iOS Enduser Experience: Improvement Ideas
Safari: Bookmarks Should Start Collapsed
In the built-in Mobile Safari app, when you enter the Bookmarks interface, the folder view always starts in the Exploded state. It should start in the Collapsed state, or let it be a user chooseable preference. The reason why is that if a user has a large number of bookmarks, particularly across many top-level folders and a nested folder hierarchy (like I do), then it makes it harder and more annoying to find and select the intended bookmark if Safari always starts you off in the exploded state. Starting in the exploded state may be a net-win for users with a small number of bookmarks or with no sub-folders or category-based organization. But starting in the collapsed state is better for the other kinds of users, because they can more quickly reach the intended top-level folder, then the correct sub-folder(s) and ultimately the right bookmark.
Safari: More Caching
When I hit the Back button, in the general case it should not by default always re-fetch, re-parse, re-render the URL in question. That wastes bandwidth, battery power, cpu and the user's time. Same thing goes for hitting the Forward button, or switching to another Page/Tab that had been previously and recently viewed. The HTTP is designed to support giving signals indicating the cacheability of any given response. Use it. Granted, the iOS devices have less memory and less persistent storage capacity than typical desktop and laptop computers. So you are forced to make tradeoffs in the design. Totally understand. Just keep in mind that the more aggressively and intelligently you cache in Mobile Safari the better user experience you're going to give, and the more efficient usage of resources, which is also better for the environment and economy. So please keep adding more and more memory and persistent storage to each succeeding model of iOS device. It's a simple shotgun tactic that easily improves the UX.
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