Adding haptic feedback to touch screens at the right time

  • Authors:

  • Yi Yang;Yuru Zhang;Zhu Hou;Betty Lemaire-Semail

  • Affiliations:

  • State Key Laboratory of Virtual Reality Technology and Systems, Beihang University, Beijing, China;State Key Laboratory of Virtual Reality Technology and Systems, Beihang University, Beijing, China;State Key Laboratory of Virtual Reality Technology and Systems, Beihang University, Beijing, China;L2EP-IRCICA, University Lille 1, Lille, France

  • Venue:
  • ICMI '11 Proceedings of the 13th international conference on multimodal interfaces
  • Year:
  • 2011

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Abstract

The lack of haptics on touch screens often causes errors and user frustration. However, adding haptic feedback to touch screens in order to address this problem needs to be effected at an appropriate stage. In this paper we present two experiments to explore when best to add haptic feedback during the user's interaction. We separate the interaction process into three stages: Locating, Navigation and Interaction. We compare two points in the Navigation stage in order to establish the optimal time for adding haptic feedback at that stage. We also compare applying haptic feedback at the Navigation stage and the Interaction stage to establish the latest point at which haptic feedback can be added. Combining previous research with our own, we find that the optimal time for applying haptic feedback to the target GUI at the Navigation stage is when the user reaches his destination and that haptic feedback improves user's performance only if it is added before the Interaction stage. These results should alert designers to the need to take into consideration timing when adding haptic feedback to touch screens.