

Ask HN:  Why does the iPhone/iPod touch use the shake gesture? - amichail

The shake gesture might seem cool to a lot of people but I can't imagine that it does well in usability tests.  It's easy to remember, but it takes too much effort to perform.
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icey
For the same reason people used to use the blink tag. It was novel, and people
like using novel things. Eventually people will get tired of doing input via
accelerometer, and you'll see such heavy use of the shake gesture fade.

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johnnybgoode
Because it makes some people go, "Ooooh!" when they see it in an ad.

