Comments on: The Success of MultiTouch is a Lie http://www.joshondesign.com/2009/11/27/the-success-of-multitouch-is-a-lie/ Art, Design, and Usability for Software Engineers Sun, 30 May 2010 08:13:03 -0700 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8 hourly 1 By: Peter Korn http://www.joshondesign.com/2009/11/27/the-success-of-multitouch-is-a-lie/comment-page-1/#comment-198 Peter Korn Sat, 13 Feb 2010 08:13:41 +0000 http://www.joshondesign.com/?p=77#comment-198 You've actually missed an important iPhone app - and one that makes very significant use of multi-touch. VoiceOver. Try it sometime on a 3Gs. Two fingers twisting to change the speed of the voice. Multiple fingers swiping, etc. Interesting and innovative uses to do system-wide things for someone who can't see and has no buttons to press. You’ve actually missed an important iPhone app – and one that makes very significant use of multi-touch. VoiceOver. Try it sometime on a 3Gs. Two fingers twisting to change the speed of the voice. Multiple fingers swiping, etc. Interesting and innovative uses to do system-wide things for someone who can’t see and has no buttons to press.

]]> By: Fabrizio Giudici http://www.joshondesign.com/2009/11/27/the-success-of-multitouch-is-a-lie/comment-page-1/#comment-76 Fabrizio Giudici Sun, 29 Nov 2009 11:33:08 +0000 http://www.joshondesign.com/?p=77#comment-76 Not having an iPhone I can't say anything - but the fact that "red herring" and "Apple" match very well ;-) Seriously, I think that multi-touch is a real advantage for some specific domains. For instance, looking at the Microsoft Surface, I like a lot the way you can arrange photos (and media) as you were used to do with a traditional light table. This probably has nothing to do with the iPhone or mobile devices, since they have small screens. The plus here is to have a large space available. Not having an iPhone I can’t say anything – but the fact that “red herring” and “Apple” match very well ;-)

Seriously, I think that multi-touch is a real advantage for some specific domains. For instance, looking at the Microsoft Surface, I like a lot the way you can arrange photos (and media) as you were used to do with a traditional light table. This probably has nothing to do with the iPhone or mobile devices, since they have small screens. The plus here is to have a large space available.

]]> By: Hansi http://www.joshondesign.com/2009/11/27/the-success-of-multitouch-is-a-lie/comment-page-1/#comment-75 Hansi Sat, 28 Nov 2009 23:55:52 +0000 http://www.joshondesign.com/?p=77#comment-75 I think what made multi-touch a huge success (even though it might be "useless" at the moment) is that it makes people think "this is great, just imagine what you can do with this...". it inspires people to think about ways to approach problems from a different angle, and even though 90% of the time you can do just fine without it, apple made sure that the other 10% are taken care of as well. it's the okay-ish icing on top of a pretty good cake. don't get me wrong, but if you stick to that comparison for a second javafx would be a pretty terrible cake (no webcam support, the whole weird signed applet issue, still missing gui editor, the alias "the thing that makes my browser crash?", etc.) with an amazing icing (applets can run outside browser, afaik first commercially-targeted functional language, etc.). it's up to us developers to decide what kinda cake we bake, i guess... I think what made multi-touch a huge success (even though it might be “useless” at the moment) is that it makes people think “this is great, just imagine what you can do with this…”. it inspires people to think about ways to approach problems from a different angle, and even though 90% of the time you can do just fine without it, apple made sure that the other 10% are taken care of as well.
it’s the okay-ish icing on top of a pretty good cake.

don’t get me wrong, but if you stick to that comparison for a second javafx would be a pretty terrible cake (no webcam support, the whole weird signed applet issue, still missing gui editor, the alias “the thing that makes my browser crash?”, etc.) with an amazing icing (applets can run outside browser, afaik first commercially-targeted functional language, etc.).

it’s up to us developers to decide what kinda cake we bake, i guess…

]]> By: Carl Jokl http://www.joshondesign.com/2009/11/27/the-success-of-multitouch-is-a-lie/comment-page-1/#comment-74 Carl Jokl Sat, 28 Nov 2009 09:14:42 +0000 http://www.joshondesign.com/?p=77#comment-74 I wonder how much off the iPhone success is down to marketing. Apple has been very good at pushing computers and technology as a trendy fashion statement. They embrace snobbery sometimes whereby owning an Apple device makes a statement about being wealthy and successful. They are very good about making people feel like they want to be part of this "exclusive" club. I think a lot of people are buying iPhones because it is the trendy thing to have. They see someone with one and feel they want to have one too. The HTC HD 2 is being slated as "The iPhone Killer". In terms of technical specs I think it is superior in every way to the iPhone 3GS. The one thing it lacks is multi touch. I think the reason is that apple has this feature locked down by patents and so for a feature which as you say isn't that useful HTC and others are happy to do without it. Will the HD 2 kill the iPhone? I don't think so. Do you think the masses understand or care about technical specs. It is about the trendy gadget. What worries me Infinitely more right now is the question of JavaME. For years it has been a common platform for mobile devices. However now all the buzz is about iPhone, Android and Palm Pre. Not one of them is a standards compliant JavaME device. The market share of Nokia which once had the lions share of the mobile space has plummeted. Other traditional vendors seem to be equally struggling. I don't want the industry to slide back to having to use proprietary APIs and technologies for each mobile platform and JavaME to quietly get swept under the rug. I wonder how much off the iPhone success is down to marketing. Apple has been very good at pushing computers and technology as a trendy fashion statement. They embrace snobbery sometimes whereby owning an Apple device makes a statement about being wealthy and successful. They are very good about making people feel like they want to be part of this “exclusive” club. I think a lot of people are buying iPhones because it is the trendy thing to have. They see someone with one and feel they want to have one too.

