August 2011 - What's Possible on Mobile, and How to Design for Touch

Toby Vincent of Smudge Apps presented to around 35 people in the Streamliners garage, which is now a splendiferous ground floor function centre in the heart of Christchurch’s clutch repair and panelbeating precinct.

We had a record attendance for this event, with many TCANZ members bringing along extras from their organisations. As this was a lunchtime session (BYO), we couldn’t even attribute the strong turn-out to the prospect of nibbles and alcohol!

It’s obvious that the subject of mobile devices is of great interest to Christchurch technical communicators and their colleagues, and it was interesting to note the number of smartphones in attendance. However, I didn’t spot any iPads, and most people still took notes the old fashioned way using a pen and paper.

Toby gave a short but very thought-provoking presentation on the peculiarities of designing applications for touch devices, his philosophy on creating ‘mental models’, and some rules to stick to when designing an app.

What’s different about touch devices?
In Toby’s opinion, touch devices provide a more organic and human way of interacting with technology than we’ve ever had before, with the ability to use our fingers freeing us from the “prosthetic devices” such as the keyboard and mouse. In addition, our mobile devices become much more a part of our lives, as we tend to take them everywhere and use them all the time, even in the toilet.

How does this affect design for touch devices?
When designing for touch, Toby emphasised how important it is to focus on the intersection between the message, the tone, and the format, and not get carried away with what you can do with technology.  He talked about some successful and not so successful techniques and designs, and reminded us that you should not hide great content behind a gimmick or sparkly new technique – something that we, as technical communicators, should always bear in mind, no matter what format we are working with.

After the presentation, Toby took questions from the audience and treated us to a sneak preview of some very cool new apps in development. And with that, everyone headed out into the shaky streets of suburban Christchurch, their heads filled with the wonders of touch and the possibilities of this exciting medium.


 

 

Megan, Meredith, Ian and Em