Touch technology has its place in consumer products, but shouldn’t just be used because its new and exciting. A couple of weeks back I highlighted some concerns over the use of touch technology in cars. Since then I had the opportunity to attend the Interior Design Show 2010 in Toronto. While I was there I spent time looking over various household appliances and thinking about their usability. What concerned me is that sometimes the technology in these appliances, while very cool, didn’t actually suit the needs of the user.

Take for example, a stove I saw with touch controls. This stove had an attractive glossy black surface, with touch sensitive areas seamlessly built into the surface. It looked very elegant, however I was immediately concerned about the usability of such a stove. The first scenario that came to mind was the user groping around for controls while trying to cook a difficult dish. It’s not difficult to imagine that the user might burn themselves by touching part of the element because there is no tactile or visual indication of where the touch-controlled area ends and the element begins.

Similarily in the comments of my pseudo-review of the new MyFord Touch dashboard, Jon and I discussed the issue of having these touch sensitive buttons in place of traditional dials and push buttons. The old input methods worked for years because they’re easy for the user to find when their attention is required on the road, and using them provides tactile feedback – be it the physical turning of the dial, or the depression of the button when you press it. Touch buttons and sliders will not lend the same convenience.

But now, an example of touch technology done correctly. A colleague showed me this video for the Delta touch faucet using Delta’s Touch₂O technology – a faucet that can be activated by a touch from the user. The purpose of the touch control is highlighted in the video below.

The video highlights how a user with dirty hands can tap the faucet with their wrist to activate the water – preventing the mess from spreading onto the faucet’s handle. A lot of the usual concerns about touch technology don’t apply to this situation. Since the faucet only preforms one action “turn on the water”, the user will not have to search for the correct button or area to touch. Additionally, it’s easy to tell if the action worked – the water will be there, or it won’t. Another piece of convenience of this product is that the traditional controls still work alongside this new fancy one, so that the user can make the transition to using the new feature easily.

If more industries can work on thinking of creative ways to use touch technology instead of trying to work them into already existing systems, I think that we’ll see more applications of touch technology that won’t aggravate or inconvenience the user.

Source: Smart Solutions: Touch₂O @ Delta Faucet’s Website
Source: Delta touch faucet, infinitely better than a pump handle @ dvice
Video: Delta Faucet “Hands” TV Ad @ Youtube

A while back Ford and Microsoft partnered up to create Ford SYNC, which is based on Microsoft Auto. SYNC is essentially a really cool in-car computer which provided integration for many phones and media players through in-vehicle voice control, the steering wheel or the radio controls. I’ve been wanting a computer in my car for a long time, chief reason among them is the ability to listen to music from my cloud-music site of choice, the Hype Machine. I was hoping for a touchscreen display in place of the radio, however the hardware part of SYNC equipped cars failed to impress me.

It seems though, that while I was off dreaming of the future, Ford decided that the future is now. At this year’s CES, Ford showed off its expansions on sync, as well as their new MyFord prototype. The MyFord prototype featured a single, giant, Volkswagen-esque speedometer, with a digital display on either side. As Engadget points out in their coverage of MyFord at CES, the kicker of the whole MyFord setup is the 8-inch touchscreen display in place of traditional radio controls. This is where SYNC will display information, and allows for a slew of features – including 3G/4G connectivity, and an in-car browser.

Ford didn’t just limit their news to hardware, as they announced what they’re calling the “Sync App Ecosystem”, which will allow smartphone apps to easily hook into a SYNC API. They also announced increased support for different mobile phones, including Android, iPhone, Palm, and Blackberry. This approach is useful because it won’t introduce yet another “app store” for you to have to buy apps from. Ideally, the developers of your existing apps on your Smartphone will just push out updates that include SYNC support, and voila! SYNC integration for everyone.

Alas, these announcements were not without some drawbacks. While the browser was by far my favourite announcement, as it would allow Hype Machine use on the go like I mentioned earlier, Ford’s has decided for safety concerns, the browser will be disabled while the car is moving. A good idea if you want to prevent drivers from reading the news or watching Youtube while they’re driving – however what about the passenger? Why can’t they use the browser? Ideally, they should be able to, without distracting the driver. Additionally, this means no Hype Machine support either – as there is still no mobile phone application for the site – even though they teased one for the iPhone back in October 2008. Even then, who knows if Flash support would be enabled.

On the hardware side of things, in what I assume is an effort to make operating the rest of the vehicle seem like operating the 8-inch touchscreen, they’ve removed traditional buttons and replaced them with touch sensitive areas. While this seems good, I can garuntee that lack of tactile feedback will not be appreciated – if for nothing else than that you won’t be able to fumble around with the controls until you feel the button you’re looking for. In fact, you’ll probably end up writing a tweet, listing yourself as “its complicated” on Facebook, and changing the radio station 8 times before you finally feel your way to the button you’re looking for. This sort of defeats the purpose of trying to create a user interface that doesn’t require the driver to take their attention off the road.

Overall I find this a much more promising development in the area of having computers in cars than the initial launch of SYNC. The new hardware opens up a lot of opportunities for developers to get in there through mobile phone apps and have a presence in vehicle. Hopefully the whole situation with browser-lock can be alleviated somehow, and the tactile feedback won’t be as much of an issue as I’m expecting it to be. Additional technical features, pictures, videos, and Engadget’s thoughts can be read in the source links.

Source: Engadget – MyFord dash and Sync App Ecosystem hands-on