Support for touch gestures
s.strahammer
Posts: 17
Hi,
it would be really nice if TPControl would support touch gestures - swipes for example. One way to implement this would be to handle touch gestures like hard buttons on other panels - in TPDesign I'd like to select "Show external controls" > "Left to right swipe" an assign pageflips, channel codes, etc. to it.
This would be a great way to improve the user experience when using TPControl!
it would be really nice if TPControl would support touch gestures - swipes for example. One way to implement this would be to handle touch gestures like hard buttons on other panels - in TPDesign I'd like to select "Show external controls" > "Left to right swipe" an assign pageflips, channel codes, etc. to it.
This would be a great way to improve the user experience when using TPControl!
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Comments
Do you have any thoughts on what gestures you might like to see in the solution ?
Kind Regards
Touch Panel Control Team
Is list scrolling using finger swiping possible a la Sonos, iPhone etc?
Thanks,
Paul
Hi,
I especially thought about list scrolling and getting from one page to the next or previous one.
Agreed. Because of the prevalence of Apple devices, this is getting to be the expected behavior. I find myself swiping lists all the time and getting frustrated when they don't respond, until I remember it's not supported (yet).
yeah, this has happened to us repeatedly on new client prospects during demos. Everyone just expects to be able to swipe menus or lists. It's funny how they seem to feel having to hit a button feels 'klunky'
I have seen that AMX have released TPD4 with Gesture support for the new 9-inch AMX panel. DOes this mean we are any closer to seeing it on the iPad with TPControl? It's the last missing link as far as I can see to what is a great product.
For gestures to be recognized, you need to start the touch in a location with no buttons, and that's not how users expect to use gestures. If you attempt to swipe but happen to touch a button at the moment of contact, that button fires. The panel is unable to discern a swipe from a touch. All iThings to this fine. While I can hope this will change, history does not encourage me.
With all that said, here is what should happen: If you start on a button, then recognition of a button press is delayed for .15 second. During that time if you move more than 60 pixels in any direction, the button press and release will not be processed and the motion will be processed as a gesture. If you don't move or move less than that, then after .15 second the button press will be processed, the release will be processed when you release and no gesture will be processed.
Some screen objects by their nature preclude any kind of gesture processing such as computer control, joystick and movable popups.
AMX is interested in your feedback since we do want to get this right. It is certainly possible to tighten up the distance but our primary concern was that button presses are not missed since that would probably annoy the user more.
Would it be possible to make this an option in TPDesign4? Make a new General option for a button, right under "Touch Style". Name it "Gesture Recognition." There would be 3 values possible: 1) Push Only (same as it's always been) 2) Gesture only (always process as a gesture) 3) Push and Gesture (do what you described above)
That would make it easier to meet everyone's needs. I would personally strive to avoid using buttons of type 3) whenever possible because they would inevitably lead to adventures in user training / possible frustration
I don't think this addresses the problem. The issue is that if you want to gesture, there is no "button" you want to "gesture on". You incidentally encounter a button you don't actually want to press when you touch the panel to make the gesture... so you'd have to mark every button type 3 to get gestures - ever.
I heartily suggest reducing the distance for detection. In 20 minutes of testing without knowing these parameters, we were perplexed why gestures occasionally but apparently randomly worked if a button was the landing point. We didn't realize we had to get really moving after a touch.
Perhaps these parameters could be adjustable at the panel, or via telnet to the panel. The delay seems reasonable, although this also explains why our 9000 customers have mentioned that the panel seems sluggish compared to their other panels. But I'd think that if even 20 pixels of movement were detected in .15 second, it should be taken as a gesture. Easy to say that without actual testing, of course, and easy to be wrong about it.
Another suggestion: To reduce error and missed pushes, if you think you detect a gesture, but there is no value for channel (i.e. 1,0) for the gesture, abort the gesture process and take the initial button press instead.
Thanks for the details, but still not sure if I can use it as it is without customer training. Which seldom works.
Seems like this is likely the culprit for an "annoying delay" in button presses which has been noted in the MVP-9000i thread:
Looks like, with the addition of the push notification -> master processing -> feedback visualisation delay, the lag is enough to reduce users' confidence in the UI.
The 150ms delay in push notification itself is significant enough to cause a disconnect between the action and the response, let alone the addition delay as the messaging and control passes through the system. Were there any usability studies done on this prior to deployment? If not, I'd highly recommend utilizing the services of a UX geek to get the gestural control playing nicely. If the dev budget doesn't have room for that and you have some keen employees there are masses of info and loads of studies that are freely available on different perceptual models and some pseudo golden rules that will help it move in the right direction. Have a look at this post for a start.