It’s fairly common I think. If you want to have a flashlight that operates with just one button - which is good for me, KISS! - but has several light levels there’s only a few options. Of those this (reverse clicky) is the one I prefer. But others will differ of course.
I’d argue that, while one-button (or twist or rotary switch only with no buttons) looks cleanest and simplest, two-button is actually the easiest and most intuitive UI for a multi-mode flashlight.
On the best of the two-button lights I have, the tail switch turns the light on/off, and maybe has a momentary on function. When the light is on, the side switch cycles through modes. The light has mode memory, so if you’re using the same mode repeatedly, you don’t have to cycle through modes every time. That really covers the basic operations, with the exception of things like “hidden” and programming modes. These are lights I can easily hand to a child (or someone else with only a basic knowledge of flashlights), and they can turn the light on, use it for what they need, and turn it off, without needing instruction. (This is especially true if I’m able to pre-select a suitable output level for them, usually medium or low.)
In contrast, single-button multi-mode lights often have more complex control sequences…
- full press vs. half press
- short/quick press vs. long press
- press and hold; pressing and holding for different lengths of time may yield different results, e.g. “hold for more than 0.5 but less than 1.5 seconds to…”
- single press vs. double press vs. triple press
- etc.
Of the single-button/single-switch multi-mode lights I’ve had, I think the following were the most intuitive to use (in no particular order):
- Rotary switch is dead simple to use. Just rotate it to the desired output; repeat as needed. Rotate to off position when done. The big disadvantages of this are (1) unless you just happened to want the mode right next to “off”, you were cycling through multiple modes every time, both when turning the light on and when turning it off; (2) while it was possible to operate the rotary switch with one hand, doing so was a bit fiddly/tricky, and 2H operation was much preferred.
- Quick press to turn on/off; press and hold to cycle through modes. Biggest problem with this light was accidental/inadvertent activation, but that could have been mitigated with a better quality/designed switch IMO.
- Long press to turn on/off; quick press to cycle through modes. Maybe the best of the one-button options. But as silly as it may sound, that short on/off delay got annoying.
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