Open/Close Tab Gesture

[Simon Raabe]

Hi,

I really like the Gestures on my Chromebook HP14. But woudn't it be useful if there would be a gesture to open new Tabs or close old ones? I thought of drawing an "X" on the touchpad to close a tab and a "1" to opene a new one.

What do you guys think about that?

-Simon

[Prathmesh Prabhu Chromium]

The right (and better) place for feature discussion is Chromebook Central.

There you'll find the right ears, and even people with ideas for existing features that you may have missed.

Here... you'll mostly get an answer that involves first setting fire to your chromebook and then trying to run Minix on it. :P

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[Stephen Gale]

Gestures are more for the Pixel and touch screens.  For shortcuts, Ctrl+w Closes the active tab.  If you're thinking about Touchpad gestures, perhaps a sharp tap in the top right corner of the Touchpad would be better to  close the Active window.  Mapping an "X" or a "1" would leave a lot of room for error.  Some of our older HP Laptops have an indicator light on the top left of the touchpad which when sharply tapped disables the touchpad.  A second tap re-enables it.

[Mike Frysinger]

eh ?  touchpads are just touchscreens without a screen (they were doing touch before it was cool :p).  we have a bunch of gestures already in place with the touchpad.  also note: the Pixel isn't the only CrOS device w/a touch screen.

but adding new gestures can be difficult as it requires a bit of UX work, and once something is added, it's pretty hard to take it away.  it's easier when the larger ecosystem has agreed on a meaning for a specific gesture (like two finger scrolling).

-mike

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[Stephen Gale]

To the "Touchpads are just touchscreens without the screen": yes and no.  Touchpads are not touchscreens without screens.  Touchpads don't operate on a 1:1 mapping where touchscreens do.  If I touch the coordinates 1,1 on my touchpad, its a relative position to the current mouse location.  If I touch 1,1 on a touchscreen, it's always the same position on the screen, regardless of where the pointer is located.  They are both Human Interface Devices used to navigate, select and elements.

Yes, I know the Pixel isn't the only Touchscreen, that's why I said "for the Pixel and touchscreens."  

I do agree that it is much easier to implement changes like what is recommended when it is in a largescale ecosystem.  I personally don't see a need for a "create new tab" or "close current tab" gesture when there are shortcuts.  I spend most of my time with my hands on the keyboard, not the touchpad.

Stephen Gale

Director of Technology

West Grand School District

(970) 364-6196

[Mike Frysinger]

that is merely a convention, not an aspect of the hardware -- the data coming off the two is the same.  even then, your point is wrt a single point and we're really talking about gestures here which tend to be multipoint and no relationship to the cursor location.  further, gestures in CrOS on touchpads and touchscreens are the same by design.

-mike