Why is the iphone's home button not replaced with a touch key?

Article: Know the user Moonmonster

There's always some gossip. "The Apple should take the damn home button off my face!", especially after iOS upgraded to 5.x, it added multiple finger gestures (already has a gesture function in 4.3), Android's 4.x system also changed the entity buttons to virtual buttons, and people thought Apple would take away the home key, but what happened? No, the IPhone 5 doesn't, and the IPad Mini doesn't.

(Design by @JJ Ying Portal: Http://t.cn/zj2fUsB)

Does this mean that the home key cannot be replaced in other ways? Of course not, at this stage, there are many ways to replace the home key in the interactive mode (regardless of the interaction), such as: Assistivetouch, multiple finger gesture operation, So why does the home button continue to occupy a place on iOS devices?

The home key, which is the only physical switch on the front of the iOS device, gives people a straightforward understanding of its functionality, and when a person who knows nothing about iOS devices picks up the iphone or ipad, they can do it without help. Conversely, if there is no home key, how many regular users can understand the multiple finger gesture operation? How many users can understand and open Assistivetouch in the settings? There will be students who think that there is no home key, there will be other forms of design! Yes, there are other forms of design, There will be an Android 4.x virtual button that will have webOS's gesture operation area, but which design is simpler and more intuitive than a switch that provides solid feedback and a sense of behavior?

In fact, I can also use more reasons to tell you that Apple is currently not to remove the home button from the iOS device (does not mean that will not be), easy to quit the application, the unified interactive logic, changes in the design of the impact of the code, the user experience cost, and so on ...

To say further, the home key of the iOS device, in addition to its functional role, connects virtual and realistic interfaces (or switches), and has a true tactile outlet in a cold interface, beginner's mind. Some people may think that the egg pain, is not a button, it is necessary to rise to such a high degree?

With the advent of the iphone, mobile devices have entered the era of touch screens, "This is the best of times, this is the worst of times", touch screen technology and the concept of a thorough change of human and machine interaction methods, people can directly through their own touch for more intuitive operation, reducing the keyboard, mouse and other intermediary links. More and more devices are starting to interact with the touch screen, and more and more entities are disappearing, and at the same time it brings us some trouble.

We are living in a world of entities, long-term life experience allows us to use tools and daily objects in the physical world to obtain the corresponding sense of object and behavior, such as the quality, size, texture, shape, etc., as well as the position, direction, speed, sense of state and so on after operation.

But the information that is constructed on the screen is completely different from the information above, and the experience of the long-term manipulation of tools or objects to obtain information has almost completely lost its effect, and we rely more and more on visual perception State and feedback, with all the information centered across a block of screens, triggering visual changes through a single touch The display of information on the screen is not always consistent, depending on the system or application, there may be different information content.

When a user operates in a virtual interface, feeling confused, not understanding or lost, the home key is his/her safe exit, the user can wander freely in the virtual interface, when he wants to return to a place that feels safe and comfortable, they can return in time. Physical feedback, press the instant delight, clear the goal that you will reach, simple, stable, perceptible, everything is so real, "home, Sweet home ..."

Add: The original colleague has a lovely child, dad to amuse him often to play on the ipad game, then his father told us an interesting thing, his children often to the home TV also use their fingers to point to the menu on the screen ... With the development of science and technology, does the growth of the next generation of users mean the complete disappearance of physical objects?!

PS. Another reason to be a dick: at least the user knows which head of the phone is on, which is the next ... by @pahu