BB10 Brainstorming: Active Frames

I’m sure most of us love how we could swipe up to close an app on the PlayBook. But on BB10, due to how the Active Frames has 2 vertical pages to scroll up and down, the same gesture can’t be implemented. And swiping to the left brings in the Hub, and the right apps. So pretty much up, down, left, and right are all taken.


If we look at other platforms,

- iOS 7, swipe up to close an app

- Android, swipe vertically to close an app

- Windows Phone, no way to do it now, but it has been rumoured that MS will be adding a way to do so, and I’m guessing its swiping up.

Tapping on a small ‘x” to close something feels kinda archaic at this point in time. Like how you would close a window on your mac or windows computer. On a small screen like a mobile device, swiping is an easier way to do it in my opinion. (or do most people just leave their active frames always open, and not bother to close them?)

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Here’s just a quick photoshop of an idea.

Just one single page for Active Frames, that doesn’t scroll up or down. When you have 4 active frames, it will be the same size as it is currently, but when you have more than that, the active frames becomes smaller in size. Allowing up to 9 active frames to be present. This will allow the swiping up (or down) gesture to be used, as well as present more information in 1 single page.

Of course the elephant in the room is whether that is still legible or not. I tested them on my Z10 and everything was still legible for me (due to the high ppi display), but not everyone’s eyesight is the same. So, it might not be ideal unless there are changes in font size as well.

Or the active frames page could be done horizontally instead, using the same 4 active frames layout, but side by side. This will free up the swiping up or down gestures as well. But that would mean one more page to scroll to get to your apps.

hmmm… Any thoughts on this?