iOS Idea: Swipe Numbers to the right to show number pad

Every time I call a Customer Support line (or any touchtone service), I always get frustrated with the iPhone’s number pad. It take two taps to get to it. Other times, my face presses the “Keypad” button and starts pressing buttons. To be fair, this last one is a known iPhone 4 proximity sensor glitch.

So, I was thinking…

Suggestion: Make the call-buttons screen swipeable to get to other call functions. In terms of user experience, there are two kinds of motions in the rest of the iOS:

• Tapping does things - opens applications, opens emails, takes us to new panes in settings, or any other “button-action.”
• Swiping brings us new options - swiping to delete something, swiping to get to new home screens, and swiping to scroll up/down.

When you want to bring up the call buttons, you aren’t doing the action; you’re looking for a new numbers panel to appear. The action is pressing the number, not getting to the numbers. Hence:

• Getting to the numbers is not an action (therefore not a tap); should be a swipe.
• Pressing a number is an action; should be a tap.

This suggestion delves into the philosophy of mobile touch… and makes everyone’s life a little bit easier (especially when dealing with Customer Service hotlines).

ALSO: see my suggestion for improving the iPhone lock screen… and my idea for how iPhone notifications should work.