The iPad: Another step away from tactility
27 January 2010 2 Comments
Don’t get me wrong, I want one. The wife and I just got new phones — AT&T’s service up here in Nebraska was sketchy, so we switched to Verizon — that use touch screens. I like the touch screen technology. And I like Apple products as a general rule.
But the iPad looks to me like one more step towards a world of untactility.
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I can only guess that a world of untactility is a bad thing, but could you talk more on how or why this is true?
Perhaps you refer to the fact that touch screen interfaces require virtual buttons and that virtual buttons only really work when fingers and eyes coordinate in actions which, at worst, only provide visual feedback?
Do things improve if we use a stylus? What if the screen could electrically charge areas in a controlled fashion, giving a tingling sensation along with the visual feedback?
I knew my post was probably too short, but when I tried to elaborate on the thought it wasn’t going anywhere. I was hoping, actually, someone would ask what you did!
Thing is I still don’t have an answer! (Have had very little blogging time in the past month; explanation forthcoming this weekend). But I do have plans for a series of mixed media sculptures fleshing out this idea. Stay tuned.