Designing Gestural Interfaces: Touchscreens and Interactive Devices

If you want to get ahead in this new era of interaction design, this is the reference you need. Nintendo's Wii and Apple's iPhone and iPod Touch have made gestural interfaces popular, but until now there's been no complete source of information about the technology.

Designing Gestural Interfaces provides you with essential information about kinesiology, sensors, ergonomics, physical computing, touchscreen technology, and new interface patterns — all you need to know to augment your existing skills in "traditional" web design, software, or product development. Packed with informative illustrations and photos, this book helps you:

• Get an overview of technologies surrounding touchscreens and interactive environments
• Learn the process of designing gestural interfaces, from documentation to prototyping to
• communicating to the audience what the product does
• Examine current patterns and trends in touchscreen and gestural design
• Learn about the techniques used by practicing designers and developers today
• See how other designers have solved interface challenges in the past
• Look at future trends in this rapidly evolving field

Only six years ago, the gestural interfaces introduced in the film Minority Report were science fiction. Now, because of technological, social, and market forces, we see similar interfaces deployed everywhere. Designing Gestural Interfaces will help you enter this new world of possibilities.

Nintendo's Wii and Apple's iPhone have introduced the public to the power of using gestures to control devices and interactive systems. But how exactly do you design for this new interaction paradigm? It isn't like designing for traditional websites or software, but until now, there has been little written about these new interfaces, which will only grow in number and variety over the next few years. Designing Gestural Interfaces examines current patterns and trends in this new area, discussing emerging patterns of use, how to design and document interactive gestures, provides an overview of the technologies surrounding touchscreens and interactive environments, communicating to users how to use these new systems, and ways to prototype gestural interfaces.

Dan Saffer has worked for the last decade in the digital medium as a webmaster, producer, developer, copywriter, creative lead, information architect, and interaction designer. He is currently a senior interaction designer at Adaptive Path, a leading design consultancy and has designed and built Web sites, devices, and applications for companies as diverse as Tiffany & Co and the World Wrestling Federation. His work has been featured in New York magazine, Entertainment Weekly, and the Chicago Tribune. His Web site and blog can be found at www.odannyboy.com. Dan is a member of the American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA) and the Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA) and received his Master of Design in Interaction Design from Carnegie Mellon University, where he also taught interaction design.