Designing Gestural Interfaces: Touchscreens and Interactive Devices (Paperback)

~ Dan Saffer (Author)
Key Phrases: antenna design, ghost fingers, interactive gestures, The Future of Interactive Gestures, Interactive Surfaces, Documenting Gestures (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

If you want to get ahead in this new era of interaction design, this is the reference you need. Nintendo's Wii and Apple's iPhone and iPod Touch have made gestural interfaces popular, but until now there's been no complete source of information about the technology. Designing Gestural Interfaces provides you with essential information about kinesiology, sensors, ergonomics, physical computing, touchscreen technology, and new interface patterns -- all you need to know to augment your existing skills in "traditional" web design, software, or product development. Packed with informative illustrations and photos, this book helps you: Get an overview of technologies surrounding touchscreens and interactive environments Learn the process of designing gestural interfaces, from documentation to prototyping to communicating to the audience what the product does Examine current patterns and trends in touchscreen and gestural design Learn about the techniques used by practicing designers and developers today See how other designers have solved interface challenges in the past Look at future trends in this rapidly evolving field

Only six years ago, the gestural interfaces introduced in the film Minority Report were science fiction. Now, because of technological, social, and market forces, we see similar interfaces deployed everywhere. Designing Gestural Interfaces will help you enter this new world of possibilities.

About the Author

Dan Saffer has worked for the last decade in the digital medium as a webmaster, producer, developer, copywriter, creative lead, information architect, and interaction designer. He is currently a senior interaction designer at Adaptive Path, a leading design consultancy and has designed and built Web sites, devices, and applications for companies as diverse as Tiffany & Co and the World Wrestling Federation. His work has been featured in New York magazine, Entertainment Weekly, and the Chicago Tribune. His Web site and blog can be found at www.odannyboy.com. Dan is a member of the American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA) and the Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA) and received his Master of Design in Interaction Design from Carnegie Mellon University, where he also taught interaction design.

Product Details

• Paperback: 247 pages
• Publisher: O'Reilly Media; illustrated edition edition (November 1, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0596518390
• ISBN-13: 978-0596518394
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #48,999 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

  #38 in	Books > Computers & Internet > Graphic Design > Website Architecture & Usability
  #93 in	Books > Computers & Internet > Computer Science > Software Engineering > Information Systems

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good for beginning concepts, November 29, 2008

By	calvinnme "Texan refugee" (Fredericksburg, Va) - See all my reviews (TOP 10 REVIEWER)

There is not one line of code in this book. This text is about how gestures in the air and on surfaces can replace or augment the commands given by mice, keypads, and stylii. It is a broad overview, and contains few concrete details about how you would actually implement such systems in detail. For example, there is no "start to finish" design that is so common in O'Reilly books of this type. The author mainly just goes through what it takes to get your thoughts organized in such a way to design such systems. Each chapter has some very good "further reading" recommendations. You'll come away from this book knowing the issues involved in designing gestural interfaces, but not much more. I guess I was just expecting something meatier. For something meatier but a bit older I would recommend Physical Computing: Sensing and Controlling the Physical World with Computers. The table of contents for this book is not yet included in the product description, so I do that next:

