Good touch, bad touch, 3D touch

I wouldn’t call myself an “Apple fan girl,” but I have been a loyal patron of Apple products ever since that fateful day I discovered my love for Photoshop on my school’s iMac G3. However, when an Apple product makes a misstep, I will not doggedly defend it just because of the brand name, you bet your ass I’m going to call them out. That means you, iPhone 6s 3D touch feature.

While one can argue Apple has been the front runner for innovation in the technology world, I realize innovation doesn’t happen by doubting yourself, but striving forward with strong ideas and iterating based on user interaction. While the 3D touch plays into some bit of human interaction (my mind snaps to the days of playing a particularly intense video game and pressing down hard on the buttons as if that would make a difference) I believe it is conflicting with the interaction we all know and love.

Let’s step back. One of the reasons I have always loved my iPhone is how easily this completely new technology can be picked up. I’m amazed to watch my little nephew easily navigate the iPhone like a pro at age 4. Why? Because of the carefully designed technology that plays into our human interactions. Instead of forcing the user to conform to the technology, the technology conforms to our human instincts and tendencies. It’s genius.

Now let’s get down to it, why do I hate the 3D touch? Because it feels like it goes against everything I was just raving about. While trying to do something as simple as highlighting a piece of text and pasting it, the 3D touch crops it’s ugly head and fights with the simple tap interaction. While feeling frustrated that I can’t select that piece of text, I press down harder in anger. NO I don’t want to preview that link! Go away, 3D touch!

What really kills me about this new interaction is it feels completely unnecessary. It reeks of “Yo, you know what would be cool? If it, like, totally does something if you press harder.” It has not made my life easier, the simple task of taping on a link, looking at it in the browser and going back to my messages was not much of a burden. Honest.

The only, ONLY saving grace I can see from this feature is the “Quick Actions” for apps. I can see this as a valuable tool, however not all apps have caught up to this technology. It is tiresome trying to orient one’s self with which apps have the feature and which apps don’t. Which apps have helpful Quick Actions, which apps don’t. Till this interaction becomes standard in iPhone apps, it’s not worth the time figuring it all out.

Disagree with me? Tell me why I’m wrong in the comments. Come at me, bro.