Future of touchscreens

When Apple brought the iPad to the market the people around me made jokes like “iPhone – iPad - iBoard - iMat ...”. But what is really the future of touch screens? Will they become larger or smaller?

I visited the “Mensch und Computer 2009” conference last year in Berlin and one of the keynotes was about hardware design. The person who presented the keynote was Dr Patrick Baudisch. He worked as a research scientist in the Adaptive System and Interaction Research Group at Microsoft Research and at Xeroc PARC. Now he works as a Professor in Computer Science at Hasso Plattner Institute in Berlin/Potsdam. During his presentation he showed us the nanotouch. The nanotouch is a device which has the same size as the iPod nano and it looks like one. The main difference to current touch screens devices is that the touch screen is on the back side of the device. The following picture (see Herschelmann 2010) shows Dr Patrick Baudisch with the nanotouch:

The main problem with current touch screens is the problem of the “fat finger”. Fingers are not really good for interaction, because the finger pressure is soft and it is necessary to offer big buttons for the interaction. This problem called Baudisch (see 2009) “fat finger”:

Another problem with current touch screens is that the hand covers the half of the screen especially during interaction with a smartphone device. This fact combined with the  “fat finger” problem might mean that the products are limited by the size of  hands and the fingers. However the interaction for the nanotouch is on the back. So no hand can cover the screen. But the  “fat finger” issue does not disappear simply by suggesting a interaction through the back side of a device. For this problem Baudisch (see 2009) presented the idea of a pointer:

As you can see in the pictures above when you move your finger a pointer follows this movement. However, this does not affect touch and drag actions. With two buttons on the side, actions like left and right computer mouse clicks are possible. The following picture shows the buttons on the side of the nanotouch (see Baudisch 2009):

This lead to the conclusion that the size of one’s hands or fingers is not an actual limitation. That limitation is the ability to see. This means a mobile touchscreen device can be the size of a necklace pendant. See following picture (see Baudisch 2009):

Baudisch, P., 2009. How to crate very small touch devices?. Patrick Baudisch (online). Available at: http://www.patrickbaudisch.com/publications/index.html [Accessed 26 October 2010].

Herschelmann, K., 2010: Nanotouch, Prof. Dr. Patrick Baudisch. Hasso Plattner Institut (online). Available at: http://www.hpi.uni-potsdam.de/presse/download.html  [Accessed 26 October 2010]. 

Intro

Intro

Whether it’s on billboards or TV, in newspapers or magazines, you can see commercials and spots for the iPhone and iPad everywhere.

“What is it with these devices?” I surfed the World Wide Web to find the following user opinions:

iPhone

“After having my iPhone for a little over two weeks it is clear that it is the best gadget that I ever owned. I am not a gadget guy, but I certainly appreciate elegant design and useful tools.”  Alex (Iskold 2007)

“But now, the 4 is a whole new beast, and I love it accordingly. But why? FaceTime? Retina Display? Multitasking? HD Video Recording and Editing? 5-Megapixel Camera with LED Flash? ... I love my iPhone 4 so much that my iPad is getting jealous.”Xavier (Verhoeven 2010)

“This is so clearly the case with the iPhone, ... I have Wifi everywhere I go and the speed is exceptional there.” Brendan (McLoughlin 2007)

„I love my iPhone, it’s awesome. I use it more than any phone I’ve ever had. In fact I almost use it more than I use my computer nowadays. And one of the main places that I do this is in bed.” Ollie (Campbell 2009)

These are just some user opinions about the iPhone which I think clearly demonstrate why the iPhone is so popular. To begin with, the functions Xavier enumerated are very attractive to users. Moreover, the advantage of internet access at any time, in any place through an easy to use interface and a pocket size gadget is bound to grab people’s attention. The fact that the iPhone is ultra-portable and accommodates so many needs or environments is very important for me, because this means that people use them in different contexts. And it is really necessary to consider these user situations, when you design an application.

