Palace of Fine Arts in the Marina District of San FranciscoWith the introduction of Windows 8.1, apps are beginning to include three little dots at the bottom of them, much like on Windows Phone. These three dots indicate that there's something there for the user to use.
One of the most complained about things in Windows 8 was the fact that users were unable to find app functions because they were hidden in bar which needed to be activated by gestures, these dots make those bars find able.
Today, Microsoft updated Internet Explorer to include these three dots. These dots are already a common attribute on Windows Phone, and have slowly begun being used in Windows 8.1 with the Mail and Calendar apps.
IE11 is the next app to include such feature. While the dots do nothing functionality wise, they do let the user know that there's something there to activate.
Users would constantly complain that they didn't know where to find app functions in Windows 8, so Microsoft have done the Windows Phone way of things by adding a visual indicator, but how would the user know that the three dots do something? Well, it's all down to curiosity. The user see's three strange dots in the bottom right of their app, and since they're looking for a way to close a tab anyway, clicking on these dots might lead to something. In this case, it will.
The swipe up functionality has not changed, the three dots are literally just an indicator that you can click on with a mouse.
