Touch screens: Do you love them or hate them?
This is one that seems to be popping up more and more these days. The touch screen.
Of course they’ve been around a while. And the Apple iPhone has certainly done a lot to make them more popular. The new Blackberry Storm tries to take the concept to a new level, with a screen that actually moves a bit when you push on it. The goal, of course, is to make you feel like you are actually clicking a key.
I don’t do product reviews here at the paper. But every so often, one of the wireless companies asks me if I’d like to take a look at their newest toys. So I get to carry an iPhone or a Storm around for a weekend.
But no matter what I think about the phones themselves, I just can’t get past the touch screen. There’s just something missing for me. My fingers like to touch actual keys.
And so I found this article at PCMag.com, by reviewer Sascha Segan, particularly interesting. It’s not that touch screens are bad. It’s just that they deprive us of something we crave.
The missing senses also play a role in why “live meetings” don’t feel alive and “teleconferencing” doesn’t feel like attending a conference. Deep in our animal brains, we think of reality as something that engages all the senses. You may not like the way a co-worker smells, but that smell makes her more real to you, whether you consciously think about it or not. I love cell phones, but when a friend of mine signs off phone calls with “thanks for the visit,” I wince a little. A phone call isn’t a visit. Visits use more senses.
Now, obviously a lot of you love your touch screens. Why? What do you find so appealing about them?
Tim has covered a wide range of topics, including tourism, crime, aviation and gambling, since becoming a reporter in 1990. The Oklahoma native joined the Post-Dispatch in 2007 after spending nine years in Orlando. In his spare time, he's often exploring one virtual world or another. He can be reached at tbarker@post-dispatch.com. 
As far as the new phones go, I looked at a new one because my candy bar is getting ragged, and the battery unreliable. Looked at the darn thing for 5 minutes, and with all the touch screen iconography,I couldn’t figure out how you made a phone call with it, since the button images were NOT default setting for the device. Now, I’ve been making phone calls since I was three, on a rotary, then Princess, then touch tone phone with no training, but the salesguy had to show me how you made a call with the device, which referenced an old style (really old style receiver as the phone icon–it looked more like a fallen over parenthesis with hooks on it). I can handle any phone out there, but this left me stunned and clueless. If they are selling it as a phone, it better look like a phone.
Touch screens (although they are much more fragile than other interface devices) aren’t the problem. It’s the iconography for people who are still literate.
I saw some news video out there about newly found species in the Mekong delta with had a guy drawing with his finger on a touch screen, bring photos to the front, enlarging them, shrinkiing them, all the time reading from a teleprompter, and not watching what he was doing. I have no idea what this dance was supposed to inform me about. Not all people are visual learners, and I’m one who is not, so this was just distracting. On a side note, this young man made the statement that most people in the US had never heard of the Mekong delta before…obviously, he flunked history class while drawing on his touch screen.
From a professional standpoint, touch screens are overdone in inappropriate ways. Ever notice which exhibits at a museum are terminally out of order? You’ve got it…and usually, there is nothing the touch screen shows which couldn’t be done equally as well in a static, or hard goods display, and for less cost. They’ve got to be ruggedized before I will take them seriously. On the other hand, I love a touch pad on a computer vs. a mouse. But there are no distracting graphic effects there. Just a single, intuitive function.
I can’t afford an iPhone or anything similar. I have used them on computers. Touch screens come a long way from a decade ago. Back then they would glitch up very easily. I might not be as hesitant to get something like this today if I actually needed it and did not think it was an unnecessary toy. Now, if you wanted to talk about a laser projected keyboard and monitor with sensing devices….
Hate ‘em! Received an iTouch last year as a gift - I lasted exactly one day and gave it away. But then, I’m such a Luddite, I’m perfectly content with a cell phone that doesn’t take pictures.
The thing I like most about the PD is how it keeps us distracted with non-news, corporate, news stories. Nothing of substance, no reality, just the corporate message that “The Economy is Fundamentally Strong and Growing Stronger Every Day” TM
Push buttons are much more reliable and will outlast a touch screen which is prone to scratches. I can dial faster with push buttons and make less mistakes as well.
I have the T-Mobile G1 (Google Android OS). It has a touch screen, but it also has a slide-out QWERTY keyboard. I love the touch functionality for most things, but for text/e-mail/IM/browsing, I need a keyboard.
Google is providing an on-screen keyboard this month, I believe, but I’ll probably only download it to see how good it is and help out on the Android forum I moderate.
@Teresa: The icons really depend on the software. The G1 starts up with a Dialer shortcut on the main screen. You can also press the “call” button and it brings up the dialer.
@Zerp: Many TS phones can use screen protectors. I still haven’t removed the plastic that came on my G1 and it’s been solid the whole time.