Windows and the Touch PC

I have been digging into touch now that I have a touch monitor to work with. Its a nice 22 inch multitouch monitor running on my wifes desktop PC.

Touch is definitely the future when it comes to computers, but not just for tablets. Actually the size of tablet screens makes touch a little bit limited because the area per pixel is small compared to a much larger screen found on desktops or large laptops. Two areas where I can see touch really catching on are:

(1) Large monitors for desktops.

Desktop PC’s with 20 inch or larger monitors make a very good choice for touch. Our touch monitor is 22 inch and thats just about perfect for me. Touch just draws you in and in some instances provides a unique user interaction with the PC.

(2) Ultralight notebooks with decent size screens.

How about this for an exciting PC ?

A laptop with at least a 12 inch screen, possibly 14 inch,  (sounds big, but trust me) which is designed to have a little as possible edge around it. The PC part does not need to be a power house, but instead put the money into the screen, rather than the computer (ie. CPU). Don’t add extra cost with all the extra stuff they normally throw into larger laptops, but instead it only needs an Intel Atom N570 CPU (dual core), 2 gig RAM, 64 gig SSD , Windows 7 Home Premium (later Windows 8) and no DVD drive. The screen must a full blown multitouch screen with at least 1366 x 768 resolution. Now make the screen be able to slide over the keyboard so it turns into a tablet like device. The thickness is not critical, but the slide action must be perfect.  Now make it as light as you possibly can. The key is to concentrate on the touch experience. Even in laptop mode (keyboard visible) the user will want to use touch on the screen.  The screen will likely need some kind of hide away flip out supports so the back of the computer can have some extra support when it is on a desk and you want to work with the touch screen when the keyboard is out.  These are just some ideas, but the point is that the next generation of ultralight notebooks are a good place to start using touch as well.

Now I should point out that everyone is waiting for Windows 8 because it supposedly has better touch support for tablets, but as far as I can tell, Windows 7 has all you need for touch. The problem is the developers are writing software for touch. Windows 7 supports both WM_TOUCH and WM_GESTURE messages to windows, but most software don’t support them. It is tricking writing software that can get the best out a mouse, notebook touch pad (not the same as touch screen) and a touch screen. The software needs to be intuitive and no what will work best for the particular hardware. I also don’t think that this all depends upon Metro either. The desktop needs to be more touch friendly and that starts with the software and not the operating system. Developers need to do more to make their desktop software more touch (and touchpad) friendly. Thats what I am currently working for my GUI engine. I want touch to be natural for app developers.

Now of course touch is critical for tablet PC’s and again a lot depends upon software developers. It is important to take into consideration a variety of screen sizes, touch, touchpads and the mouse. Applications need to have scalability built in so the user can compensate when touch is used (make everything larger). Software also needs to be more reactive. It needs to respond quickly to user input, rather than be sluggish. UI design must take into consideration the variety of input methods so it feels natural no matter which way you work with it.

This is a challenge for software developers, but we need to start working on this now, rather than wait for Windows 8, think it will solve all the problems. It won’t. Developers must develop the mindset of working with a variety of user input methods now. Start working with touch as soon as possible. Test your software on a variety of computers from desktops, desktops with touch monitors, laptops, netbooks and tablets. The next generation of Windows PC’s depends upon developers learning this now.