[IxDA Discuss] "Interface-Free" Interface

[Miguel Gonzalez]

Touch screens are for the casual user that spend only a few minutes with the machine.

Touch screen systems, as unique input devices, won't last in your home much, think of the
applications you already have installed on your computer, have you ever try to use an Internet
browser with a touch screen? it's a pain in the neck, to reach the address bar, for instance, you
may need to try 3 times because your finger is too big to hit that control at first. I could spend
lot of time explaining all the disadvantages of this hardware.

Yes, desktop applications haven't been designed for touch screen system, so let re-design them for
the touch screen, most touch screen design guidelines says that the minimum hit area should be
50x50 pixels in a 1024x768 resolution for a 15" screen, everything get so huge that suddenly you
run out of space to fit buttons, pictures, text boxes, etc. that's the reason of those interfaces
having everything so big. 

Finally you will have applications that may suit beginner users, due to its simplicity since you
left out many functionalities, but will profoundly annoy other users since they won't have all
those functionalities at hand.

The post that started this thread showed a video where it simulated the user's hands as
translucent, in real scenario, those hands are opaque, now try to imagine those shadowed hands as
pure black and realise all the information that you are missing behind your hands. This is the
real problem to rightly hit a control on screen, because when you touch the screen, you lost the
target, when you approach the finger to the control, it gets obscured for your finger, gosh, after
6 years of experience designing touch screen kiosks I perfectly know that this devices will never
take over that simple but quit effective and usable device, the mouse, and I am sure that those
touch screen will never get cheaper than a mouse.

Of course touch screens have some future but you won't use it at home, as I said, it's for the
casual user in a museum, a cash dispenser machine, etc. A good use of touch screen systems is to
give an attractive look to customers, to create a feeling of high technology so your customers
will get amused, nothing to be with the use of the application running on it.

The second post on this thread mention that amazing video of that guy using a multiple-touch
screen, and that was already discussed on here
http://listserver.dreamhost.com/pipermail/discuss-interactiondesigners.com/2006-October/012263.html

...and as someone mentioned, touch screen are not interface free, we'll never be free of an
interface when it comes to communication between human and computers.

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