UX Touch

Gestures on a touch device

The touch user experience (UX Touch) on a handheld device generates total satisfaction in the use of a software application, called app for short. UX Touch relies primarily on gestures. Gesture-based operations enhance the usability of an app. It is simple, elegant and intuitive. There is no special training required, no holding of a mouse or looking for a cursor to move and click, no drop down menus to select and no popup windows to distract the user. Gesture is the ultimate user experience in terms of satisfaction, minimal effort (read ergonomic) and ease of use. 

Gestures are generated by finger movement. One or more fingers may be used in combination to produce diverse actions. 

Using a single finger alone, the following can be accomplished:

• Tap


• Double tap


• Tap & hold


• Long tap


• Swipe left


• Swipe right


• Swipe from the leftmost end


• Swipe from rightmost end


• Pull up


• Pull down

Using two fingers, many more operations are possible. In addition to all the operations from a single finger, we can have pinch and spread. 

There are to be sure other gestures possible, depending of course on the capability of the device, such as -

• Shake the device


• A gentle tap between two devices


• Lifting the device up or down 


• Lift one end left or right


• The last two gestures rely on the accelerometer capabilities of the device, which is fast becoming quite common, thanks to the popularity of games like Temple Run. 

Some gestures like using three or four fingers may conflict with the gestures already built into the device by the manufacturer. However, this can be easily overcome by disabling the device gestures at the start of the app and restore them when we are done with it. The app in question may enable and disable device gestures for the user and provide the feature as an option. 

What operations can be performed on an app with the gestures mentioned above? 

The simple answer is: it depends on the app. The app developer may use one or more of these gestures for the features s/he intended to provide. It may not always be possible to provide ALL the features of an app through gestures alone. It is a trade-off the developer has to make to provide maximum flexibility and ease of use. 

In order to see how the gesture operation translates into a satisfying user experience, we need to look at a few apps that employ gestures to their full advantage. Unfortunately, not many apps are designed to use gestures, though the number is growing by the day. Probably, the app developer needs to ‘come out’ of the mouse-click mindset, if one could call it that. The PC has dominated our lives for decades now and it is not easy to think differently, for habits die hard. 

A touch device is entirely different from a PC. Even the apps are more focused, don’t do a lot of things, designed primarily for quick work, and aim to enhance productivity with least effort. App development for a touch device needs a different perspective of the user experience. It may not be easy from a development standpoint, but what good is an app if it fails user expectation?

On a PC, a software application like MS Word has a range of features so vast that a user coming to it for the first time is daunted by it. A user manual or a help from a professional user is necessary to get started with it. It can be used by a student for a class project and also by a scientist to produce an expert document which might include math, tables, figures, illustrations, citations and the lot. The PC application is not intended for a specific type of user: it is for everyone, whether you need only 10% of its features, or on the other hand feel its shortcomings for your work on hand. 

The tablet has changed the game in a new way, one might even call it a revolutionary way. You have a need to do something and most likely there is an app for it. The app evolves with the user needs. The apps are designed mostly by individuals and very very few are developed by corporate giants. The user is heard, the user needs fulfilled, suggestions incorporated, and the user and the developer go tango in coming up with the best user experience in an app that maximizes user productivity. The app development usually begins with a minimal feature set and upgrades are added periodically. The price of the app guarantees a very wide appeal to a broad range of users across the world. No CDs to ship, no complicated wizards to help install the software, no user manuals to read, no system compatibility issues, and no professional support is required to configure it to use. It is as simple as find the app in the App Store and touch to download and install immediately, in a single operation. Once installed, the app is owned forever. Neither theough expiry nor through deletion can the user disown the app. Neat and simple.