Some of you may remember that several months ago I put myself on a personally-dictated restriction from the mouse on my desktop. Why? Because I think touch is going to beat mouse sooner rather than later and wanted to see just how tough that transition is going to be. Also, just to be clear and give ITTO and NOP their due immediately, I am a Macultist that cannot think on my own, so the moment Apple came out with one I had to buy it. I am a Stepford customer.
There have been trackpad, trackballs, pen tablets, you name it as input devices for a long time now - so why the sudden jump? I have a doctor client that wanted to know just how realistic the Apple pad was as a replacement as a mouse (several, actually) - I bought one for him and had a WTF moment ... why not? There was a very specific moment in 1985 when I suddenly jumped hard onto the mouse, could this be another sea change? It's a good looking thing and arguably the best integrated with the OS that a pad has ever been, perhaps it could be the next step. Wanted to find out.
Growing painsThe first couple days were the worst. I looked at my lovely Logitech mouse sitting there... lonely, unused and suddenly way more sexy than it'd ever been. About 2 weeks in I actually got some repetition pains which took a bit of focus to continue using the pad and eliminate the problems. The real deal was that I was both too tense and was leaving my wrist in a single position and allowing my hand to "yaw" about - this is actually a remnant of my mouse technique (the yaw part) - the way I mouse is to put my palm heal on the desk and then pick up the mouse as I need to. This did NOT work for me on a tablet. I still yaw a bit, but now the palm heel is up and my arm moves more fluidly, which got me past the repetition issue. Targeting was also a problem for a little bit. I am deadly accurate with a mouse but the touch pad messed with my aim enough to slow me down a bit. Took a bit to work past that.
TodayThe benefit that I didn't anticipate, although in hindsight seems like a slam dunk, is that all of my devices share a common analog/digital interface. My phone, 'pad, computer and notebook all use a similar touch interface which is now much more comfortable than a mouse. I'm now to the point that my touch interaction follows my eyes and intentions the way my mouse did, with damn good accuracy.
The other benefit is the addition of gestures. I don't use grow/shrink on the desktop much, but other than that, I use gestures a lot now and they are starting to really take hold. The Citrix Receiver, for example, is not very good at interpreting my touches to locations on the screen. So a quick "grow," target and shrink has become a new part of my regular interface behavior. Interestingly, navigating my 6 monitors has now become easier with the touch rather than my mouse. I'm not exactly sure why, but I think it has to do with the "instant stop" of bringing my finger off the pad. Yes, lifting the mouse does the same, but there's something more natural about it with a touch pad.
Another interesting side effect is that I used to sort of dread the keyboard-mouse transition moment. In other words, I was just as fast, if not faster with the key commands of VI rather than reaching over and grabbing the mouse. The mouse always seems to be in a slightly different position, slightly closer or further from the keyboard which takes just that tiniest moment of cogitation and adjustment before proceeding to targeting. But with the trackpad it seems more "in the stream" of my work. It's pretty much always where I last left it and the cursor seems more likely to be exactly where my hand last left it. This is sort of subjective stuff, but I find that it is growing for me. I find that when I'm reading something or creating, my hand reaches the pad and gestures automatically and the screen does what I want, seemingly more naturally than with the mouse.
Also, "momentum" - the scrolling effect where the scrollable window keeps going after you've moved - is much more natural with touch than with a mouse IMO. And since a single finger moves the mouse and a double touch scrolls the area I'm editing, it just seems to be less hand manipulation to get the computer to do what I'm thinking.
SummaryAs I've pointed out on other threads as well, as soon as someone comes out with a reasonable keyboard (especially one like the M$ demo, whoo baby) that is a flat piece of glass I am ON IT. Gentle touching and swiping now feels a lot more normal than the deep-push of my Microsoft natural keyboard or my Logitech mouse. Or my Apple Magic Mouse for that matter.
This is CLEARLY not a scientific outline and I don't know if the trackpad is for many yet. I fall into the category of people that ski really well, but the moment I put on a snowboard it was like home. I don't necessarily feel things the same way as others and for that reason, YMMV. In fact, will almost certainly vary. But it may be worth looking at it if you have more connection devices than just your desktop. The commonality of all devices has paid dividends for me in terms of getting my intention into the box. Perhaps it might work for you as well.
All that said, it did not work for the doctor. After a bit he gave it up as too different than what he was used to. I can't say that is unexpected. The muscle memory of a mouse is probably stronger for most than the desire to go in a new direction. But I have a feeling that this may change. Touching phones, pads/tablets - the essential UI paradigm is starting to shift a bit. Although the touchpads of today may not at all be the way things finally wind up, gestures are going to make their way in and the mouse is going to go the way of the Dodo, I predict.
