Hot answers tagged touch-screen
41
Don't rely on shaking as the only way of selecting any common action. The exception is novelty apps like whips or throwing dice.
For other apps it is poor UX as it:
Is uncommon behaviour for many users, as most apps (sanely) don't use this action.
Has poor discoverability as there is no cue on the screen letting you know how to use it. There may be an ...
9
The guidelines given for the various platforms are all based on the idea that the minimum size should be 9-12mm. The variation between the guidelines is mostly due to differing pixel densities on the devices, and hence different number of pixels needed to reach the 9-12mm figure.
Note, that this isn't an ideal dimension to make the button easier to use, ...
8
Yes, size can be an issue. Touch targets need to be bigger than typical desktop targets because the finger precision is worse than the pointer+mouse precision. With this worst precision the odds to do missed taps is bigger (like not touching a button or touching the incorrect one).
Usually, touch studies use as principal study variable the error rate. The ...
8
I definitely wouldn't do this; the pull down to refresh mentioned in John's answer is probably the most common gesture. Though if refreshing isn't automatic or is a common action for non-power users I'd personally recommend just sticking with a button; you have a pretty universal "refresh" icon at your disposal and refresh is quite often initiated from a ...
5
Shaking is a physical gesture. Apart from a physical gesture, there should be a primary digital counterpart too.
Volume can be controlled by sliding the volume bar of clicking the volume buttons.
Phone can be answered by swiping/moving the slider or clicking the handsfree button.
Physical gestures can be thought of as short-cuts, it is fine if you have ...
4
They are useful during pure media consumption like viewing images, videos, etc.
Regarding the issue of educating the user of their usage: the current standard implementation is quite good enough. Display the controls and additional data when opening the content and then remove them after a few seconds. This tells the user there is all the other information ...
3
My friend built a similar project for our sales' "Green Room", displaying sales statistics, exported from the CRM system we make. Maybe you can use it as inspiration. Here are some pictures from our old blog.
I could not get Google Translate to work here, but here's a short explanation:
The six screens show six different graphs. A Kinect sensor sits on ...
3
I would recommend two actions:
Keep the thumbnails screen clean, minimizing the chrome and buttons. A tap on a thumbnail opens a new screen that contains the photo and an action bar with all the desktop context menu options. You can hide this action bar in a few seconds (or with a user tap) to keep the photo alone. This way you have a safe and visible ...
3
I've battled with people quoting this finding on several projects now. The discrepancy, imho, exists because of the researcher's ability to exist in a controlled environment.
When you have complex pages to deal with, you can't make every tapable action the size of a large man's thumb print. If you did, you'd end up with a cluttered mess of a UI. People are ...
2
Definitely no to shaking. It drives me nuts when my ipad shifts to a new screen or goes to the next news post simply because I tried to re-position the way I'm sitting.
Unless this app is a game that uses directional physics or is an interactive feature, I would avoid using shaking as a refresh at all costs.
As JohnGB described, both Twitter and Facebook ...
2
I'd say the "handedness" of a user is only of limited information. Many other factors affect the way a user interacts with the touch screen of a hand held device. You could be lying on your side, or perhaps you put your smartphone down on a table. While a gesture (say a sideways swipe) might have a different curvature when performed with either hand, it will ...
2
Keep it simple and display one type of information (maybe two).
What is the most important thing to know for the workers?
Productivity?
Number of widgets a day?
Widgets to manufacture before the end of the month?
Days without an accident?
The idea is to use a figure that talks to every worker. They are a team, they work together with the same goal. They ...
1
If you are making Image Heavy Article browser, the name itself tells you what is the right thing to do. By article, we mean Text and readable content which may further have images, videos etc - but if you take article out, its simile image gallery about a subject.
Your objectives of making this app might advocate heavily to give prominence to images and ...
1
If I can use the analogy of writing, then being left or right handed doesn't really affect the way information should be presented, but it does affect the way content is created. The pain of left handed users smudging their writing as they deal with normal book/page layout has become a thing of the past with keyboard and mouse, and in general there hasn't ...
1
Not exactly related but this paper works on identifying the hand and adapting the interactions based on it.
GripSense: Using Built-In Sensors to Detect Hand Posture and Pressure on Commodity Mobile Phones
It tackles the problem the other way round, rather than looking at the accuracy of gestures based on handedness, it tries to figure out the grip and ...
1
Aside from the other negative comments about shaking as a gesture, I would also point out that on iOS devices, at least, Apple intended the shake gesture to be used for "Undo", and implements it as such in many of its own core iOS apps. So you may also have the problem that even if a user knows about shaking, it won't do what they expect it to do.
1
I agree with not relying in the Shake for the refresh feature, the Shake is not very intuitive, it's indeed mostly used for games or when clearly stated but some will people prefer to click than to shake, specially if they are doing other activity like walking, speaking, etc.
Re-think your layout and I am sure you can squeeze a little refresh icon in one ...
1
There are a lot of excellent answers here (makes me wonder if michael intends to vote for an answer at all). I would emphasize one critical point:
This question all but impossible to answer in general terms.
The transition from mouse to touch is a delicate and multifaceted challenge. No one can give you general guidelines that will answer your unique ...
1
What “contextmenu” ? Do you know that the contextual menu is governed by the Web browser, not by the Web page ? I hope that, on your site, your “contextual menu” is not the only way to reach its actions. Otherwise, these actions are not accessible and your site is broken.
At first sight, I thought you were building an iPad app. That may be the best to do.
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