Design expert: Pay attention to the
new rules of designing for touchscreens
By Todd R. Weiss
PHILADELPHIA - As software developers
design how the next generations of apps will look and work, they need
to transform their ideas about how to best put useful content on the
shrinking device screens being used by consumers.
That's because tablet computers,
smartphones and other handheld mobile devices dramatically change how
consumers can view content on screens that are much smaller than
traditional desktop displays. Those differences call for a move away
from traditional desktop on-screen buttons that simply don't work
well on smaller screens.
What's needed instead, says Josh
Clark, an iPhone app consultant and founder of app design firm Global
Moxie, is for app designers to carefully focus on the content
itself so they can visualize and truly find the most relevant ways to
display it.
In a thought-provoking presentation
here today at the 6th annual Emerging
Technologies for the Enterprise Conference
(ETE), Clark described why "Buttons Are A Hack: The New Rules of
Designing for Touch."
"When you remove the mouse and
keyboard … all that remains is you and the device," he said.
That approach gets to the core of the connections between users and
their touchscreen devices because they must use the tactile emotions
of touch to find what they are seeking. The problem, though, is that
not all touchscreen apps today allow users to truly explore touch
natively, he said.
One example of this, according to
Clark, is the ABC News app for
the iPad, which features an Earth globe that can be "spun"
with a fingertip to move from story to story for viewing. The problem
is it's built for show and doesn't make it easy for users to find the
content they are seeking, he said, partly because it only displays
two stories at a time in the main screen and there's no usable index.
"It's actively upstaging the
content," Clark said. "Whiz-bang graphics don't help us
find information. More attention is given to the contraption than to
the content."
A better, more intuitive and cleaner
approach comes from The
New York Times Editor's Choice app for the iPhone, which favors
function over form. Instead of trying a flashy, tech interface, the
app displays New York Times content in a form that appears like a
newspaper page. Critics, of course, panned the interface as boring
and traditional, Clark said, but experiments by other designers found
that too much change can also be a turn-off for consumers.
Because the New York Times' online
brand has been around now for more than 15 years, it's instantly
recognizable as a brand to online readers, Clark said. And rather
than rework it with an entirely new look and feel, research found
that that connection is a boon because it keeps the Times familiar
and comfortable for readers.
The lesson learned?
"Don't underestimate the power of
hum-drum as you go out and design interfaces," Clark said. "Old
ideas are not necessarily old-fashioned."
Another key for app design is to match
the touchscreen capabilities to the content you are producing, he
said. If the app is for displaying the content of a print magazine,
then keep the tactile feel of the paper magazine in mind –
visualize how the pages turn and feel so you can keep your users
"connected" to the physical magazine as they explore its
online content. Automated "page flips" can be a good
feature to use, as they allow the user to "see" the pages
turning as they read the content, but make the pages turn quickly so
you don't lose readers, he said.
"Page flips are window dressing
for sure, but they reinforce that you are reading a newspaper or
magazine or book," which provides context, connection and
familiarity, Clark said. "And familiarity and intimacy invite
touch. If you're going to make it look like a book [or magazine] then
you have to make it act like one."
That's not always done in app designs,
and it needs to happen more, he said.
Even Apple's own calendar app for the
iPhone isn't intuitive enough due to its design, according to Clark.
Where a user should be able to "swipe" a finger across the
calendar screen to turn a page, it's not possible. Instead, they have
to click an arrow to move a page ahead or backward.
That's just not right with
touchscreens, he said, because they invite intuitive actions such as
touching, tapping, swiping – at the expense of those outmoded
buttons. "You see this [disconnect] all over the place" in
recent app designs, he said.
"Just enough is more," Clark
said, accentuating the idea that design just for the sake of design
is not enough. The content delivery of today's apps need to focus on
the users and how they want to access information through
their fingertips and touch.
"Watch a toddler use an iPad,"
he said. "They just use it. So design for humans. Design for
direct interaction. Design for toddlers. Think about how kids would
use the app."
All of this is still evolving, Clark
said, as touchscreen app development remains in its infancy today.
"We're only a year into mainstream tablet app design. Don't
assume that anyone else has it nailed yet, especially the big guys."
That means it's great to watch what
other app developers are doing, but don't immediately jump in to
follow them – they could have gotten it all wrong.
"It's very early and it's
dangerous to lock in on half-baked convention" just because you
see others doing certain things so far, he said."Understand that
you won't get it right the first time and don't give up."
Todd R. Weiss is a longtime
technology journalist who worked as a staff writer for
Computerworld.com from 2000 to 2008. Now a freelance tech journalist,
Weiss contributes regularly to Computerworld, PCWorld.com and other
publications. He has also written extensively for Linux.com,
ForecastingClouds.com and TechTarget on a wide range of enterprise IT
topics from Linux and open source to disaster recovery, cloud
computing, virtualization, application development, IT education and
mobile and wireless technologies. He began writing about computers in
1996 after a newspaper editor he worked for told him that "no
one cares about technology." Apparently, the editor was wrong.
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