Designing Gestural Interfaces: Touchscreens and Interactive Devices [Paperback]

If you have been a designer for the past five years and have some experience with touchscreen or interactive surfaces of one kind or another, then Designing Gestural Interfaces is not for you. This book is best for the beginner as its content is very basic and superficial. There is no deep thinking or insights here. Unfortunately, the occassional good topic is glossed over and your left with only the beginning of an idea.

It's true that designing for gestural interfaces is a relatively new area, but the author presents the reader with general and basic design information that has been known and practiced for many years and not nearly enough useful information about gesture design. For example, in the chapter on Prototyping Interactive Gestures, the author talks about the purpose and value of low-fidelity prototyping, but offers nothing related to gestural UI design; no hints, tips, tricks, pitfalls, solutions, etc. In this regard, I found myself getting frustrated many times throughout the whole book.

In general, the book reads like an introductory design book, a primer of sorts, updated to include gestures. I suspect that within the next year or so, updated versions of this book or even other books / articles will come out that offer much deeper insights. If you're a veteran designer, save your money and spend your time wisely reading other more insightful books.

There is not one line of code in this book. This text is about how gestures in the air and on surfaces can replace or augment the commands given by mice, keypads, and stylii. It is a broad overview, and contains few concrete details about how you would actually implement such systems in detail. For example, there is no "start to finish" design that is so common in O'Reilly books of this type. The author mainly just goes through what it takes to get your thoughts organized in such a way to design such systems. Each chapter has some very good "further reading" recommendations. You'll come away from this book knowing the issues involved in designing gestural interfaces, but not much more. I guess I was just expecting something meatier. For something meatier but a bit older I would recommend Physical Computing: Sensing and Controlling the Physical World with Computers. The table of contents for this book is not yet included in the product description, so I do that next:

Chapter 1. Introducing Interactive Gestures
Section 1.1. TAP IS THE NEW CLICK
Section 1.2. DIRECT VERSUS INDIRECT MANIPULATION
Section 1.3. A BRIEF HISTORY OF GESTURAL INTERFACES
Section 1.4. THE MECHANICS OF TOUCHSCREENS AND GESTURAL CONTROLLERS
Section 1.5. DESIGNING INTERACTIVE GESTURES: THE BASICS
Section 1.6. DETERMINING THE APPROPRIATE GESTURE
Section 1.7. FOR FURTHER READING
Chapter 2. Designing for the Human Body
Section 2.1. BASIC KINESIOLOGY
Section 2.2. THE ERGONOMICS OF INTERACTIVE GESTURES
Section 2.3. THE ERGONOMICS OF MOTION
Section 2.4. DESIGNING TOUCH TARGETS
Section 2.5. FOR FURTHER READING
Chapter 3. Patterns for Touchscreens and Interactive Surfaces
Section 3.1. HOW TO USE PATTERNS
Section 3.2. TAP TO OPEN/ACTIVATE
Section 3.3. TAP TO SELECT
Section 3.4. DRAG TO MOVE OBJECT
Section 3.5. SLIDE TO SCROLL
Section 3.6. SPIN TO SCROLL
Section 3.7. SLIDE AND HOLD FOR CONTINUOUS SCROLL
Section 3.8. FLICK TO NUDGE
Section 3.9. FLING TO SCROLL
Section 3.10. TAP TO STOP
Section 3.11. PINCH TO SHRINK AND SPREAD TO ENLARGE
Section 3.12. TWO FINGERS TO SCROLL
Section 3.13. GHOST FINGERS
Chapter 4. Patterns for Free-Form Interactive Gestures
Section 4.1. PROXIMITY ACTIVATES/DEACTIVATES
Section 4.2. MOVE BODY TO ACTIVATE
Section 4.3. POINT TO SELECT/ACTIVATE
Section 4.4. WAVE TO ACTIVATE
Section 4.5. PLACE HANDS INSIDE TO ACTIVATE
Section 4.6. ROTATE TO CHANGE STATE
Section 4.7. STEP TO ACTIVATE
Section 4.8. SHAKE TO CHANGE
Section 4.9. TILT TO MOVE
Chapter 5. Documenting Interactive Gestures
Section 5.1. WHY DOCUMENT ANYTHING?
Section 5.2. EXISTING MOVEMENT NOTATION SYSTEMS
Section 5.3. DOCUMENTING GESTURES IN INTERACTIVE SYSTEMS
Section 5.4. FOR FURTHER READING
Chapter 6. Prototyping Interactive Gestures
Section 6.1. FAKING IT: LOW-FIDELITY PROTOTYPES
Section 6.2. HIGH-FIDELITY PROTOTYPES
Section 6.3. TESTING PROTOTYPES
Section 6.4. PROTOTYPING RESOURCES
Section 6.5. FOR FURTHER READING
Chapter 7. Communicating Interactive Gestures
Section 7.1. THREE ZONES OF ENGAGEMENT
Section 7.2. METHODS OF COMMUNICATING INTERACTIVE GESTURES
Section 7.3. FOR FURTHER READING
Chapter 8. THE FUTURE OF INTERACTIVE GESTURES
Section 8.1. FUTURE TRENDS
Section 8.2. TOWARD STANDARDS
Section 8.3. THE ETHICS OF GESTURES
Section 8.4. FOR FURTHER READING
Appendix A. A Palette of Human Gestures and Movements
Section A.1. GESTURES FOR TOUCHSCREENS
Section A.2. GESTURES FOR FREE-FORM SYSTEMS
Section A.3. FOR FURTHER READING

Designing Gestural Interfaces is a great resource for those interested in developing or research in gestural interfaces. Designing Gestural Interfaces provides you with essential information about kinesiology, sensors, ergonomics, physical computing, touchscreen technology, and new interface patterns.
Dan Saffer is well-versed in interaction design and provides a good starting point for understanding the interaction principles behind gestural control. I appreciate how Saffer clarifies the technical terms before proceeding. More often that not, some of these terms are misinterpreted and wrongly informs the reader. The book later breaks down in a technical manner the basics of gestural interactions and various related topics which are often overlooked.
The methodical flow of the analysis of gestural interactions facilitated an organised thought process and evaluation of techniques. Designing Gestural Interfaces is not as detailed as books which focuses on specific platforms such as mobile web interfaces but provides a broader outlook on the use of gestural control as an interaction model. Even though it may be a dry read at times, it certainly deserves a spot on the reference bookshelf.