Similar screens often use different underlying technologiesĭon’t worry, you don’t need to be tech-savvy to know this upfront, you can learn how a screen works by simply using it and seeing how it behaves. As you disrupt that grid with your fingers, screen knows where that happened and registers this as a touch. Other touchscreens are just normal screens with an invisible infrared grid in front of it (touch frame as they call it). Reliable, but pretty expensive for large screens.
It’s the same tech you have in your smartphone. Here is a real-life example – some touchscreens have implemented capacitive technology meaning you can trigger interactions using your finger, but not with your glove. This changes now as differences between similarly sized screens can be great. On web-based projects, UI designers usually do not need to worry about hardware too much (with a few exceptions like resolution or good colour reproduction). This can be partially mitigated by implementing a timeout screen which will restart the app after some idle time. Planning your application’s flow must reflect that-each screen needs to have a clear set of easy-to-learn controls, so a new user can pick up where the previous left off (or even better, restart the application). Unlike mobile devices, your touchscreen will most like be a “public” device, meaning users can leave in the middle of the action, and leave the application in an “unfinished” state for the next user. Just like with mobile applications or web pages, you can expect that users will not feel any obligation to finish all actions they started. Touchscreen interactives have relatively simple interactions, meaning they will appeal to a broad range of users, some of which may have limited physical capabilities (like small children or people with disabilities). You wake up in cold sweat and start revising your UI… ok, I went a bit too far here, but you get the point. And then you realize that this goofy toddler is unable to reach most of the buttons (that you placed out of reach) and starts crying, and causing s lot of drama in the process. Let’s say you have a large screen placed as a low table in the middle of the room. Get a feeling for it, imagine yourself standing there and using it – it will influence what and how you’re presenting stuff on the screen. Will that place be outdoor or somewhere inside? What are the lighting conditions? By asking these types of questions, we try to get as much information about the environment as possible. This means that you can familiarise yourself with the environment that this device will be placed in.
This is something that is actually easier because large screens fit in the “not-so-portable” category of devices (unlike smartphones or tablets). To make something meaningful, you always need to consider the context and how will the project ultimately be used. There are a lot of factors to consider, so let’s see what conclusions I’ve drawn from the project that included creating a game for a door sized screen. Okay, how difficult can it be – you take a standard size screen and make everything bigger, right? You probably already know it’s not that simple (otherwise you wouldn’t be reading this article right now). Let’s make something for a large touchscreen. Then again, who doesn’t love a good challenge? As someone who made only “regular size” screens, I’ve quickly learned that designing for a big touchable surface was quite a different experience from any other project.Īs soon as you put together your first paper prototype on a similarly sized table, you suddenly realize that you have a different set of challenges that you usually deal with.
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