Punchcut, a design company, has released a short video called "5 considerations When Designing Touch Interfaces"Here are the five considerations as presented in the video:
1. Design for Immediate Access: When everything is touchable a streamlined interface help user navigate quickly.
2. Tap is the new click: Gestures must be intuitive. Elements must respond as user expects.
3. Clear mental models create a window of perception that adds dimension to the touch experience.
4. Design for real hand sizes: Fingers come in all sizes so ensure that design is for real people.
5. Touch feedback is key: Users are mobile and often distracted. Clear feedback reinforces what is important.
The end of the video goes on to say (and I'm not sure if this is part of Consideration 5 or just a post script):
"Touch is merely one dimension that brings a human side to technology. An insightful experience will create deeper connections to the people and the content we care about most."
So what do I make of all this? Sadly, not much. While I'm sure that Punchcut is a very talented design company they seem to be demonstrating the art of stating the obvious.
Update Later that night.
I received a comment on this story from Joe Pemberton of Punchuct who said...
"Richard, your readers might enjoy the full article, rather than just the visualization of these considerations. It provides a bit more meat on the bones. Read the full write-up: Design Considerations for Touch UI"
The article Joe refers to is really well written and succinct. I also think it's spot on and very useful. While the video is visually interesting its message is pretty weak. The article fills in the details that are missing and it's well worth a read. Nice work to the author Jared Benson!
Update April 23rd, 2009
Josh Blake deconstructs the video itself and shows that there is a lot more to the presentation than I thought. It's actually not just flash and bling, the video is supposed to demonstrate different gestures. Anyway, Josh does a nice deep dive on the topic if you are interested.
5 comments:
How about differences between a mouse/keyboard interface and a touch interface:
6) M/Kbd interfaces were designed around 1 interaction point at a time and 1 visual focus point at a time. Touch interfaces introduce the idea that a person can have 2 interaction points (2 hands) and 1 focus point(eyes).
7) Given (6), the eyes can be following either of the hands aiding accurate interactions OR with neither hand. With any hand that doesn't have the users focus - broad gestures, large hit areas, or easy to find hit areas (edges/corners of the screen) should be utilized. Fitts law applies more heavily to the unfocused hand.
8) Designing for use of both hands simultaneously is the most difficult, though will have the most productivity rewards. It can be difficult to get out of the mindset of designing for just one input (we've been brought up on it), though it is also true that not every application lends itself to simultaneous multipoint input(with one person).
Richard, your readers might enjoy the full article, rather than just the visualization of these considerations. It provides a bit more meat on the bones.
Read the full write-up: Design Considerations for Touch UI
@lewis
I could be wrong, but its been my experience that two hands are used in combination gestures like pinching and not independently so I don't think the fact that a single person can use two hands is that big of a difference. Most people tend to interact with one hand when using the surface or iPhone.
I'm not saying there isn't design differences. There are many differences in design of multitouch vs. M/Kbd, but I'm not sure that your points 6, 7, and 8 are among them.
Hi Joe,
That is a very good article. I updated the post so people are aware of it. I found it to spot on and extremely useful. It's also well written providing enough concrete to the concepts to make the point without belaboring it. Nice work to the author, Jared Benson!
Thanks for following up!
Richard
Richard,
I wrote a blog discussing the video itself. I deconstructed the suggested multitouch techniques used in the presentation and suggested additional modification necessary if one were to make a real presentation application in this style.
Head on over: http://nui.joshland.org/2009/04/deconstructing-considerations-for.html
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