Touch Screen Gaming
We’re going to be seeing a lot more touch sensitive interfaces this year (partly because the technology is getting better, partly because of the success of the Nintendo DS and iPhone).
So what makes for a successful touch screen interface? Obviously, making buttons large and easy to hit is part of it. But there’s more to touch screens than ‘keyboards behind glass’.
Buttons versus gestures
A great example of this is Namco’s Pac-Man on the iPhone. It offers two touch screen control methods – one of which is unusable and one of which is nearly (but not quite) perfect.
Namco’s default option is a ‘classic’ solution – you use four on-screen buttons change Pac-Man’s direction. It’s terrible. Because you can’t feel the buttons you have to keep looking away to see if your fingers are correctly positioned. And by looking away from the action, you inevitably mess up.
Pac-Man for the iPhone: the on-screen buttons are easy to understand, but you have to look away from the game to use them.
This is the problem with on-screen keyboards in general: they’re cumbersome to use. Apple has had to add a couple of software fixes to make up for this on the iPhone – predictive correction and keys that expand as you hit them.
Namco’s alternative control method is to swipe your finger over an on screen joystick. This type of ‘gestural interface’ is a better design solution for online games. Swiping means you don’t have to accurately hit a small control area so you should be able to keep your eyes on the game.
On a touch-screen, swiping your thumb to change direction is a better solution for this type of application.
In practice, Namco’s implementation still requires you to swipe over the right part of the screen. Sometimes you miss and nothing happens – messing up the game.
Small changes: big difference
It would have been better if Namco had let you swipe anywhere on the screen to control the Pac-Man – a small change, but when it comes to user interface design, small changes often make the difference between frustrating and perfect.
Don’t take this the wrong way: gestural interfaces aren’t inherently better than other types of interface. But they’re perfect for this kind of immersive application.
And if you’re designing a gestural interface, it’s often a good idea to let people use big simple gestures, rather than small, targeted ones.
About the author
Giles has been making products more usable for over fifteen years. He was President of the UK Usability Professionals’ Association from 2003-2007 and speaks frequently on usability in the UK and overseas. He writes on usability for Revolution magazine and was one of the editors of the PAS 78 accessibility guide from the British Standards Institute. Email Giles, or call +44 (0)117 946 3930
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