Tactile feedback on touchscreens: Is it worth it? 12 Aug 2008

Over at 90 Percent of Everything, Harry Brignull has written a great post on the benefits (or lack thereof) of providing tactile feedback on touchscreen devices. He concludes that while it's a wonderful idea in theory - after all, tactile feedback is the main reason why typing on a physical keyboard is much easier than typing on a virtual one - in practice, it is almost always poorly implemented.

It seems that the current range of tactile devices only provide feedback after users press the screen. However, on a physical keyboard, not only do users get feedback after they press, they also get it beforehand. And it is often this "beforehand feedback" that is most important, since the peaks (i.e. the keys) and the troughs (i.e. the spaces between keys) in the tactile landscape afforded by the keyboard help users place their fingertips directly over the keys they want to press - and thereby prevent their fingers from straddling two or more keys at the same time and thus fat-fingering them when time comes to press 'em.

Given the sad state-of-affairs that exists at present, Harry recommends that touchscreen manufacturers concentrate on honing the primary features of their devices instead, "adding enhancements that offer deep, lasting value rather than just an additional bullet point on the promotional materials." On the whole, we agree with this sentiment - if manufacturers are only going to provide tactile feedback as a gimmick, then they shouldn't bother. However, providing real physical-keyboard-like tactile feedback is a noble pursuit - and if it could be implemented well, might open up touchscreen devices to a range of new markets including people with visual impairments (who, to date, have been excluded from the excitement generated by devices like the iPhone). It will be interesting to see how the manufacturers respond...