When you are developing a smartphone app, there are so many things you have to keep in mind. Simultaneously, you have to make design decisions and user-experience decisions. You need to create elegant interfaces that work smoothly and convey the personality of your brand.
Furthermore, you have to make sure that your interface will work across different devices. While you try to keep all of these factors in mind, you may forget one of the most important components of your app: determining which touch events you will use in your app design.
What Are Touch Events?
Let’s begin by talking about the basic principles of touch event choice. Touch events are the different types of touch that consumers use to interact with their devices (either with a touchscreen or with a mouse). These types of touch not only impact the user experience (UX), but they also impact the messages that the app design conveys. Different touch events have different feelings for users, and these feelings can change the way your user feels about the brand. Without further ado, let’s talk about the three most popular touch events and the way they can impact user experience.
The Click
The click is the first and most basic touch event. Users can click on items without even thinking about what they are doing. It is a classic, and it is great for simplifying the user experience, however, a website that operates with only clicks may seem one-dimensional.
The Swipe
The swipe has become synonymous with dating apps such as Tinder. So much so that “swiping left” or “swiping right” have become a part of the collective vocabulary. When a user swipes, they feel decisive, whether they are swiping through photos on Tinder or swiping through different color options in an online store.
The Scroll
“Scrolling” has also become part of the collective online vocabulary. Whereas swiping feels like an active decision, scrolling is often seen as mindless. Scrolling is often what you want your users to do when they want to see the next option, not when they want to go into depth on a topic. The monotony of scrolling can be enlivened when you create different items that scroll at different speeds.
Choosing touch events is about choosing events that are simultaneously interesting and logical. Your choices will define the attitude of your app or website. And of course, there are many more touch event options that you can explore.
