Archive for May, 2010

Joe Pemberton

Know your touchscreen

Not all capacitive touch screens are equal. The impact of less accurate input may demand bigger hit targets and more space between onscreen keys/buttons. We’ve noted in the past the difficulty of UI elements that butt the edges of screens, it’s interesting to see that represented in this simple test.

The test below was put together by MOTO, a San Francisco based mobile development group. It’s a very simple, but highly illustrative test to check the accuracy of capacitive touchscreens. Could be a useful method before delving into that upcoming touchscreen interface.

And lest you think Apple has the corner on touchscreen accuracy, it’s interesting to note the differences in accuracy are a function of the materials and sensors (OEM hardware), not the OS/platform itself.

For other touch UI considerations read and watch Punchcut’s touch UI design considerations.