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4 Tips for Designing the Most Effective Touchscreen Interface4 Tips for Designing the Most Effective Touchscreen Interface
If you’re thinking about implementing a touchscreen into your next product, you don't want to forget these guidelines.
January 26, 2016
4 Min Read
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Touchscreens have become de facto input devices because they are intuitive and easy to use. More and more new products are incorporating touchscreens to further enhance the user experience. But to make a touchscreen implementation truly successful, important considerations need to be taken during the design of the user interface. If you’re thinking about implementing a touchscreen into your next product, the following guidelines will help improve overall performance.
1.) Know What to Expect
First, consider the following table of points before specifying a touchscreen into your product in order to make sure that touchscreen technology is the right fit for your application.
If any of the aforementioned limitations could cause significant problems for your users, consider countermeasures or alternative methods upfront in design development.
[Learn more design trends and the latest developments at Pacific Design & Manufacturing, Feb. 9-11, at the Anaheim Convention Center.]
2.) Optimize All Trigger Elements
Design all trigger or activation elements (buttons, arrows, checkboxes, sliders, etc) to optimize usability.
Size: For reliable activation size all trigger elements with large fingers in mind. Make sure that these elements are big enough to easily touch (but not so big that they get pressed accidently). To further reduce touch errors, the minimum height and width of each activation area should be equal to the measurement of the average fingertip size, which is 8 to 10 mm (0.3 to 0.4 in.).
Spacing: Space elements far enough apart to avoid them accidentally being pressed. There should be at least 1 to 2 mm (0.04 to 0.08 in.) of space between each element.
Make critical elements larger: Errors tend to increase as touch areas get smaller, so don't use undersized buttons for important trigger elements. Whenever possible, enlarge these buttons and try to make them much bigger than other nearby elements. In general, when designing trigger elements, “bigger is better” for both sizing and spacing.
3.) Optimize Layouts
Layouts of information and elements should minimize distraction.
Keep it simple: Keep messaging clear, concise, and simple, and only elaborate when absolutely necessary. Also, before adding any new items, ask the question, “Does the user really need to see this?” Think like a minimalist and only show those items that are needed for each task.
Be intuitive and consistent: Your users are probably well acquainted with many other interfaces that they frequently use. Help users feel more comfortable by creating layouts that are similar to the interfaces with which they are already familiar. Be consistent and use the exact same language, layout, and labeling terms throughout all menu options.
Remember that hands get in the way: Hands can cover important information when pressing trigger elements. Best practice is to position the labeling information on or above these elements (and not underneath them) so that information doesn’t get covered by the hands. Also, since most users are right-handed, consider placing information on the left side (so users can still read it while touching the buttons).
Positioning text on or above touchscreen buttons helps prevent information from being covered up by the hand when pressed. (Source: Digitalart at FreeDigitalPhotos.net)
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