Touchscreens are threat to customer experience (CX)

The need to appear “SMART” often translates into nothing more than an display with touchscreen. A single piece of glass now provides the interface for many different functions spread across the car, wall switch, etc. I admit, the minimalistic look that a giant touchscreen gives is so elegant that it’s hard to resist. But aesthetics should never trump usability.

Recently my engineering team developed a four gang touch switch for Indian customers. When we analysed customer behaviour, it came as no surprise that interacting with a touch switches requires more hand-eye coordination than traditional buttons and dials.

It really started with smartphones, but today’s automotive & smart home interface are amongst the worst offenders. Example: You slide your finger across the screen to set the airflow and then put your hand into the airflow vent to confirm the result. The opportunity for direct feedback from the function is lost.

People are accustomed to positional feedback when toggling switches. It doesn’t require you to see all the time, what is the position of the switch to toggle. This well established convention is etched to public consciousness for more than five decades. No level of haptic or tactility engineering can replace experience with positional feedback.

There was a time when design was a secondary consideration for the products we used. But this information age prioritises both beauty and functionality. Each product interaction are built with three components — Function, Interface, Feedback. A good interface combines these three components into one experience, giving users a feeling of control and immediacy.

Think about where and how your product is used ? What’s the context? Where’s the user’s attention focussed? Below are the advanced interface ideas with its own limitations.

Boundary-less user interface

To avoid hand-eye coordination by touching small intangible icons, complete screen is used as interface to single function. To control volume, slide two fingers up and down anywhere in the screen, the interface realigns the position and that point becomes the starting reference. But when’s the last time you got emotional about stroking glass?

Voice interface

An interface with increasing popularity and promise. Voice first interface creates engaging experiences that let customers speak in their own words and respond to them with individualised interactions.

Conclusion

The iPhone has a mute switch, which lets you quickly and easily turn the ringer off and put the iPhone into vibrate-only mode. Without even unlocking the phone you know the status of ringer either by color or by position of the switch. It combines the function, interface and feedback into an unique experience.

Deep down, most of us prefer analogue experiences, so the need to look at the screen is kept to a minimum. The interface of your product is the key touchpoint between people and your brand. Make it intuitive !