IntuiFace and the User Experience Trends of 2017 - Trend #8: Designing for Touch Alternatives

User
Experience Trend # 8 – Designing for Touch Alternatives

Touch alternatives: What are they?

There is a world beyond touch where touch is not the only medium of interaction. Here are some other forms of interactions that can be coupled with touch or can work on their own:

• Beacons- Beacons are low-energy devices broadcasting either a unique identifier or a URL.
• Similar in concept to
  beacon technology, RFID/NFC systems uniquely identify tagged items.
  
• -The Internet of Things is
  the universe of network-accessible devices that can send and receive
  information, everything from room lights and thermostats to possibly even your refrigerator.
  
• Speech Recognition- Use of the spoken word to express selections and share information.
• – Proximity and motion
  sensors can identify the presence or approach of onlookers.
  
• - Tangible objects are
  items whose shape and orientation can be detected by a display when placed upon that display.
  
• Demographic-based
  Interactions-
  Identify and react to age, gender, group size and more in real time.
•  Back to the basics but oh
  so useful. You may need to consider designing for these when creating your
  experiences.
  
• - Conversion of static and
  dynamic text into speech for the visually impaired.
  
• – Allow interactive
  experiences to communicate and interact with one another.
  
• QR Codes- Graphic representations of URLs that are easily consumed by mobile devices.

To read more about these
types of interactions you can head over to

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Touch alternatives: When to use them?

You can either use these alternatives on their own or combine them with touch. There could be multiple reasons to use these touch alternatives. Let’s look at some of them:

Drive attention:

interactive technologies like beacons or proximity sensors are a great way to capture the attention passers-by. For example, imagine having a digital signage display in a store window. You could use beacon technology or proximity sensors to get someone's attention. Couple that with a touch screen to improve engagement as they get closer to the screen.

Design for accessibility:

If you want your interactive display to accommodate the physically challenged, you need to couple your touch technology with other interactive options like text to speech and speech recognition. For more, read this article about

Take-home information:

Your visitors have interacted with your touchscreen and you want to provide them with a take-away like a coupon or a brochure. You could choose to add QR codes or, in a more modern twist, you could broadcast a URL directly to their device using the

Include the environment:

Imagine matching the room lightning to the content of your screen. Imagine having physical objects that can react to user selection.That's true immersion!

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Touch alternatives: How to use them in IntuiFace?

sure, IntuiFace is the market leader in no coding, touch-first content creation. But it might surprise you to know that its focus is on interactivity of all kinds, not just fingers on a screen. From speech recognition and beacon technology to the Internet of Things, IntuiFace is there, putting even the most complex technology in the hands of the creative in all of us. To see how IntuiFace can be coupled with these technologies