The HTC HD 2 is being slated as “The iPhone Killer”. In terms of technical specs I think it is superior in every way to the iPhone 3GS. The one thing it lacks is multi touch. I think the reason is that apple has this feature locked down by patents and so for a feature which as you say isn’t that useful HTC and others are happy to do without it.

Will the HD 2 kill the iPhone? I don’t think so. Do you think the masses understand or care about technical specs. It is about the trendy gadget.

What worries me Infinitely more right now is the question of JavaME. For years it has been a common platform for mobile devices. However now all the buzz is about iPhone, Android and Palm Pre. Not one of them is a standards compliant JavaME device. The market share of Nokia which once had the lions share of the mobile space has plummeted. Other traditional vendors seem to be equally struggling. I don’t want the industry to slide back to having to use proprietary APIs and technologies for each mobile platform and JavaME to quietly get swept under the rug.

]]> By: Tbee http://www.joshondesign.com/2009/11/27/the-success-of-multitouch-is-a-lie/comment-page-1/#comment-73 Tbee Sat, 28 Nov 2009 05:23:50 +0000 http://www.joshondesign.com/?p=77#comment-73 Totally agree josh. Finger touch has always been the way to go (look at SciFi movies; tables with gestures). Multitouch is just a small enhancement, and only for handgeld units. I do not see myself swipe across my laptop's screen, let alone with two fingers. Totally agree josh. Finger touch has always been the way to go (look at SciFi movies; tables with gestures). Multitouch is just a small enhancement, and only for handgeld units. I do not see myself swipe across my laptop’s screen, let alone with two fingers.

]]> By: Charles Tam http://www.joshondesign.com/2009/11/27/the-success-of-multitouch-is-a-lie/comment-page-1/#comment-72 Charles Tam Fri, 27 Nov 2009 22:13:08 +0000 http://www.joshondesign.com/?p=77#comment-72 Agree Josh, Perhaps, at a later stage, multi-touch usage would be more common in desktop computing. Currently, I'm working on a JavaFX project which I would like to include such technology, as shown on my web site. Agree Josh,

Perhaps, at a later stage, multi-touch usage would be more common in desktop computing.
Currently, I’m working on a JavaFX project which I would like to include such technology, as shown on my web site.

]]> By: Mark Muday http://www.joshondesign.com/2009/11/27/the-success-of-multitouch-is-a-lie/comment-page-1/#comment-71 Mark Muday Fri, 27 Nov 2009 21:56:30 +0000 http://www.joshondesign.com/?p=77#comment-71 Three comments: 1) You make a good point about the UI becoming finger-centric: this is where other mobile OS's have failed (windows mobile, etc.). 2) You left out the other main factor that made the touch UI a success: responsiveness. To present a touch UI that doesn't respond instantly an fluidly is to totally frustrate your users (I see this with a lot of the android phones, as well as with the palm pre -- they all still feel sluggish, even the Promised One, the Droid). So, finger-centric design plus good sensors plus real-time response plus hardware acceleration (plus top-notch visual design) have made it a success. 3) I think you may be selling multitouch short; or at least your ever-so-slightly incendiary title implies that multitouch has little use (I could be wrong here; you could just be citing its red-herringosity with respect to iphone successes). I think the potential for multitouch to enable "real" direct-manipulation-style UIs has yet to be fully tapped. I think that a good, responsive multitouch implementation will enable more expressive, and more *real-feeling* interactions. A single finger can only do so much; but ten fingers plus software that can deal with real multtouch will be a truly liberating experience (doing several things at once, like panning your work surface while dragging elements independently, allowing a second-hand gesture to modify the actions of the other hand). By the way, keep up the great work! I want to hear more from you. Three comments:

1) You make a good point about the UI becoming finger-centric: this is where other mobile OS’s have failed (windows mobile, etc.).

2) You left out the other main factor that made the touch UI a success: responsiveness. To present a touch UI that doesn’t respond instantly an fluidly is to totally frustrate your users (I see this with a lot of the android phones, as well as with the palm pre — they all still feel sluggish, even the Promised One, the Droid). So, finger-centric design plus good sensors plus real-time response plus hardware acceleration (plus top-notch visual design) have made it a success.

3) I think you may be selling multitouch short; or at least your ever-so-slightly incendiary title implies that multitouch has little use (I could be wrong here; you could just be citing its red-herringosity with respect to iphone successes). I think the potential for multitouch to enable “real” direct-manipulation-style UIs has yet to be fully tapped. I think that a good, responsive multitouch implementation will enable more expressive, and more *real-feeling* interactions. A single finger can only do so much; but ten fingers plus software that can deal with real multtouch will be a truly liberating experience (doing several things at once, like panning your work surface while dragging elements independently, allowing a second-hand gesture to modify the actions of the other hand).

By the way, keep up the great work! I want to hear more from you.

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