> Gestural interfaces aren't so great for: > - heavy data input > While true for text entry for those accustomed to physical keyboards per se, this may be a tad shortsighted in general.
Touchscreens (or any other design component, for that matter) don't live in a vacuum. It's better to refer to touchscreen X on device Y. Not all touchscreens are equal: those with low latency, better tactile feeling, connected to more capable software, appropriately scaled to usage, etc are better than those that are not. Also data is not the same as text. There are lots of things that a touch screen may facilitate that would require excessive, repetitive text entry. For example, you can try to enter various IDs and passwords for authentication on a physical keyboard or simply press a finger or draw a gesture on a touchscreen. You can more directly see and manipulate large datasets visually and drill down much more fluidly via touchscreen gestures than text entry. You can better interact with visualizations, audio, photos, videos, maps, etc via touchscreen than text entry. Indeed, there may come all manner of location-specific or medical devices yet unforseen but much more capable than we can imagine now that have the added benefit of bypassing a lot of data input via text because they are more connected and smarter about the environment they operate in. Just as the best code is the one you don't have to write, it may be that the best data input is the one that you didn't have to text in. -- Kontra http://counternotions.com ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
