Re: [Usability] Touchscreen and gestures

["Jan-Christoph Borchardt" <JanCBorchardt fsfe org>]

Hello Heiko,

On Fri, April 29, 2011 19:18, Heiko Tietze wrote:
> I disagree with the idea of coevolution. If touch input is captured
> reliable (which I doubt) it still lacks of precision.

Yes it does, but most can be alleviated by making elements (or rather
areas of sensitivity) bigger or use established gestures. I’m not an
expert at touch interfaces but here’s my take:


> For instance, I cannot imagine how to resize a window

Either increase the sensitivity area of borders or, what I’d say is
better, use the second index finger to resize when the first one is
holding the title bar. Can be done while / after moving.


> or how to place a cursor on a certain position, not to mention tooltips

Both concerned with the problem that there is no hover state for touch
interfaces. I haven’t thought about that yet. How do mobile / tablet
operating systems handle tooltips?


> drag 'n drop

Just like on Android and iOS by long-press and moving it.


> Additionally, more clicks are needed to start a program without
> menus (as with the new Shell concept or Unity).

How that? The start menu had submenus and both the Gnome and Unity menu
reveal big icons after one click.


As I see it, in general desktop operating systems can benefit from the
simplicity and single-tasking needed for mobile and tablet operating
systems. I said it to Jakub before, it seems to me that Gnome 3 took a lot
of design cues from WebOS – and that’s a good thing.


> As far as I see, conventional
> operations are "translated" into a new world currently. Functions get a
> gestural analogy and some design adoptions.
> I'd like to suggest a split. On a desktop PC with keyboard and mouse we
> have
> sophisticated procedures that should be kept. On a device without these
> inputs
> functionality should be changed completely. I don't have a final solution
> yet,
> unfortunately, but there seems to be much potential. A window could be
> always
> maximized and any subwindow or frame has to be applied as overlay, drag 'n
> drop could be replaced partially by "select and point" (as example for the
> easy part). My idea is not to have up to 40 gestures (like Microsoft) but
> to
> reduce functionality. Or do I worry too much?
>
> Kind regards,
> Heiko.