Designing for Touch & Gesture: Tips for Apps and the Web (Updated)

In the past, our fingers did the walking, sifting through files, papers, pamphlets, and phonebooks, and then by point-click-clicking with a mouse to interact with images and text, in essence, electronic imitations of the paper-based world. Traditional forms, brochures, ad inserts, and posters informed much of the design. 

How much have things change?   It is 2013, but you'd think it was 1997 from the PowerPoint look and feel of many apps and web sites!   Touch is everywhere, but from what I can tell, not enough designers and developers have stepped up to the plate to think more deeply about ways their applications can support human endeavors though touch and gesture interactions.  

For an overview of this topic, take a look at my 2011 post, written after a number of ugly encounters with user-unfriendly applications:  Why bother switching from GUI to NUI?  

For an in-depth look into the history of multi-touch, the wisdom of Bill Buxton is well-worth absorbing.  He's worked with all sorts of interfaces, and has been curating the history of multi-touch and gesture systems since 2007:


Multi-Touch Systems that I have Known and Loved
Bill Buxton, Microsoft Research, Updated 8/30/12



Even if you are not a designer or developer, I encourage you to explore some of the links below:

Touch Gestures for Application Design
Luke Wroblewski, 10/9/12

Common Misconceptions About Touch
Steven Hoober, 3/18/13

Designing With Tablets in Mind:  Six Tips to Remember
Connor Turnbull, Webdesign tuts+, 9/27/11

Finger-Friendly Design: IDeal Mobile Touchscreen Target Sizes
Anthony T, Smashing Magazine, 2/21/12

Best Practices: Designing Touch Tablet Experiences for Preschoolers (pdf)
Sesame Street Workshop


Are Touch Screens Accessible?
AcessIT, National center on Accessible Information Technology in Education

iOS Human Interface Guidelines
Apple

Android User Interface Guidelines
Using Touch Gestures
Handling Multi-Touch Gestures
Android

Designing for Tablets?  We're Here to Help!
Roman Nurik, Android Developers Blog 11/26/12

Touch interaction design (Windows Store apps)
Microsoft - MSDN

Multi-Touch Systems that I have Known and Loved
Bill Buxton, Microsoft Research, Updated 8/30/12

Thinking about a Kurio 7 Tablet for your kid? Here is a start!

I haven't had a chance to play with the Kurio, a 7 inch Android tablet designed for children and their families, so I haven't formulated an opinion about the device, or the applications that it runs.  I thought I'd share the promotional video and related information/links:


Kurio Tablet from CIDE on Vimeo.

Parents can view a number of "how-to" videos to get the tablet up and running. Developers can apply to be part of the Kurio store. From what I can see, the Kurio is in need of some creative, child-friendly apps.

Below is a hands-on demo:




RELATED
Kurio at Toys'R'Us
Toon Goggles Partners with Techno Source on New Kurio7 Android Tablet for Families
PR Web 7/9/12
Kurio's Features

Toys 'R' Us has its own tablet, the Tabeo:

Mobile Design Best Practices: Joshua Mauldin's UX Charlotte Talk - photos, sketchnote, and slides

Joshua Mauldin, founder of Invisible Interface & Awesome Gifs, and app creator/manager for The Business Journals, gave a talk about best practices in touchable mobile design at a recent Charlotte User Experience meet-up. I especially liked his use of clips from Arrested Development to remind us of the wide range of emotional responses people get when they use technology, good or bad.  (Take a moment and look over the slides for the meat of Joshua's talk.)

(Photo by Brad E.)

Slide-share of Joshua Mauldin's Mobile Design Best Practices talk:

Mobile design best practices from Joshua Mauldin

Below is sketchnote of the talk, drawn by hand by Antoine RJ Wright, using Adobe Ideas on his iPad:







(Photo by Bermon Painter)

The event was hosted by MyJive, located at the NC Music Factory. I was fortunate to grab a comfy spot to sit - there were about 85 in attendance.At the end of the meetup, I won a ticket to Web Afternoon!

