| Haptic feedback is not a poor substitute for feeling a button depress, it's just the current reality of having a phone with a large touchscreen. You have the choice between a (relatively) much larger screen (with option of haptic feedback), or some buttons you can depress that will eventually wear out mechanically (I bet the touchscreen would outlast a mechanical button). The only real problem I can find with not having a mechanical button is that you may sometimes bump your finger onto one of the buttons, and will find yourself suddenly in the home screen. This actually happens to me a lot in the Nexus One, but I also blame that on failed multi-touch implementation that ends up sensing my finger in some spot it's not in, or when the capacitive sensor senses my palm holding the phone through the case. The HTC Legend menu button isn't consistent with the design of the other buttons, and it's very ambiguous. To me 'menu' is the equivalent of the home button; I expect it to take me to the home menu. Another interpretation is that it would take me to the home menu of the current application I am using, but this function is very similar to the back button. The back arrow doesn't symbolize a lack of forward motion (it just points right to left). There are many languages (Hebrew, Persian, Japanese. Sometimes Latin and Greek too) that read from right to left defeating the universalness of the icon. The search icon is actually designed very well as it is consistent with most devices in the world. On the other hand is the home icon isn't very well designed on the Galaxy Nexus, but it would be very impossible to confuse the button for a shift-key, an up-arrow, or a pointed rock (I don't understand how you got the connection between a hardware button and a rock, I feel like you are just nitpicking at this point, which is why I am nitpicking your post). In defense of the Galaxy Nexus having 3 icons instead of 4 is really more effective (why have a menu & home button, and I don't think a lot of people use the search button), it's just too bad the icons weren't designed better. |