Open Radar

 
Summary:
After five years of multitasking being arranged from the most recent apps on the left to the least recent on the right, iOS 9 reverses this. While I understand and completely agree that sometimes a big interface change is necessary for the continuing progress of an operating system, in this case, I find it bizarre and illogical. 

At least in left-to-right languages, importance runs from left to right. By placing the current app on the righthand side but in front of the next most recently used app communicates a mixed message of importance. It’s on the right, so it’s less important, but it’s also on top, or more important. Likewise, having all following apps stacked on the lefthand side means I’m going to drag them from left to right (i.e. reducing the importance of each) bringing each to the forefront (increasing its importance).

I’m not sure if this was done to make the sweet new blur effect work better, or whether it’s because the actual content of apps does typically follow the left to right rule, and only displaying a series of disclosure carats in rows looks a bit weird. But this seems like a tradeoff that isn’t working so well. Maybe it’s a muscle memory thing, but it doesn’t feel quite right yet.

Steps to Reproduce:
Open the multitasking switcher on an iOS 9 device.

Expected Results:


Actual Results:


Regression:


Notes: