PhIxDA Automagically

Tactile feedback is a major player in usability. When it comes to electronic devices and environments tactile feedback becomes known as Haptic Technology. Haptic Technology is feedback delivered to a user to allow for a more realistic and engaging experience. We can see this type of technology in place currently with video games and how new systems controllers employ haptic technology. This comes in the for of vibration feedback, tilt sensativity and pressure sensative buttons.

With the introduction of smart devices like the iPhone and BlackBerry Storm, the door has opened a little more for designers of electronic devices and their interfaces to take a hold of such ideas as haptic technology. Therein lies the question however, how can we design for such situations and at the same time make our output more intuitive and inviting? If there is one issue that can be a cause for concern it is that adoption of a new way to do something is generally very slow if not out right rejected. People don’t seem to like having their habits and ways of doing things changed.

One way haptic technology can help is in education. A concept of taking a touch sensitive surface that is two layers with an electrostatic reactive substance between the layers could help employ haptic technology. As a concept you could take that idea and use to actually feel the surface of something on the screen, allowing developers to create better user experience and one that could be more engaging.

In any form, usability and haptic technology are not going away anytime soon. Our drive to bring non-tangible items like websites and databases to the tangible world will not go away. In a sense we are using magic, get it, to bring the flat, digital world to our 4 dimensinal analog world and what better way to start then with how people use things. Know any good examples haptic technology that people use ona  daily basis? Please share it along with your ideas of how this technology could be used to improve our daily lives.

So I put a challenge out there for us. Two weeks from now I want to revisit this post and it’s idea and see one way each of us could use this type of technology in our daily lives. Does not have to be anything way out in left field and could be hypothetical, like something you think could help make your life easier, after all, isn’t a large part of usability about making things easy? Let’s see what we come up with.