Of course, the iPhone is not the only smartphone, but it is the most popular one. In the following image you can see that the iPhone 4 and iPhone 3gs are on rank 1 and 3 (see Top Ten Reviews 2010):

iPad:

Oringinally, Apple created the iPad for the E-Book market. Apple wanted to develop a competitive product to the Amazon E-Reader named “Kindle”. But the iPad emerged as a tablet computer, allowing users to also use email, browse the internet, watch films, play games. The iPad lifestyle accessory is similar to the iPhone and it provides users with a good design. According to Apple this product was designed to revolutionize entertainment and news. However, the iPad has not achieved the major target of being an E-Reader for newspapers, because such publications do not support the iPad. It’s understandable as they are fear that supporting the iPad means a drop in the sales of paper publications which would lead to Apple controlling newspapers the same as Apple controls the branch of music with the iTunes product (see Moll 2010).

In conclusion I think Apple is not as successful with the iPad as with the iPhone. This point is also supported by the fact that the iPad is ranked 6 under the tablet computers (see Epinions 2010).

Campbell, O., 2009. Using my iPhone in bed. dtdigital (online). Available at:http://dtdigital.tumblr.com/post/183201880/using-my-iphone-in-bed [Accessed 20 October 2010]. Epinions, 2010. Top 10 Tablet PCs (online). Available at:http://www.epinions.com/Tablet_PCs/show_~top_sellers [Accessed 23 October 2010]. Iskold, A., 2007. The Top 10 Things I Love About My iPhone. ReadWriteWeb (online). Available at:http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/the_top_10_things_i_love_about_my_iphone.php [Accessed 20 October 2010]. McLoughlin, B., 2007: I love my iPhone. Brendan’s blog (online). Available at:http://brenmcl.blogspot.com/2007/11/i-love-my-iphone.html [Accessed 20 October 2010]. Moll, S., 2010. Der Herr der Maschine. TAZ (online). Available at:http://www.taz.de/1/netz/computer/artikel/1/der-herr-der-maschine/ [Accessed 23 October 2010]. Top Ten Reviews, 2010. 2011 Compare Best SmartPhones (online).  http://cell-phones.toptenreviews.com/smartphones/ [Accessed 17 October 2010]. Verhoeven, X., 2010: Why I love my iPhone 4. Macworld (online). Available at:http://www.macworld.com.au/blogs/why-i-love-my-iphone-4-14474/ [Accessed 20 October 2010].



Timetable

Postgraduate Certificate 04/10/10 - 17/12/10

Postgraduate Diploma 04/01/10 - 08/04/11

Master of Arts 11/04/11 - 29/07/11

Description of my project

Investigation of interaction with small and large touch screens using examples of the iPhone, the iPad and similar devices/ platforms. Deduction of the differences in guidelines and using these results build an in exemplary App for the iPhone and iPad.

Research questions:

How to design for large and small touch screens?

• Is the interaction of small and large touch screens different?
• Which facts can influence different interaction design for small and large touch screens?
• What is an interface with a high quality aesthetic?
• What is an interface with good information design?

Learning outcomes:

• Learning goal 1: Descriptions of the interaction solutions for small and large touch screens in form of guidelines for both devices.
• Learning goal 2: I want to create high quality aesthetic interface for the iPhone and iPad.
• Learning goal 3: I want to create a software application with good information design. 
• Learning goal 4: I want to develop high-fidelity-prototypes for the iPhone and the iPad. 

About me

I grew up in Hamburg and studied Information Economics in Stuttgart. After my studies I started to work for an Internet company in Berlin as a usability expert. During these three years, I developed interaction designs and I like to creating them. It was great to design interfaces for tools that help people do different activities, for example bank transfers, shopping and internet searches. This is my main focus. I want to design great software tools and solutions for real problems. At first glance, it sounds very easy, but it is a hard job to find out the main needs of people and to create software which is easy to use. Because of my job as a usability expert, I am able to use methods to find out the needs and the wishes of the users. I really like to do this and it will be still a part of my job. Only to analyse the problems of the users don’t fill me. After using the usability methods I know the needs and problems of the users and I also know the functions to solve their problems. However I had to give my work to the interaction designer and he created the concepts. This situation frustrated me and gave me the feeling that I didn’t finish my job. I hope that I won’t get this feeling in the future, because I will have the education of an interaction designer and after the phase of analysing the user problems I can create the concept of the interface on my own. This is why I chose to come to Nottingham to study interaction design. My major interest in the area of interaction design is interface design.
- Monika Denk (MA Interaction Design - Nottingham Trent University)