19 Axis Lock. 19 of 95.
19/GESTURE PHYSICS/19 of 95
Axis Lock
After intent is clear, motion can stay on one axis.
Best experienced with a pointer.
The problem
Free drag wanders diagonally when the user meant a straight horizontal or vertical move, so alignment and lists feel imprecise.
The solution
Initial angle locks the gesture to the dominant axis for precise alignment.
Experiment
Play with the values
22
12px
How it works
- Drag delta is tracked from the pointer-down point.
- The initial angle of that delta shows which axis the user committed to.
- The angle is compared with a lock threshold so a tiny wobble does not choose an axis too early.
- Once the gesture is clear, it locks to horizontal or vertical.
- Later movement is constrained to that axis so the drag stays aligned.
Seen in
Spreadsheet selection
Row and column drags stay aligned once the dominant axis is clear.
Timeline scrubbers
Horizontal scrub ignores vertical jitter after axis lock engages.
Canvas rulers
Guide placement snaps to a single axis without holding Shift.
List reorder
Vertical reorder gestures ignore sideways drift mid-drag.