Why is haptic feedback important?

The user interface of your software plays an important role in how your customers or users interact with it, which can make or break your product’s success. Haptic feedback provides a valuable way to enhance your UI by allowing users to experience certain actions using feedback from their touch sensors. It also adds that little bit of extra polish that makes the difference between one product and another. Let’s take a look at what haptic feedback is and why it’s so important!

Haptic Feedback Definition?

In simple terms, haptic feedback creates physical sensations in your skin that mimic things happening on the screen. These tactile effects can add a more immersive experience to interacting with devices. For example, when you press an on-screen button, you might feel the button pushing back and hear a clicking sound. There are many ways manufacturers can create these tactile effects, but the most common types of feedback used today include actuators and mechanoreceptors. As for what impact this technology has? For starters, it allows users to interact with mobile devices without having to cover them with cases or additional protectors, which would hinder accessibility features.

How Does Haptic Feedback Work?

Haptic feedback delivers a tactile response to your touch screen and can improve the experience when scrolling, swiping and tapping on mobile devices. It can be generated by an electric motor that shimmies the device as you use it, or it can come from small actuators that push against your skin and simulate pressure. In 2018, Apple released the iPhone X with Haptic Feedback enabled across most of its operating systems. These types of responses in technology were first introduced by Tactus Technology in 2011 when they patented a mechanical keyboard design with silicon keys that compress and release as you type. However, Microsoft eventually acquired the company for $100 million after filing for bankruptcy in 2015. So it’s still unclear whether this technology will catch on with consumers due to privacy concerns.

Types of Haptic Feedback

Haptic feedback can enable a user of a device, system, or application to receive information about the interaction with that device, system, or application without seeing the screen on which the interaction is represented. An example would be vibration. For instance, if you are doing something (such as dialing a phone number) and the wrong number appears on your display, but you notice it just before inputting it, then your phone could provide tactile cues so that you can stop what you’re doing.

-The easiest way to think about this kind of technology is in terms of smartphones 

-A simple way to think about haptics technology is how when you scroll down on your touch screen and reach the bottom of a webpage, there’s usually a satisfying thud sound from your smartphone 

-In other words, your phone acknowledges the endpoint for scrolling

Haptic Feedback in Consumer Technology

One of the many uses for haptic feedback, or touchless technology, can be found in touchless screens. Since these screens do not have any physical surfaces that require contact to register an input, feedback is necessary to let the user know when they’ve interacted with the screen correctly. The inputting device communicates with a wireless sensor embedded beneath the surface that can sense variations in pressure. As more and more surfaces become touchless, it will become increasingly important to provide this system with accurate signals so as not to confuse users while utilizing it.

Where can you find more information about haptic technology?

Haptic feedback provides a physical feeling that lets you know what’s happening. It’s an addition to the touch experience that could soon play a bigger role in how we interact with our devices. For example, this can help avoid accidents and injuries by reducing guesswork. In addition, doctors may use it as a virtual tool for surgical training, engineers could benefit from it when repairing machines and navigating spaces, pilots could use it to make aircraft landing safer, and chefs could make cooking more fun and rewarding. 

There are many benefits of this technology. As mentioned, it allows users to understand their actions on an interface. Designers should consider these three features when designing or implementing interfaces: feel, function, and form. The feel component means giving the user some tactile feedback when interacting with your design, such as providing resistance or confirming that they’ve successfully pushed a button. The function component means making sure the user knows their next step, so they don’t have to stop and think about where they are in the process. Finally, the form component refers to making things visually clear, so there’s no confusion about which buttons do what, where something has been placed on the screen, etc.