There are ways of keeping new users from overwhelm without taking away choice. One is to keep the UI bare-bones simple for onboarding and hide choice (such as back gestures) behind “Advanced Settings”.
Many difficulties/ frustrations in these forums turn out to be simple lack of familiarity with the user interface. The best approach to this is the opposite of dumbing it down, instead it’s in making it as rich as possible in a layered way. Beginners can have a simplified experience, longtime users can have choices.
I feel something Clear needs is simple orientation videos – this (2024), but in bite-size screen capture segments, tightly-edited, that will introduce new and returning users to app features. And update videos, like this from Bevel today (much bigger team and budget).
The flexibility of the UI and the personalization possibilities are two things which makes Clear different and magic.
The thing that has always separated Clear from the pack was innovative gestures and use of screen in ways that even Apple didn’t conceive of. Invisible back button was absolutely one of those things.
I don’t see the harm of keeping things simple for new users but letting people use or unlock Advanced mode that has things like Invisible Back Button, tap and hold to grab items and move them between lists, etc. All the things that are a little finicky but unlock powerful potential for the app.
Today we are internally testing moving the new glass back button to the center bottom spot. So this should solve some of the muscle memory issues. I agree it’s an easier reach for most vs. the left corner, or left edge swipe. (Bit of a blindspot for me as a left handed person!)
We are also discussing the possibility of a setting to make these new buttons invisible. I’m not sure on that one yet, but it is under consideration. Stay tuned!
Why not just… bring back the original button? IMO a Liquid Glass button in the middle is going to be pretty ugly. Sure you can make it invisible but then you’re just reinventing something that already worked instead of just putting the original thing back.
I think it will make the app feel unbalanced (aligning the back button to the center).
Much prefer the actual implementation with an optional invisible back button in the settings.
In both of them, there’s a concise design decision that not only appeals both kind of the users but do not makes any compromise, like the centered back button would do.
There are legitimate concerns here though, more than just muscle memory. It’s less accessible to a number of users with larger phones.
I used Clear for years where things just worked intuitively without having to think about it and now there’s an active annoyance right in the middle of that workflow that requires me to not only stop and think but often adjust how I’m holding my phone. It sounds silly, I know, but it goes against Clear’s original design philosophy of being elegant, simple, and intuitive.
Hey all, we are submitting 2.6.2, which will be released as a phased rollout and immediately paused. So we can take some time with people who manually update to it with an extra round of feedback.
This update lets you toggle visibility of the new buttons, and centers the back button more or less where the invisible button was. If you toggle them visibly off, they will remain invisibly tappable with a glow feedback on tap. I’m hoping it hits the right sweet spot. Should be out in a day or two.
Any idea when 2.6.2 is going to make it to the rest of us? It’s been a couple of weeks and I still dislike the change, I constantly find I’m swiping tasks off instead of swiping back, I feel stupid for not getting it lol
However, I truly loved the previous not centered button. The black shadow of the invisible button doesn’t look good for me either. Sorry, just my opinion.
By changing the Settings to Disable Visible Buttons this then hid the Visible centred Back Button
It then only showed a brief flare when tapped to acknowledge
I like the invisible button with the soft glow when you tap it! And I was one begging for the center invisible tap to come back so I am happy.
That being said if people slander the centered button, just want to throw an idea out there. In the Reddit app they have a little down arrow button which skips to the next thread / comment. One day I learned you can hold down on the arrow and move it to wherever you want on the screen so it sits wherever your thumb may be. And I love that little feature. Something to consider. Can’t please everyone so let them move it wherever they want!
Yep this is spot on great and should please everyone (it won’t lol). I like the fact you can even have the buttons visible while still using some of the older methods, including gestures that go way back that aren’t listed in the how-to! I’m easy to please though I’ll admit. Having said that I really don’t think it could get better! Great stuff!
~ outstanding Solution
