Playing with Tactile Feedback Latency in Touchscreen Interaction: Two Approaches

A great deal of research has investigated the potential parameters of tactile feedback for virtual buttons. However, these studies do not take the possible effects of feedback latencies into account. Therefore, this research investigates the impact of tactile feedback delays on touchscreen keyboard usage. The first experiment investigated four tactile feedback delay conditions during a number entry task. The results showed that keypads with a constant delay (18 ms) and the smallest feedback delay variation were faster to use and produced less errors compared to conditions with wider delay variability. The experiment also produced an unexpected finding – users seemed to perceive buttons with longer delays as heavier, with a need for greater force when pressing. Therefore another experiment was conducted to investigate this phenomenon. Seven delay conditions were tested using a magnitude estimation method. The results indicate that using different latencies can be used to represent tactile weight in touchscreen interaction.