ Trump is referring to is the Home button which was found in all iPhones launched prior to iPhone X. Since the iPhone X, Apple introduced its FaceID tech that gave the home button a miss and added a swipe feature.
Plus with this particular complaint, Trump didn’t add any context to explain what it is that had him so upset about the iPhone interface.
As of now, no comment has been made by Apple or Tim Cook on the matter, but former Apple designer responded to President Trump’s iPhone critique.
Just like the US President, Dong didn’t add any more commentary with her thoughts on the situation. But after all the hard work she must have put in, as an iPhone UI designer, you need to have a thick skin. First, you have to defend your idea internally at Apple. Then you’re endlessly critiqued by members of the public upon release e.g iPhone 11’s ugly square bump. The one thing you probably don’t expect, though? For your painstaking creation to be slammed by the President of the United States.
Although, some people share President Trump’s frustrations as they criticized the removal of the iPhone’s Home button when it happened. Not long after the iPhone X’s introduction, Fast Company wrote that “You’re looking at a UX disaster, the result of eliminating what is probably the simplest, most intuitive form of navigation ever implemented in consumer electronics: the iPhone’s home button.”
Regardless, I personally believe that the swipe gesture is more intuitive and wastes less time in getting back to the home screen or switching between apps than performing the same actions using the home button.
However, most of us have gotten used to the change in UI as much as we still miss the simplicity of the Home button. Plus, I think it was a worthy sacrifice to get the bigger infinite display.
And if the 45th President of the United States really wants to see the home button that he sorely misses, he should either switch to the iPhone 8, the iPhone 8 Plus or wait for Q1 2020, since that’s the rumoured release timeline for the upcoming iPhone SE 2.
