Daniel Wigdor, Sarah Williams, Michael Cronin, Robert Levy, Katie White, Maxim Mazeev, Hrvoje Benko
Microsoft Surface | Microsoft Corp. | Microsoft Research
Summary
This research is aimed at solving a tricky issue when it comes to multitouch and touchscreen devices. The issue is that touch screens lack in the inherent tangible, audio, and visual feedback of a traditional mouse. When using a mouse you know that a click has been made because of the clicking sound and the depression of the button. You also always know exactly where on the screen the mouse is because of the cursor. On a touchscreen however you do not get these forms of feedback. This creates ambiguity and can lead to user frustration. To address this issue they have created a visualization technique for providing feedback about finger location and pressure. The simple rippling and tailing effects remove the ambiguity of the screen and create a less frustrating environment.
Thoughts
I am curious as to why they did not include a sound component. I think that the clicking noise of a button or key is a significant feedback element. Why did they choose to leave it out? Also in respect to future work, I wonder how they will choose to address the issue if mouse-in and mouse-out.
My Google Alert found this blog - fun entries!
ReplyDeleteIn answer to the question, we did not consider sound because we were designing the system for multiple simultaneous users. Hancock et al. conducted a great study that found that cross-talk of audio feedback was misattributed, especially negative feedback, across users. As such, we concluded that sonification of touch events would only lead to greater confusion and frustration.
Further, audio feedback gets annoying pretty quickly! For a single touch system, tactile feedback can work rather well, giving good feedback without being over the top. A system that allows spatialized tactile feedback for a touch device has yet to be developed, however.