Direct Touch Manipulation

Input is a position, a duration and a path, read directly on the display. Nothing intervenes between intent and object: dragging moves the thing under the finger, tapping presses it, and a stroke traces exactly where it was drawn. Occlusion is the permanent problem, since a hand covers what it touches, and precision is limited by the size of a fingertip rather than the resolution of the screen.

Nintendo EAD's Nintendogs in 2005 used the DS touch screen for stroking, calling and playing with an animal, a design that would be absurd on a directional pad. Portable hardware supplied the reason, because a screen already held in both hands invites touching it. Two years later the smartphone generalised the idea, and multi-touch turned a stylus interaction into an entire platform's default control scheme.

Touch enabled the largest audience the medium has, and it rewrote what a session looks like, since designs suited to a finger and a spare minute displaced designs suited to a controller and an evening. It also constrained the form. Precise timing, simultaneous inputs and analogue movement are all awkward, virtual sticks are a compromise, and the monetisation attached to the platform reshaped design as much as the input did.