Touch interfaces vs traditional mouse and keyboard input
Creating intuitive natural interfaces
June 24, 2020 - Willem L. Middelkoop
Past weeks I have been working on a new app involving personal health. The main challenge is to come up with an intuitive, natural interface that works well on small touch screen devices. But what is it that makes an touch screen interface any good? Read along for some best practices.
Continue reading![Recreating old UI patterns on a modern touch screen device is not going to win you any usability awards... (although, who doesn't miss Clippy?)](/blog/2020-06-24_some-thoughts-on-touch-screen-user-interface-design/images/i_00_Recreating-old-UI-patterns-on-a-modern-touch-screen-device-is-not-going-to-win-you-any-usability-awa_500px.jpg)
![Directly manipulating the on screen elements feels natural - a mouse in this use case would be redundant](/blog/2020-06-24_some-thoughts-on-touch-screen-user-interface-design/images/i_01_Directly-manipulating-the-on-screen-elements-feels-natural-a-mouse-in-this-use-case-would-be-redunda_500px.jpg)
![Navigation structures that rely on hovering are NOT going to work on touch screens](/blog/2020-06-24_some-thoughts-on-touch-screen-user-interface-design/images/i_05_Navigation-structures-that-rely-on-hovering-are-NOT-going-to-work-on-touch-screens_500px.jpg)
![Catapulting birds is fun because of the natural interaction that is key to the Angry Birds game](/blog/2020-06-24_some-thoughts-on-touch-screen-user-interface-design/images/i_07_Catapulting-birds-is-fun-because-of-the-natural-interaction-that-is-key-to-the-Angry-Birds-game_500px.jpg)
![The big 'yes/no' buttons reduce the likelihood of error as they do not require mouse pointer pixel precision](/blog/2020-06-24_some-thoughts-on-touch-screen-user-interface-design/images/i_02_The-big-yes-no-buttons-reduce-the-likelihood-of-error-as-they-do-not-require-mouse-pointer-pixel-pre_500px.jpg)
![Contextual keyboards provide a better way to enable textual input. It makes no sense to show a full QWERTY-keyboard if you only ask for a numeric value.](/blog/2020-06-24_some-thoughts-on-touch-screen-user-interface-design/images/i_03_Contextual-keyboards-provide-a-better-way-to-enable-textual-input-It-makes-no-sense-to-show-a-full-Q_500px.jpg)