Mobile/Archive/SmartTap

Summary

Use better hit testing to make it easier for users to click & focus hyperlinks and input fields. We could create a CSS rule that increases the size of the bounding box used for hit testing.

Current Status

Next Steps

• Look at platform code for ways to do this
• MicroB has some code we might be able to use

Related Bugs

bug 1234567

desktop firefox bugs

• bug 547997

Team

• Team Members: ?

Designs

• could be calibrated to zoom level -- i.e. the tappable area should never need to be bigger than a touch-height; the percentage growth could taper off as the link gets bigger
• worth experimenting with a box that's not completely centered on the link -- people probably tap on the link and below it, not above. Also, right-handers will probably tap on the link or to the right (not clear how to optimize this for both left and right handedness); generally, people undershoot rather than overshoot
• try predictive tap-area adjustments (i.e. weighting links based on predictions of whether a user is interested in that particular link)
  • use the same underlying assumption that powers the awesomebar - people visit the same things over and over
  • simple method -- make tapping easier for visited links
  • more complex -- weight links tappability based on frecency of visitation

• should work for fields as well as links
• should probably work for radio buttons and checkboxes as well

Goals/Use Cases

• Make it easy to click and focus links and form inputs
• Handle overlapping elements nicely

Non Goals