Touching

If you are to believe the hype about touch screens coming out of the CES this year, it looks like the age of the button/key has come to an end. But in talking to the people that I know who are big into txting and big into their toys, like the iPod touch or iPhone, they seem to feel that the buttons still have their place. There is something about the tactile response that lets them get things done as quickly as possible. Now it may be a learning curve, and it may be some level of pushback, but overall, people seem not to want to give up their keyboards.

Personally, I think you can get pretty fast on a touchscreen, but you certainly can’t do it blind. There is no registration point for the “keyboard” to move from. Without this, I think you might find a limited adoption. The solution – maybe have a slider, where the general interface is touch, but then there is a key based support. So in the end, the button may live on (don’t worry Staples… ).