Golly gosh and gee willikers,* the three______little dots at the top of the screen on my iPad are_____. I keep hitting them by accident dozens of times but I’ve never hit them on purpose. I don’t think it’s a very helpful feature and whoever thought it up should be ______.
Please, remove them.
*my original complaint was flagged as not being very nice.
Key to accessing and controlling multi-tasking is the small “three-dot” button that is found at the top-centre edge of the screen.
More information about using multi-tasking can be found in this support page:
Use multitasking on your iPad - Apple Support
You are not alone in having some issues with accidental activation of the multitasking button. For many users, this problem is most often associated with using Safari or other browsers. When tapping the URL (address) bar, because text in this field is centre-justified, you instinctively tap the centre of the URL bar - and inadvertently activate the multitasking button.
Be aware that the entire URL bar is “active” - and tapping anywhere in the field will make the field active for input. With benefit of this knowledge, you can retrain subconscious habit of tapping the centre of the address bar. It may take a little practice, but new habits will form - and incidence of accidental activation of the multitasking function will reduce.
for information, whilst this tip is not documented, the iPad User Guide is a rich source of information about using iPad and its many features. The Guide is available both online using a web browser (such as Safari), or as an Apple Books download:
Key to accessing and controlling multi-tasking is the small “three-dot” button that is found at the top-centre edge of the screen.
More information about using multi-tasking can be found in this support page:
Use multitasking on your iPad - Apple Support
You are not alone in having some issues with accidental activation of the multitasking button. For many users, this problem is most often associated with using Safari or other browsers. When tapping the URL (address) bar, because text in this field is centre-justified, you instinctively tap the centre of the URL bar - and inadvertently activate the multitasking button.
Be aware that the entire URL bar is “active” - and tapping anywhere in the field will make the field active for input. With benefit of this knowledge, you can retrain subconscious habit of tapping the centre of the address bar. It may take a little practice, but new habits will form - and incidence of accidental activation of the multitasking function will reduce.
for information, whilst this tip is not documented, the iPad User Guide is a rich source of information about using iPad and its many features. The Guide is available both online using a web browser (such as Safari), or as an Apple Books download:
Your last point first…
Contributors here are all end-users, just like yourself. We can’t change or influence anything - except by providing feedback to Apple via their Product Feedback portal. Also, be aware that beyond the site Moderations, here present to ensure that we all follow the Terms of Use that govern our participation within the Support Communities, Apple do not actively monitor these forums.
Apple invite submission of constructive comments and feature requests for iPad and iPadOS here:
As for location of the multitasking button, we can only speculate as to the decision to place the button at top centre. You can be sure, however, that one persons “ideal” will be another’s bugbear; the location that works for you - and your chosen Apps - will impact somebody else. As is, Apple’s design interface places the button in one consistent location; image the confusion that would occur if the button location were to change for each App…?
As for the issue with Safari, it is unfortunate that the multitasking button has close proximity to the centre of the URL (address) bar. It is possible to tap the centre of the address bar without triggering the adjacent button - but only if you are very accurate in placement of your fingertip. It is, as I have attempted to outline, far simpler to develop the habit of tapping anywhere else than dead-centre. Habits are formed; your’s is currently to tap dead centre; you will rapidly adjust with just a little initial conscious effort to change established behaviour.
Your doctoral research is no doubt very well informed and admirable in its scope. Whilst having no intention of engaging in deep discussion of the topic, your research will no doubt have encountered human factors and established behaviours - and people’s fundamental resistance to change. I doubt, however, that it will have fully encompassed User Interface Design in context of touch-UI. To strike a direct and hopefully useful analogy, imagine the consequent usability issues and chaos that might occur if all users were to design their own keyboard layout. With QWERTY (predominately English speaking), AZERTY (French, Belgian), Dvorak (alternative English) and others, you have an internationally recognised “standard” keyboard layout (i.e., Interface Design).
Send unacknowledged feedback to Apple using the link supplied above.
Those dots are an integral part of iPadOS 15 and cannot, currently, be removed or turned off.
Sorry.
If people reflexively tap the center of the URL bar, then wouldn’t it have made more sense to locate the three dots away from the center of the top of the screen?
My doctoral research was on resistance to the adoption of computer communication technologies and one clear factor that came out of the data was that people prefer to change the way the device or software works to their liking as opposed to having the program make them change the way they used it. (I really should have tried to peddle my research to Apple.)
That’s one reason why Apple’s using similar menus on every program was so successful. It made learning new programs much easier than if people had to constantly adjust for variations in menu layout. We still use the QWERTY keyboard because it’s what people are used to, even though the Dvorak keyboard, which had been a feature of some of the earliest Apple computers, is more logically designed, at least the English version.
If you can’t remove the dots entirely, move them to a more convenient location. That would end complaints about the dots completely once everyone updates to an OS that changes the dots’ placement and would still allow people to use that feature if they like it.
I also have to add that someone with poor depth perception, such as someone who has only one eye, is likely to make such errors more frequently. My vision in one eye often requires me to wear glasses to see things close up, like for reading, so it’s a problem for me.
ios 15 Three little dots at the top of the screen