Chapter 1. Introducing Interactive Gestures
Section 1.1. TAP IS THE NEW CLICK
Section 1.2. DIRECT VERSUS INDIRECT MANIPULATION
Section 1.3. A BRIEF HISTORY OF GESTURAL INTERFACES
Section 1.4. THE MECHANICS OF TOUCHSCREENS AND GESTURAL CONTROLLERS
Section 1.5. DESIGNING INTERACTIVE GESTURES: THE BASICS
Section 1.6. DETERMINING THE APPROPRIATE GESTURE
Section 1.7. FOR FURTHER READING
Chapter 2. Designing for the Human Body
Section 2.1. BASIC KINESIOLOGY
Section 2.2. THE ERGONOMICS OF INTERACTIVE GESTURES
Section 2.3. THE ERGONOMICS OF MOTION
Section 2.4. DESIGNING TOUCH TARGETS
Section 2.5. FOR FURTHER READING
Chapter 3. Patterns for Touchscreens and Interactive Surfaces
Section 3.1. HOW TO USE PATTERNS
Section 3.2. TAP TO OPEN/ACTIVATE
Section 3.3. TAP TO SELECT
Section 3.4. DRAG TO MOVE OBJECT
Section 3.5. SLIDE TO SCROLL
Section 3.6. SPIN TO SCROLL
Section 3.7. SLIDE AND HOLD FOR CONTINUOUS SCROLL
Section 3.8. FLICK TO NUDGE
Section 3.9. FLING TO SCROLL
Section 3.10. TAP TO STOP
Section 3.11. PINCH TO SHRINK AND SPREAD TO ENLARGE
Section 3.12. TWO FINGERS TO SCROLL
Section 3.13. GHOST FINGERS
Chapter 4. Patterns for Free-Form Interactive Gestures
Section 4.1. PROXIMITY ACTIVATES/DEACTIVATES
Section 4.2. MOVE BODY TO ACTIVATE
Section 4.3. POINT TO SELECT/ACTIVATE
Section 4.4. WAVE TO ACTIVATE
Section 4.5. PLACE HANDS INSIDE TO ACTIVATE
Section 4.6. ROTATE TO CHANGE STATE
Section 4.7. STEP TO ACTIVATE
Section 4.8. SHAKE TO CHANGE
Section 4.9. TILT TO MOVE
Chapter 5. Documenting Interactive Gestures
Section 5.1. WHY DOCUMENT ANYTHING?
Section 5.2. EXISTING MOVEMENT NOTATION SYSTEMS
Section 5.3. DOCUMENTING GESTURES IN INTERACTIVE SYSTEMS
Section 5.4. FOR FURTHER READING
Chapter 6. Prototyping Interactive Gestures
Section 6.1. FAKING IT: LOW-FIDELITY PROTOTYPES
Section 6.2. HIGH-FIDELITY PROTOTYPES
Section 6.3. TESTING PROTOTYPES
Section 6.4. PROTOTYPING RESOURCES
Section 6.5. FOR FURTHER READING
Chapter 7. Communicating Interactive Gestures
Section 7.1. THREE ZONES OF ENGAGEMENT
Section 7.2. METHODS OF COMMUNICATING INTERACTIVE GESTURES
Section 7.3. FOR FURTHER READING
Chapter 8. THE FUTURE OF INTERACTIVE GESTURES
Section 8.1. FUTURE TRENDS
Section 8.2. TOWARD STANDARDS
Section 8.3. THE ETHICS OF GESTURES
Section 8.4. FOR FURTHER READING
Appendix A. A Palette of Human Gestures and Movements
Section A.1. GESTURES FOR TOUCHSCREENS
Section A.2. GESTURES FOR FREE-FORM SYSTEMS
Section A.3. FOR FURTHER READING

3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Good for beginners and newcomers only, December 31, 2008

By	Ali M. Vassigh "User Experience Designer" (Redmond, WA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

If you have been a designer for the past five years and have some experience with touchscreen or interactive surfaces of one kind or another, then Designing Gestural Interfaces is not for you. This book is best for the beginner as its content is very basic and superficial. There is no deep thinking or insights here. Unfortunately, the occassional good topic is glossed over and your left with only the beginning of an idea.

It's true that designing for gestural interfaces is a relatively new area, but the author presents the reader with general and basic design information that has been known and practiced for many years and not nearly enough useful information about gesture design. For example, in the chapter on Prototyping Interactive Gestures, the author talks about the purpose and value of low-fidelity prototyping, but offers nothing related to gestural UI design; no hints, tips, tricks, pitfalls, solutions, etc. In this regard, I found myself getting frustrated many times throughout the whole book.

In general, the book reads like an introductory design book, a primer of sorts, updated to include gestures. I suspect that within the next year or so, updated versions of this book or even other books / articles will come out that offer much deeper insights. If you're a veteran designer, save your money and spend your time wisely reading other more insightful books.

4 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding Guide To Physical Interaction Design, December 24, 2008

By	Ira Laefsky "Ira Laefsky" (Philadelphia, PA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This new guide by Dan Saffer of Kicker Studio is the first book of its kind that addresses the issues of designing interfaces which involve physical interaction, and it borders on Industrial Design, Physical Computing and Software Interaction Design. It contains several useful methods and heuristics for designing interfaces for these systems. The title, which might imply that this approach is limited to interaction involving physical gestures, or systems with touch screens, is too limiting for this excellent design guide. Many new kinds of Physical Computing Platforms, Consumer Electronic Devices, Games, Cars and Instruments are offering new paradigms for how the user communicates with an Intelligent Device. None of the existing design guides goes through the methods of designing for a physical system which interacts with the user in a new way, whether that method involves touch, facial action, dancing or drawing in the air. While all of these interaction techniques are now available on the palette of the Interaction Designer, Product Developer, and Electronic Systems/Physical Computing Engineer, until now no book addressed how to approach these intriguing but complicated design opportunities. No single volume can answer all the questions in this emerging field, but this is the first and best book to date which has addressed the physical, software, electronic design, and interaction paradigm issues which must be confronted in designing these new systems. I recommend this book for anyone who needs to know how to approach designing intelligent tangible systems, from the Wii, to ATM's to Arduino Physical Computing projects, to facial expression recognition systems.

--Ira Laefsky