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What are some good examples of gestures that work better than alternative input devices? It seems to me like the obvious choices of zooming, scrolling, and rot

What are some good examples of gestures that work better than alternative input devices? It seems to me like the obvious choices of zooming, scrolling, and rotating things can all be done better with buttons, a mouse, a wheel, or a knob. I can press the back button on my mouse a lot faster than I can two-finger-swipe to go back a page.

lathiat 10y ago
I find zooming to be infinitely better done as a gesture - whether on screen or on a trackpad.
- pilom 10y ago
  The problem is when are you zooming and when are you rotating? Google Maps on the phone is a great example. I find myself using "tap then flick up or down" or just the +- buttons much more useful because they don't require my second hand and won't accidentally rotate the map.
makmanalp 10y ago
Call me unimaginative, but I think fingers are good at manipulation more so than hand signs. So I can imagine either stuff like 3d modelling tasks, or when you're interacting with a 3d world (think games). Smush-deforming play doh with your hand is so much quicker and more precise than trying to do the same with a mouse or shudder keyboard. Or imagine doing knitting. I think hands are great when there is a massive multitude of possible next actions, like the knitting example, or artistic applications. Otherwise, if we can logically eliminate options of what the user could be doing (this object can only go in so many slots, etc), it's easy to just assist the user with that (think snap-to-grid) and then a precision input device is less necessary.
tetrep 10y ago
> I can press the back button on my mouse a lot faster than I can two-finger-swipe to go back a page. Big assumption that you're using a mouse (especially considering the ubiquitousness of laptops). Laptops provide a ready-made surface for fully portable use and I've found getting using a touchpad for professional and personal use[0] to be more than sufficient and that the availability of easy to use gestures is very nice. If you haven't tried gestures on OS X with Apple's touch hardware, I'd highly recommend attempting to use them regularly. I got a fancy Razer Blade 2016 and using the touchpad is significantly worse than an Apple laptop, and OS X has much better native touch support (3rd party software might make Windows better). I'd say touch interfaces are great compliments to keyboards for text editing workflows (more or less all I do professionally), you don't even need to move your hands off the keyboard to get a mouse (hooray thumbs!). I would liken getting used to laptop keyboard/touchpad as getting used to a minimalist *nix install. It's difficult at first, but once you get used to it you have a great skillset that lets you do anything you want on almost any computer. Not that you should never nice high-level and user friendly programs, but being able to drop down a level of abstraction and still get the job done is great for understanding how systems work. [0]: most of my video games suck without a mouse, but that's the only wall my personal use runs into

lathiat 10y ago

I find zooming to be infinitely better done as a gesture - whether on screen or on a trackpad.

pilom 10y ago
The problem is when are you zooming and when are you rotating? Google Maps on the phone is a great example. I find myself using "tap then flick up or down" or just the +- buttons much more useful because they don't require my second hand and won't accidentally rotate the map.

makmanalp 10y ago

Call me unimaginative, but I think fingers are good at manipulation more so than hand signs. So I can imagine either stuff like 3d modelling tasks, or when you're interacting with a 3d world (think games). Smush-deforming play doh with your hand is so much quicker and more precise than trying to do the same with a mouse or shudder keyboard. Or imagine doing knitting. I think hands are great when there is a massive multitude of possible next actions, like the knitting example, or artistic applications. Otherwise, if we can logically eliminate options of what the user could be doing (this object can only go in so many slots, etc), it's easy to just assist the user with that (think snap-to-grid) and then a precision input device is less necessary.

tetrep 10y ago

> I can press the back button on my mouse a lot faster than I can two-finger-swipe to go back a page. Big assumption that you're using a mouse (especially considering the ubiquitousness of laptops). Laptops provide a ready-made surface for fully portable use and I've found getting using a touchpad for professional and personal use[0] to be more than sufficient and that the availability of easy to use gestures is very nice. If you haven't tried gestures on OS X with Apple's touch hardware, I'd highly recommend attempting to use them regularly. I got a fancy Razer Blade 2016 and using the touchpad is significantly worse than an Apple laptop, and OS X has much better native touch support (3rd party software might make Windows better). I'd say touch interfaces are great compliments to keyboards for text editing workflows (more or less all I do professionally), you don't even need to move your hands off the keyboard to get a mouse (hooray thumbs!). I would liken getting used to laptop keyboard/touchpad as getting used to a minimalist *nix install. It's difficult at first, but once you get used to it you have a great skillset that lets you do anything you want on almost any computer. Not that you should never nice high-level and user friendly programs, but being able to drop down a level of abstraction and still get the job done is great for understanding how systems work. [0]: most of my video games suck without a mouse, but that's the only wall my personal use runs into