11 Lessons We Learned about Touch Screen Tables
It was Jeff Han in 2008 who inspired me with a great TED presentation about the technological possibilites of multitouch. Eventually leading to founding Wetouch in 2009. Back then, with no iPad existing, multitouch was a thing. Excited I built a first prototype in my free time. Working on the development of a touch screen robot control software for a single-touch 7" cable-bound industrial tablet, I asked myself:
What else would be possible with huge multitouch displays?
Clearly, this was technology-driven. Together with Dr. Thomas Grill, now founder and CEO of UXFocus, we brainstormed hard to find out. In the end, there was one single thing that stood out for Tom and me:
Make multiple people cooperate face-to-face together — around a table.
That’s what is all about. That’s what actually tables are mostly about. Have multiple persons face-to-face in one place and have them work, share, play, game, socialize together. So we replaced the tabletop with a huge multitouch display, convinved that this would change the world. Here’s what we found out during 10 years, as our very own touch table best practices.
#1: People will put everything onto your touch screen table
Tables exist to put things onto them. People will do this regardless of the tabletop being a 55" multitouch display, or being made of IKEA spruce. So be prepared to have people put virtually anything atop your touch screen table: coffee, paper, keys, mobile phones, notebooks, tablets, a lot of food, heavy tools, kids, adults…
#2: Touch table equals furniture, so no fear.
Especially older adults and kids perceive a touch screen table as furniture. These devices are really high-tech: latest PC, shatterproof glass, WIFI, touch sensors with nano wires, 4K display — among others. But since people know tables, they feel confident with them and approach even touch tables as they would know them. As a consequence, older adults simply start using a table, whereas they were 5 minutes before afraid of using an iPad. This can be greatly leveraged, to teach using touchscreens and modern digital devices.
#3: Personal distance keeps you comfortable.
You might know as well this uncomfortable feeling, when someone approaches you and comes too close to you. Distance speaking. Being from spain, this might not be a thing, people from northern countries might react different. Here come the table to the rescue: it separates all people around exacly enough, to not feel uncomfortable. This make great for discussions, first dates, meeting and social contact.
#4: Acknowledge every touch.
This sounds only like being polite, but is in fact very important. Whenever someone touches and does not get any feedback, she mostly immediately touches again. Than again. And than starts to be frustrated. Either because “this thing is broken”. Or, even worse, “I’m too stupid to use it”. I heart this first years ago from August de los Reyes, Then-Microsoft-Surface-Design-Guru and it is even more true today.
#5: Users might get into the Flow.
Sitting at a touch screen table, concentrated, reading, browsing, gaming might get you into Flow. So be prepared, that some people might sit a very long time around your precious touch table. Compared to phones, the typical duration of stay is much longer. Having said this, the duration of stay can be greatly altered by different software applications. From a few minutes, to hours. Compared to seconds up to minutes using a phone.
#6: Skip the learning curve.
As pointed out above, it’s furniture. No one wants to learn how to use a table. So the user interface must be incredibly simple, intuitive and discoverable. Otherwise, people will leave within seconds. A key to this is welcoming every user. Either explaining or showing what she can do.
#7: Multidirectional UI for tables.
Again, it’s furniture. Be prepared that people approach from any side. So the user interface must be either symmetric, or open separate workspaces for every user or even detect users and their positions. This can be very challenging, especially if you want to leverage legacy applications. Which by default can’t be rotated. We end up 95% of the time creating special round-the-table user interfaces.
#8: Software supporting you, not interrupting you.
Since the table is always visible, the UI has to be very decent. Otherwise, the visual overload is driving people mad. So offer help, but don’t force interaction. Don’t use the whole table area, only a smaller percentage. Keep in mind — it’s a table and there must be space for coffee, paper, phone, kids… any never interrupt the user like on a phone.
#9: People love games.
Even if they say they don’t. Trust me. So creating the user interface in a gamy way, maybe even allowing for games to play, is a huge bonus. It will attract people a lot. We watched people play hours and hours even very simple games at Wetouch. Classic, well-known games work best. Memory is an all-time high. But multiplayer games are way better for social contact. Even before unknown people tend to compete on simple games like pong and get into contact, having fun.
#10: Great content: attract the consumers.
Images, photos, videos, 3D animations, text. Every application has to have great content to be attractive for people to consume the content. And consuming must be easy. Simply showing the mouse-optimized website does not do the trick. Keep in mind, that if there’s 3 users, they should be able to open 3 different contents at the same time.
#11: Great tools: attract the creators.
If you want something from your users, first give them something. And make it easy. If they should enter their email address, they are more likely to do so on a table. But only, when feeling secure. That’s where the personal distance comes into play. Moreover, when using a virtual keyboard, it really has to feel great. Additonally, drawing always works great, as well as building things from predefined blocks and of course gaming. But be aware, that creative people always find a way to be creative… be it in drawings or text. It might be good to review the data, before publishing it.
Have fun and enjoy your Touch Screen Tables.
Christian and the whole Wetouch Team.
