Every so often I find myself a few screens deep in an application’s navigation hierarchy and forget I can just pop out instead of going back to the top. I was reading feeds, decided I should do something else, but felt compelled to go back from the item view to the item list to the feed list to the very top of the hierarchy. Silly! I can simply stop reading feeds.
The same thing happens in writing apps: I’m working on a piece and feel like I need to “leave” the app at the very top, seeing all my well-intended but not0-quite-perfect attempts to organize and corral my writing.
I can quit an application from anywhere, not just the top screen!
Algorithmic feeds don’t exhibit this habit, despite presenting very little hierarchy, are worse for this. They actively try to keep comments, liking, sharing, etc. all in one endless view. There’s no “bouncing to the top”, just continual scrolling. Oof.
My habit is probably related to trying to keep as close to zero tabs open at any given time. Which is a great habit!
If we’re pairing or screen sharing, and you reveal a browser window with hundreds of open tabs, rest assured I’m keeping quiet on the outside but encouraging you to close several dozen of those tabs on the inside.