Touch Me Not
March24
With the success of the iPhone, touch-screen phones have flooded display shelves, and the number of people with these devices are growing. As companies incorporate touch screens in their handsets, they have done so with varying degrees of success.
If you plan to buy one of these gadgets, an important thing to consider is how well you can use them. Does Phone A provide you with a great user experience? Does Phone B frustrate you because its almost impossible to type on its virtual keyboard?
The MOTO research group examined the performance of leading touch-screen smartphones. The goal was to visually measure the effectiveness of touch-screens from various handsets. What they found may actually surprise you.
MOTO initially had a person going through each phone and running tests with fingers pressing at varying pressure points. But their initial experiment was deemed “scientifically flawed” because it wasn’t precise enough. Surprisingly, the group responded by performing a second test, this time creating a mechanized hand (a robot) to simulate user touches (see image).
No matter how much “power” or “features” a phone claims to have, it is very critical to provide an excellent user experience. For touch screens, this means being able to respond to finger taps and touches with high sensitivity, all the time. This is a great formula for happy users.