Hacker News Reader

Comment by bhauer | Hacker News Reader

> I use my phone a lot when it’s lying on a desk, can’t unlock it when the fingerprint sensor is on the back.

You can still unlock a phone via its PIN if you don't want to pick it up. (Edit: I have not owned an iPhone since the original. Does the iPhone not provide a PIN option when Touch ID is enabled?)

View on HN

It does, but if anything that argument is a point in favor of “fingerprint sensor on the back is poor UX”.

It depends, if you consider using the phone while laying flat on a desk as a normal or edge case.

I'm not an UX designer, but I would optimize for the nominal case, rather than choosing a solution that is sub-optimal 90% of the time, but works better for the remaining 10%.

> It depends, if you consider using the phone while laying flat on a desk as a normal or edge case.

Seems like a perfectly normal use-case to me. I have it lying on my desk when I'm at work, which is 40 hours a week. I don't want to have to pick up my phone or enter a PIN every time I want to check an incoming iMessage, news alert, etc.

As a long-time iPhone user who had been using Pixel more frequently recently, the unlock phone-on-your-desk use-case is hugely problematic when you have fingerprint on the back and it is a huge pain point. I have a long passphrase for security but even entering a PIN is so 2012.

Fingerprint on the back is a major UX issue. I hope FaceID would work fine at an angle.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com