When it comes down to getting the best from your touch screen, there are two things to consider: how to use it properly and secondly, how to keep it clean.

For people who are new to touch screen technology, it can take a little getting used to, mainly because mouse and tracker ball techniques have been around for such a long time.

Now with the launch of the iPhone and HTC range of touch-screen phones, it’s become a different ball game altogether. And the designers of these touch screens interfaces are obsessed with one thing: the speed on the interaction. If the user places his stylus, or finger on the screen and there’s a delay, then the whole idea behind touch screen technology being intuitive, goes out the window. And when people use a touch screen, they do expect a positive result as regards feedback.

So, ideally, you want a rapid response from your touch-screen interface, but you don’t want to race yourself in retrieving the information. Light, but positive stylus/finger strokes are the order of the day, and it’s not a competition to see how fast you can go. And remember that touch screens are better for data retrieval, than data entry. So typing your novel on your phone is not the best use of its abilities.

Another preoccupation with touch-screen technology is the dilemma of finger-size. Should the interface be designed for those with thin, normal, of fat finger sizes. Fingers come in all shapes and sizes, so you need to spend a bit of time with your touch screen to decide how it accommodates the various sizes.

Intuitive is a word you’ll hear a lot with touch-screen design and it basically means you pick it up, almost subconsciously, as you go along. In your average touch-screen interface there are a number of intuitive and non-intuitive commands, and with a bit of practice, you can become adept at both. And you’ll also pick-up quite quickly the strengths and weaknesses of your particular interface.

Bare in mind when using a touch-screen, that background colours which are bright, or patterned, can help reduce glare from the environment in which you’re using the touch-screen and help keep down the finger print trail.

As regards on-going maintenance, touch screens do require the occasional bit of tender loving care, but you have to be rather careful as to what you are using to clean them, otherwise you’ll have a worse problem.

The crucial thing to remember is go easy. Touch screens are designed to cope with a bit of hard use, but they can easily be scratched by fingernails, pens used as a stylus, and say car keys if pushed into a handbag, or pocket. Prevention, as always, is better than cure.
And apart from watching for the proximity of sharp instruments, also try to keep fingerprints off the touch screen. Dirty finger tips should be kept away as much as possible and using a soft tipped stylus is the best way to exploit the screen.

So, you’re using the right type of stylus, trying not to navigate using a dirty pawprint, but you still need to keep the screen clean, it’s best to use a proprietary cleaner which will be marketed and sold as such a cleaner.

But when using an off-the-shelf cleaner, always do a quick test on the smallest part of your screen; just to make sure nothing horrendous happens when chemical meets screen.

So there you are, touch screens need a light approach, both in their use and their cleaning.

Tags: HTC, iPhone, Mobile Phone, Telecommnications, Touch Screen