Grip it and rip it: a concept for touch-scrolling and touch-dragging

It seems that the current model for drag and edit operations on objects in a touch-scrolling environment a la iPhone or Android is to tap-and-hold to initiate an edit mode, wherein the screen dims or the icons begin to jiggle or something else signifies this new modality where the domain is now locked down and the entities within that domain are free to move.  It works well enough, I suppose.  There's another model that involves a "drag handle" on each item that allows it to be moved when you drag up or down from that point of contact.  Also works well enough, but I'm left unsatisfied.

Read on for an explanation of a new concept I came up with.



Being a fan of exploring real-world metaphors, I'd love to see something new.  I had an idea that, while it has its limitations, is at least more discoverable than the current model of drag and edit via tap-hold.  Here's how it works.

First, the primary limitation.  This will only work on a one-dimensional list of items in its most basic form.  It could theoretically be adapted to a two-by-infinity list of items and still work fine though.  Yes, that's a pretty major limitation, but it's still a viable shape to work with.  Edit: It also makes use of the right-swipe gesture, which might otherwise be used for navigation, but arguably the tap-hold also uses up one of the user's potential gestures.  The trade-off comes down to whether discoverability is worth making use of a more readily understood gesture than tap-and-hold.

Now, the concept.  The real-world analogue is the tear-off strips you see on bulletin boards everywhere:

The only real difference is that in order to more visibly afford the "tear-off" action, we add perforation.  The action then becomes fairly evident and intuitive:

And now, we have vertical motions equating to scroll actions and a rightward drag motion equating to a "tear-off" action that frees the item from its location.  It's by no means a perfect model, but it does have advantages:

• No location-specific drag button on each item that could lead to accidental reordering of the list
• Very clear gesture, little room for misinterpretation
• Visible affordance, good potential for discovery
• Fun, pseudo-haptic (and optional audio) effect and capitalization on real-world understanding
• Edit: "Hint" animations upon making contact with an item can also improve discoverability to the point that I believe most people would discover the action on their own after a rather short acclimation period.

It doesn't fit everything, but I wouldn't mind seeing some menus based on the idea.  If you're currently designing a two-dimensional touch menu with items that can be rearranged, feel free to use the idea.  Just send me an email if you do.