For the past 20+ years, we are used to using intermediate devices
like Mouse and Keyboard for input. Their replacements are Touch and
Voice. While we are not there today for Voice, we certainly are
getting there on Touch replacing mouse (atleast in portable devices).
Whenever we see such fundamental changes, there is always an
opportunity. But these trends also mean, changes have to be made in
current products.
Consider the example on why iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad doesn’t support
Flash. While there has been a lot of talk on this subject, the best
technical explanation I have seen comes from a Flash developer on why Flash is not supported on iPhone/iPad.
Many (if not most) current Flash games, menus, and even video players
require a visible mouse pointer. They are coded to rely on the
difference between hovering over something (mouseover) vs. actually
clicking. This distinction is not rare. It’s pervasive, fundamental to
interactive design, and vital to the basic use of Flash content. New
Flash content designed just for touchscreens can be done, but people
want existing Flash sites to work. All of them—not just some here and
there—and in a usable manner. That’s impossible no matter what.
I recommend reading the entire post.
Going beyond Flash, I actually think this explanation holds true for web apps too. This lack of mouseover function could make some web apps and even some websites unusable or less effective.
There are ton of webapps that use mouseover
functions for many actions. Remember those drop-down menus on
mouseover? Sites like Amazon, eBay, GoDaddy, BestBuy, Microsoft… they
all use mouseover on their home page. Take eBay for example, the categories menu on the
top left is a mouseover event. The action for mouseover event is
different from onclick event.
All such mouseover functions have to be reconsidered while optimizing web applications for touch.
Does Touch kill mouseover function? I think it does.
It is not just mouseover function. But there are other things we are
used to on the web like viewing Tooltips, viewing the URL in the status
bar on mouseover without clicking the link…they will all be gone from
the web if we are accessing it from touch-based devices. Is it a good
thing? I think yes. Touch has its own advantages and I am sure we will
find some innovative alternatives. These are small compromises in
adopting the next major step.
Touch changes the way we use the web. We need to get used to it and vendors need to design their apps assuming this reality.
Well, capacitive screens have the ability to detect the distance your finger or capacitive pen are away from the screen. Wacom tablets have been doing this for a while, when your pen gets within 1-2 cm from the screen, a cursor hovers under the tip. This seems like a natural extension of the “onhover” events pervasive in many of languages you outlined in the article.
i am using the nokia n900 which has flash player
version 9.
Nokia has dealt well with those websites. there
is an option to turn on the browser to act like a
mouse…
From the wiki:
Swipe finger from the left of the screen (outside
of screen), towards right (into the screen)
Hover mode. An arrow is displayed on the left.
Clicking the arrow creates a pointer that can be
used as a mouse to select text. Deactivate by
clicking the arrow on the left. A quick hover can
also be performed by swiping-and-holding finger
on screen. This keeps the pointer visible until
the finger is lifted. Also, pressing space
performs a button click while on “quick hover”.
This can be handy if you just need to access a
mouse-hover menu or such.
Mouseover probably kills touchscreen for general computing, not vice versa.
Of course gorilla arm killed touchscreen for general computing already.
There will continue to be specialized applications for touchscreen, but the whole web won’t be reorganized for it.
Touchscreen will remain a limited application with a diminished web experience.
News? Not.
Web Designers: Wake Up And Smell The Touchscreen Coffee!
http://ebooktest.wordpress.com/2010/01/31/web-designers-wake-up-and-smell-the-touchscreen-coffee/
Disagree on this being the primary reason behind exclusion of flash from the iPad.
There is a bigger move towards HTML5 thats driving the whole thing. I think the question is this: how do you want the Internet to be in 5 years – a browser with 4-5 plugins or just the browser and everything else as standard?
We have two posts on this topic,
Adobe’s Flash getting dimmer? and No Flash on iPad : The Real Reason