We look at Microsoft's hyped touch facility in the OS
Touchscreens have certainly become more common over the past few years and now Microsoft will be joining the flock, as Windows 7 features touch capabilities. However, we've got some key concerns about the capability and its usefulness.
Issue 2: PC UIs aren't finger-friendly
In using a Dell Studio One desktop and an HP TouchSmart desktop - whose touchscreens based on NextWindows' technology are quite responsive - I found another limitation to the adoption of touch technology in its current guide. The Windows UI really isn't touch-friendly. A finger is a lot bigger than a mouse or pen, so it's not as adept at making fine movements.
Also, on a touchscreen, your hand and arm obscure your view of where your fingertip actually is, making it hard to actually touch the intended radio button, close box, slider, or what-have-you. It doesn't help that these elements are often small. And there's no tactile feel to substitute for the lost visual feedback.
But the issues of using touch gestures go beyond the visibility and size of UI controls. The ways the controls work is often not finger-friendly. Take as an example Windows 7's wireless LAN setup.
It has some big buttons to select a desired network, so it's natural to just press the desired one. And sometimes that works, but often these visual buttons are really the equivalent of radio buttons - item selectors - and you then have to tap the Next button. That's not the kind of direct stimulation that touch assumes.
When you work with something on your hands, the manipulation is direct. But most apps are designed for interaction with keyboards and mice, and aren't so direct (to prevent accidental selections and the like, since it's really easy to move a mouse unintentionally).
The result is that using touch is often an awkward process. Unlike an iPhone's apps, Windows or Mac OS X apps weren't designed for touch, and neither the OSes nor the apps are intended to adjust themselves for this input method.
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NEXT PAGE: Gesture-based computing needs a better surface
Comments
Our David said: Finger-marks are not only greasy - attracting dust but are also slightly acidic and if left will cause some degree of degradation of the screen surface Time to buy shares in surgical gloves
bob said: Have to say I agree with the touching aspect of this greasy fingermarks nothing worse especially if like me you use applications like photoshop and you need to zoom in to do a repair and then realise that you need to scrub the screen just to be able to see what it is you want to do
jtt said: My screen has lots of finger-marks on it and its not a touch screen I never notice them except when someone points them out to and even then they dont bother me I probably clean the screen every one or two years Objecting to finger marks sounds a bit obsessive to me
David Staples said: Good point Skeletal My laptop screen is nice and pristine at the moment Id hate to see my greasy fingermarks all over it day in day out
Skeletal said: One thing I rarely see mentioned with regard to touch screens finger marks I HATE anyone touching my laptop screen as I have to spend hours removing the mark Thus in addition to the excellent points raised in the article how do you operate a touch screen without touching it