3 Areas Where The Smartphone Industry Needs Quality Standards

Touch responsiveness

Touch responsiveness is defined by the time it takes for a user to see a reaction after an input. While there are no severe risks to human health, a smartphone’s responsiveness plays a huge role in the overall usability of the device. This concept is known as “touch latency.” If it’s shoddy, the UX is downgraded and can be extremely inconvenient, while rendering many of the core functions useless.
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There are three potential bottlenecks that determine the degree of touch latency.

Tap latency: The time it takes between when the user presses or lifts their finger on the touch panel to when something happens on the display.
Initial move latency: The time from when the first touch interaction occurs until something happens on the display as a result. Entering in a phone’s passcode would be an example.
Move latency: The same concept as the initial move latency, only it is measured in later actions during swipe movements.

Issues with these metrics can be much more than skin deep. There are many contributing factors that determine touch responsiveness. It can be the application being used, software update, device configuration, and more. All the steps in the touch latency contribute to the overall latency of the device’s system, all of which make up the UX. If the responsiveness isn’t impeccable, buyers have no problem switching devices and not looking back.

For the good of the consumers and smartphone manufacturers, a universal set of standards for touch latency would drastically improve usability, and ultimately, customer retention.

Asset Science recently released a robot that runs top-to-bottom diagnostics on mobile devices. These tests can be executed in a factory setting, regional repair shop, or in-hand. Touchscreen responsiveness for both Android and iOS devices is one of the major factors this robot tests. It collects a wide range of data to analyze overall device health. The end goal is to provide quick solutions that reduce overall risk when reselling or insuring a device.

This robot will be available to networks of local shops and cellphone carrier service-provider branches. As a result, users will be able to get granular information regarding their smartphone’s hardware before sending it back to be replaced.

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http://www.digitalistmag.com