Summer Blogging Plans - Lots of interesting updates -Sony's Tablet video(s), more to come...

I've been wrapping up the loose ends of the last few weeks of what turned out to be quite a busy school year,  so I haven't posted in about 10 days!    I have lots to cover, including interesting updates about a variety of tech companies I follow.


Today, I'm sharing a video from Sony that highlights the features of the company's iPad-like tablet in a creative way:


The video is the first of a 5-part campaign to promote the S1 and S2 Android tablets  For more information:


Sony Teases New Tablets With a Mysterious Video
Stan Schroeder, Mashable 6/17/11
Sony Launching 2 New Tablets, Both Run Android Honeycomb
Jolie O'Dell, Mashable, 4/26/11


Here's a previous teaser:

"Here's a preview of our two tablets - codename S1 and S2.With the S1 designed for comfort and S2 built for safe portability Sony enters the Tablet arena with two very distinct offerings."-Sony

Note: If you are a new visitor,  I work as a school psychologist in my "day job",  which can spill over to evenings and weekends at times...  I returned to school to take computer and technology courses back in the  '00s,  and started to blogging because it was a requirement for one of my courses.


I never stopped.  


My blogs still serve me well as on-line filing cabinets, since I have a fairly wide range of interests and I like to drill down deeper into topics that strike my fancy.  I'm curious that way.  Because of my interest in interactive multimedia technology,  most of my posts include video clips, photos, and links to interesting websites.    

End of GOOG-411, Google's "phoneme harvesting operation" - via Pogue's Posts

Here's a quick link to a recent "Pogue's Post":


Farewell, GOOG-411
NYT 10/14/10


Google:  In Service of Data


"On Nov. 12, Google will turn of 800-GOOG-411 forever...It was one of the best, juiciest, most useful services in all phonedom...In case you missed it, GOOG-411 is a free, voice-activated directory assistance service..."


Pogue goes on to quote Google's Marissa Mayer, from a 2007 InfoWorld presentation:
"If you want us to build a really robust speech model, we need a lot of phonemes, which is a syllable as spoken by a particular voice with a particular intonation.  So we need a lot of people talking, saying things so we can ultimately train off of that.  So 1-800-GOOG-411 is about that:  Getting a bunch of different speech samples."




RELATED
Comments to Pogue's Post, Farewell, GOOG-411


Schalkwyk, J., Beeferman, D. Beaufays, F., Byrne B., Chelba, C., Cohen, M., Garret, M., Strope, B. (Google, Inc.)  Google Search by Voice: A case study (pdf)




Google Shuts Down GOOG-411
Google Operating System Blog


SOMEWHAT RELATED
Android phones are secretly collecting private user data
Andrew Wozny, Canada Social Media Examiner


Some Android apps caught covertly sending GPS data to advertisers
Ryan Paul, Ars Technica


Best Practices for Handling Android User Data
Nick Kralevich, Tim Bray, Android Developers 8/4/10 


Why Google keeps your data forever, tracks you with ads
Nate Anderson, Ars Technica


Google's Eric Schmidt: You can trust us with your data
Shane Richman, Telegraph UK 7/10/10

Samsung Galaxy Tab: Video!

The video pretty much explains it all:



Tans to solydzajs for the link!

Additional information about Samsung can be found on my previous post:

Samsung's Android-based 7-inch Galaxy Tab

Educators & Parents, also see:
EduTech: ClassDroid, Collaborative PrimaryPad, Android Apps - Lots of Possibilities!

Link: Samsung's Android-based 7-inch Galaxy Tab

I think that Galaxy Tab would be great in educational and healthcare settings!

Do More on the Go with the GALAXY Tab™
According to the Samsung website, the 7-inch Galaxy tablet will be available through AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint, and Verizon.  It has a a front facing camera and a rear facing camera, which can be edited within the system.  It supports Adobe Flash Player 10.1, a variety of HD video content formats, and apps from the Android Market.  It accepts a variety of input interactions, including SWYPE.

