During a lunchtime chat about gaming interfaces this weekend, I found myself in a heated debate about touchscreen technology with a group of indie developers (including @Slaktus, @v21, @oh_cripes and @increpare).
Initially I was just reacting against the suggestion that touchscreen devices were going to be 'the future of home computing', but as the discussion developed, I found myself arguing against them on a number of fronts, and it soon became clear that I was going to need to lay out my thoughts in a blog post.
I want to make it clear that I am not saying that touchscreens are entirely bad. For particular types of application, they work fine. Angry Birds doesn't seem to be suffering too much from its touchscreen interface - I'll come back to that later. And whenever I use Google maps on my phone, I am perfectly delighted with its touchscreen interface.
I'm also only talking about
me. I'm perfectly aware that there are octogenarians who are unable to manage a mouse but perfectly comfortable with an iPad. I'm not denying that touch-screens are more accessible to the uninitiated - because they are simpler. For me though, simpler is not necessarily better when it comes to physically interfacing with things.
Touch-screens have been a key driver of the smartphone market - but this is more because they facilitate maximum screen size in smallest form factor, rather than any particular benefits of the touch-screen itself. I fondly remember the ability to stumble along the pavement drunk, writing perfectly accurate text messages with one hand and rolling a cigarette with the other, whereas on a smartphone I seem unable to walk and text while sober and using both hands without flying into an angry rage at the sheer bastard difficulty of it all.
But I digress. The argument was specifically about touch tablets as a replacement for a more traditional computing model - either desktop or laptop with a mouse and keyboard, so I'm focussing on that from here..
Ergonomics
I don't find touch tablet devices comfortable for consuming media in the lounge. They're heavy enough to not be comfortable to support with the hands, and looking down at them gives me a crick in the neck. If I'm watching tv, movies or YouTube, I'll use my telly; if it's Twitter, or looking something up on Wikipedia or IMDB quickly, I'll use my phone. Both are more comfortable for me than a touch tablet.
Occlusion
As of 2011, we don't have transparent hands. The majority of games suffer on a touchscreen device, because the act of interacting with the game simultaneously obscures them with the hand and forearm. Clearly this isn't the case with games where the input phase is separated from the action, as with Angry Birds, Chess or Headspin. And games where the player makes occasional gestures into the game, like Flight Control, Kahoots or Plants vs Zombies tend to work ok too.
But for applications where the player needs to interact with things in arbitrary positions on the screen, a touchscreen isn't as good as the other alternatives available. The examples I used in my original argument were Starcraft and Bejewelled, and I'm going to stick with those.
Effort Compared to the economy of the mouse, many actions on a touchscreen feel like hard work. Consider the position of the arm when resting on a mouse correctly: it's well supported all the way along. You have all the muscles from the shoulder down to the fingers to co-ordinate movement,
without having to move from the resting position. With the tiniest movement
you can flick the cursor from one side of the screen to the other, or scroll up and down with the mouse wheel. To me that is entirely preferable to moving the arm around in the air unsupported which is required to interact with a touch-screen (or to put it another way, I want my arm to rest at right angles to the screen).
Expressiveness
Fingertips aren't pinpoints - it's much easier to be accurate with a mouse or a stylus than a finger, and this increased accuracy is of benefit. In the simplest terms it makes it possible to fit more interactive stuff into less space without exposing the user to the risk of error.
Feedback
Perversely, touchscreens are crap to touch. Those shiny, greasy screens aren't even as nice to touch as the oldest, lamest, laminatedest electronic gadget. That's why no matter how clever the software, typing on a touchscreen will always be inferior, because your fingers get none of that lovely feedback they enjoy so much.
Typing / Multi-tasking Ahhh but wait, I hear you exclaim - touchscreen devices
aren't for typing on.
You're only supposed to be consuming media on them, not creating it! Yeah, well sorry, but for me consuming and creating and sharing are all bound up together. I am continually multi-tasking between reading and watching things on the internet, chatting on twitter, instant messaging, writing emails or posts or code, all at once. I want something I can do all that stuff as easily as possible, and I have one - a PC on a desk with a properly positioned monitor and chair, which I can buzz away on happily for hours without suffering the terrible stabbing pains of old age and repetitive strain.
I'm conscious that people are going to retort with things like, 'touchscreen devices aren't for playing Starcraft on, or writing blog posts'. They're just for 'media consumption' and 'having fun. Casual computing man!' To which I can only reply, 'I have a lovely big TV in my lounge, I have a smartphone, and I have big, stupid, lumpy sausage fingers. What do I need a touch tablet for?'
(Thanks to Local Girl for finding the pic and providing the title)