Since you touched discoverability I feel the need to point out how bad a design choice I think "Force Touch" really is.
I've had the Apple Watch for a month now and I don't really see the point of it. The argument for little screen real estate simply doesn't cut it.
Take the notifications pull down for instance. (BTW, you have an already hidden UI gesture to open it - swipe from top to bottom). Then you see a list of all your notifications in a column of little cards one after the other. There's no reason there shouldn't be a button in the end of this list labeled "Dismiss all". Force touch is simply too hidden from the average non-tech-savy user.
Apple even has this "dismiss button" when the Apple Watch brings you individual notifications as they happen. They should have just put a button there instead of hiding the option in Force Touch just to demonstrate the new technology.
Not to mention that it's slower then tapping a button and there are misses (10% of my force touches are not recognized; it's not a lot, I'll give you that, but it's annoying as hell when it happens and the slowness bothers me every time).
Lastly, I read an article in AppleInsider 5 days ago [1] stating that Force Touch will be a revolutionary addition to the next iPhone.
Needless to say, if Force Touch had anything going for it on a really small screen as the Apple Watch, I dont know who could benefit from using it on a huge screen like the iPhone.
Silly UI choice in my opinion.
I think stuff like that is ok iff it works consistently (>99%) and if it does something consistant as well. For example, on Windows I do like how I can usually predict what a right-click does. If Force Touch is used consistantly for context based interactions, then I think there would be some advantage on larger touch screens, since it could be executed wherever your fingers are, instead of scrolling back to the top / doing the akward double-home-button-tap-dance. Basically, I'd like it to do exactly what a right click does in Windows or CMD-I did on OSX when it was still geared towards power users, which is basically also a way to reduce mouse movement.
You touched another interesting point. I remember reading somewhere that Steve insisted the mac shouldn't have a 2 button mouse for such a long time just because it would force developers make a simpler UI, where no 'hidden menus' could be created. The lazy option of just throwing everything under a 'right click' simply couldn't exist.
If you think about it, Force Touch could create that 'right click' in iOS, which I think is a bad idea for starters. We already have hidden gestures and tap & hold, so there's already enough stuff hidden from plain sight in the User Interface.
Let's face it: the popularity of these devices came from the fact that they are really easy to use to the average user (think your mom for example). Will she know about Force Touch and incorporate that in her interface discovery process ?
I think there is a gradient when it comes to imterqctions and discoverability:
Text Buttons > Icon Buttons with hover text = menu entries with hotkey explained > menu entries with hidden hotkeys = ribbons > context actions with visible button > grouped context actions without visible button (right click / force touch) >> context actions with one hidden interaction per function (gestures)
The more complex your app, the deeper you need to reach down in this bag. What I want to say is, I'd still prefer a force touch menu over hidden gestures - what's idiotic is if you have enough space for something more discoverable, yet you opt for force touch or a gesture like in your watch example. But imagine MS Word on iPad with full desktop featureset - I'd be just fine with a force touch context menu there.
* Let's face it: the popularity of these devices came from the fact that they are really easy to use to the average user (think your mom for example). Will she know about Force Touch and incorporate that in her interface discovery process ? *
I've had the Apple Watch for a month now and I don't really see the point of it. The argument for little screen real estate simply doesn't cut it.
Take the notifications pull down for instance. (BTW, you have an already hidden UI gesture to open it - swipe from top to bottom). Then you see a list of all your notifications in a column of little cards one after the other. There's no reason there shouldn't be a button in the end of this list labeled "Dismiss all". Force touch is simply too hidden from the average non-tech-savy user.
Apple even has this "dismiss button" when the Apple Watch brings you individual notifications as they happen. They should have just put a button there instead of hiding the option in Force Touch just to demonstrate the new technology.
Not to mention that it's slower then tapping a button and there are misses (10% of my force touches are not recognized; it's not a lot, I'll give you that, but it's annoying as hell when it happens and the slowness bothers me every time).
Lastly, I read an article in AppleInsider 5 days ago [1] stating that Force Touch will be a revolutionary addition to the next iPhone.
Needless to say, if Force Touch had anything going for it on a really small screen as the Apple Watch, I dont know who could benefit from using it on a huge screen like the iPhone. Silly UI choice in my opinion.
[1] http://appleinsider.com/articles/15/06/29/as-apples-iphone-t...