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To Press or to Tap, That Is the Question

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I look at blogging as my tool to look below the surface. The tech field is moving so fast and so furiously that you can spend all your energy just trying to keep up. Instead, I’m stepping back and refocusing on what I find interesting and enriching as a designer.

To Press or to Tap, That Is the Question

Angelika Fuellemann

During the second session, a predictable issue quickly became apparent. Gerry was using the "press and hold" gesture instead of using the correct "tap" gesture. My 80-year-old father makes the same mistake and that got me thinking.

Gerry and my dad understand mechanical interactions. In the physical world, objects Gerry wants to interact with give her physical cues. Let’s take the example of Gerry typing on a keyboard. She has physical keys that help orient her fingers where to press and require a certain degree of force to successfully type the letter “A.” A touch screen is a smooth sheet of glass and the same amount of physical force is not needed to initiate actions. Taking that into consideration, it makes sense that Gerry is defaulting to Press and Hold.

I demonstrated the difference between a tap and a press on Gerry's arm for her to feel the difference. It took her a few tries to get the correct amount of force on the tap. What was fun was when I pointed out some other standard gestures. She was tickled pink with the pinch/zoom gesture for opening up photos and being able to zooming in on her great-grandchild's face covered in birthday cake.

She was able to navigate pretty well in the photo app, starting to enjoy navigating around. She got somewhat confused over when to scroll up and when to scroll down. I could see why -- depending on where you were in the app, lists shifted from chronological order to reverse chronological order. I also started noticing just how complicated the iOS photo app has gotten.

Teaching her has been very rewarding. She has expressed real joy after the lessons. She has been feeling a bit left behind, is excited to see for herself what all the fuss is about, and is pleased to be a part of the things we enjoy. Her excitement reminds me of the time when I picked up an iPod at a local Target for the first time. I remember the sheer delight of interacting with something so clever, a step beyond any other MP3 player I had seen before.

Photo by Fabian Albert on Unsplash

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