Here is some information from the website:

"With 3G connectivity, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth® 3.0, the Samsung GALAXY Tab takes mobile communication to a whole new level. By combining Samsung innovation with the Android OS 2.2, the Tab is truly an always on communication and entertainment tool. Its large battery (4,000 mAh) provides more than 7 hours of movie viewing time and because it’s powered by a Cortex A8 1.0GHz application processor, it’s designed to deliver high performance."

Cisco's Cius, An Ultra-Portable, Android-based Mobile Collaboration Business Tablet: Supports Real-time, HD Videoconferencing, and the "Cloud"

Here is a link to the post on The World Is My Interactive Interface blog - the post includes video clips and links to additional information from Cisco:

Cisco's Cius and Ultra-portable, Android-based Mobile Collaboration Business Tablet:  Supports Real-time HD Videoconferencing and the "Cloud"

The following pictures were taking from Jason Hiner's blog at Tech Republic:

Apparently the Cius has a docking station.


A nice, Facebook-like interface is OK with me.

I wonder if it comes with a make-up kit.  Everyone should look presentable viewed in "HD TV".

Android Tablet Prototype Runs Flash (Video and quick links)

It is interesting to watch how this unfolds:

Part I

Part II


The above videos can be found on ZedoMAX's YouTube channel.
(Thanks to Justin Ireland for the link.)

RELATED
More videos about Adobe products and new forms of tablets can be found on TheFlashBlog. (Thanks to Christian Moore for the link.)

YouTube HTML 5 Video Player Info
Google Chrome 5 Beta: The Top Five Features 
Ian Paul, PC World Blog, 5/5/10
"HTML 5, the new programming standard for Web pages, may not be officially ready yet, but that hasn't stopped Google from implementing some of its new and exciting features. Google Chrome 5 beta introduces file drag-and-drop capabilities, Geolocation (such as Google's MyLocation feature), and offline application caching (Google Gears replacement ). The new version of Chrome beta also offers Web sockets, which make it easier and faster for Web-based applications to communicate with their host servers." -Ian Paul

Update on Interactive Mobile Phones: Sony Ericsson's Android Rachael; HTC Hero

Both Sony Ericsson and HTC have built upon Google's Android build to create new "user experiences" for mobile phones.



Sony Ericsson Rachael UI Video:


Related:
"Sony Ericsson "Rachael" Android XPERIA handset unveiled?"
(Paul Miller, engadget, 7/4/09)
Sony Ericsson's Android Rachael UI Makes Me Want to Ditch My iPhone
(Jesus Diaz, Gizmodo, 7/8/09)


"Make it Mine, Stay Close, Discover the Unexpected!" Personalization with HTC Hero Touch-enabled Smart Phone"



HTC recently launched the HTC Hero. I haven't had a chance to touch one, but it looks interesting enough to make a trip to my local mobile phone service provider and see how it works.

"HTC Hero launch event video featuring HTC Sense™ - an intuitive, seamless experience built upon three fundamental principles - make it mine, stay close, and discover the unexpected." -HTC

The two video clips below explain the rationale behind the HTC Hero and why the company thinks it is an important innovation:

PART I



PART II


A few quotes from the video:

"It begins with listening and observing people as they use their phone..."

"...there has been a fundamental shift in people's phone expectations..."

"People want to stay close with the important people in their lives, and have online information...Voice is key, but no longer enough...The SmartPhone is the New Phone, people no longer expect their Internet to be at their desks anymore. They expect it everywhere they are. The Internet is becoming the fundamental of the mobile phone. Access to web browsing, streaming media, and connected applications has taken off, and this is where Smartphone really excels. People really appreciate the experience..."

HTC Hero UI Video


Related:
HTC Debuts Hero, With Fresh Face for Android
(John Herman, Gizmodo, 6/24/09)
Google Android Info
"Android is a software stack for mobile devices that includes an operating system, middleware and key applications. The Android SDK provides the tools and APIs necessary to begin developing applications that run on Android-powered devices."

Cross-posted on the Technology Supported Human-World Interaction blog.