Touch Interfaces and Gestures? Mobile Versus Desktop?
I find the following quote very poignant and a significant way to interpret folding touch and gesture into technology, it is an immediate opportunity to take technological advances that overwhelm us all, back old school and slow it down:
“Why? Touch interfaces feel so completely intuitive because the sense of touch is quite possibly the most innate and intimate sense we humans possess. Our sense of touch develops before all other senses in embryos, and it is the main sense that newborn infants use to learn about their environment. It’s the sense that never turns off or takes a break, and it continues to work long after the other senses fail in old age. Throughout life, people use their sense of touch to learn, protect themselves from harm, relate to others, and experience pleasure.”6
This writing highlights a way to make the unfamiliar familiar in a way; the intersection of basic motion, not even requiring a mouse or other technical apparatus, and technology.
Don Norman, as he’s won’t to do, brings up many valid points. He directs designers to not just re-invent the wheel for the sake of reinventing the wheel. Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should. “Not with these new systems: Check boxes can work any way the whim of the developer decides, often to the distress of the poor person trying to use the system.”2 Any advances in technology can easily lead designers and developers down the slippery slope of bells and whistles for their own sake, keeping the end-user in mind, should be at the forefront of folding new technological capabilities into any updated system.
These are critical things to explore because mobile is far exceeding desktop as time progresses and worldwide. More people access websites on mobile devices and the trend is just continuing onward. Those without PCs are accessing on mobile devices as well, formerly unreached and untapped markets are mobile only in most remote areas. Those devices are primarily touch screen smart phones, though not all, surprisingly. Luke Wroblewski’s book Mobile First8 is a riveting read, that just goes to show, experimenting with mobile user testing is key to keeping user experience testing relevant and fresh.
Citations:
1Tech Degree. Usability Foundations video, pulled from https://teamtreehouse.com/library/usability-foundations/mobile-usability/touch-and-gestures, November 22, 2016.
2 Norman, Don. Gestural Interfaces: A Step Backwards In Usability, pulled from http://www.jnd.org/dn.mss/gestural_interfaces_a_step_backwards_in_usability_6.html, November 22, 2016.
3 Google, Gestures, mobile only, pulled from https://material.google.com/patterns/gestures.html#, November 22, 2016.
4 Wroblewski, Luke. Touch Gesture Reference Guide, pulled from http://www.lukew.com/ff/entry.asp?1071, November 22, 2016.
5 Arthur, Kevin. Evaluating Touch Gesture Usability, pulled from http://www.slideshare.net/kevinarthur/evaluating-touch-gesture-usability, November 22, 2016.
6 Hinman, Rachel. The Mobile Frontier, pulled from http://uxmag.com/articles/excerpt-from-the-new-book-the-mobile-frontier, November 22, 2016.
7 Nielsen, Jakob. Mouse vs. Fingers as Input Device, pulled from https://www.nngroup.com/articles/mouse-vs-fingers-input-device/ November 22, 2016.
8 Saffer, Dan. on Researching and Designing Interactive Gestures, IIT Design Research Conference, 2009, pulled from https://vimeo.com/8724094, November 22, 2016.
9 Wroblewski, Luke. A Book Apart: Mobile First. 2011.