Touch target optimization technique using virtual finger-tip library

Abstract

Touch functionality is the latest mantra for consumers buying new smartphones or mobile devices. With devices screens becoming more compact, providing a user interface with easy navigation and effective usage is becoming increasingly difficult. Typically, the screens are designed using relevant design guidelines and work well for the general majority of people. However, every user is different. The way they handle the touch screen, the size of their finger-tips, everything is different. A single common UI design then fails to satisfy all the different users. Hence, there is a need to bridge the existing gap between the device UI screen design and the variances attached with users' touch inputs. Our latest work1, discussed in this paper, solves this challenge to a significant extent by providing a library of virtual finger-tip entries. Each finger-tip entry in the library is pre-attached with a specific surface area attached to it. These finger-tips, although virtual, are provided with the functionality that they act as wearable objects for a device user. Once worn, the device owner need not worry about their actual finger-tip size (that is, the surface area of user's finger on the device screen). Irrespective of a user's actual finger-tip size, when you place your finger on any icon on the screen, it uses exactly the same surface area that the virtual finger-tip uses. Virtual finger-tip sizes are calculated dynamically based on the relative size interpretations from the actual finger-tip size and the touch inputs to the device. Multiple virtual finger tips options are listed in the library enabling a device user to select the most appropriate one depending on the touch target they plan to work on.