Get Ready for the Golden Age of Touchless UI

How the time is ripe for contactless user interface design to blossom.

The coronavirus pandemic has made us more aware of the physical distance between us and those around us, particularly those who aren’t part of our nuclear quarantine clan. And when we’ve had to venture out for groceries and other necessary goods, we’ve learned to be hypersensitive to everything we touch.

In the early days of the stay-at-home order here in Chicago, we noted how the necessities forced upon us during this crisis would give birth to all manner of innovation. The way in which we interact with technology is bound to change as a result of our newly-formed habits and aversions. Two interaction models stand out in particular.

Fear is a powerful motivator. Will we give Siri, Alexa, and Assistant another shot now that we’re more sensitive to touching surfaces that others also interact with frequently? Will first responders who come home to their families from a long day on the front lines think twice about tapping the volume button on their Sonos players? What about the remote control in the family room? Or the thermostat? Or how about handling your smartphone after a visit to the grocery store touching dozens of products? What about commercial applications like hospital, point-of-sale, and banking systems?

Our hunch is that this pandemic will give power to the human voice in more ways than one.

For many of us, it was our first introduction, albeit a fantastical one, to the potential of gestural interfaces. While gestural technology is newer than voice recognition, it also required a period of experimentation before becoming commercially viable. But its day arrived in recent years. And we believe that the conditions are ripe for gestural interaction paradigms to gain new ground.

If you’ve ever felt like you were on an episode of Punk’d, frantically waving your hands under the faucet of a public restroom to no avail, you’ve experienced a gestural interface. That’s a very simple use case, one that responds to basic motion in order to flip open a valve in the faucet.

Yet, more complex use cases are coming into production every day.

I’ve always admired BMW’s driver-centric design philosophy. As “The Ultimate Driving Machine,” BMW pays close attention to the driving and operating experience. Conscious design cues like the slight cant of the console toward the driver demonstrate BMW’s driver-first point of view.

Gesture Control is yet another evolution of this philosophy, one that we believe has potential applications beyond the luxury auto category. Especially now.

Six Applications for Voice and Gestural Interface Design

While this list certainly isn’t exhaustive, it’s a place to start. The more we become conscious of our physical interaction with everyday interfaces and objects, the more we will notice opportunities for innovation.

And that certainly won’t be limited to voice and gestural manipulation. We’re bound to see more creative use of NFC (Near Field Communications), RFID (Radio-Frequency Identification), and other technologies yet to come. After all, Amazon has already developed a highly-effective prototype of how a “contactless checkout” experience might work.

Just as the Graphical User Interface had its golden age with the advent of the Mac OS and Microsoft Windows, it’s the perfect time for a new set of interaction paradigms to shine. Whether in specific response to the threat posed by the Coronavirus or not, such advances in UI are bound to make for safer, better experiences—by design.

Advancement in touchless interfaces can benefit more the user, too. Companies can benefit as well since at this moment, investing in these interfaces is a decision that contains both altruism and opportunism. Rather than choosing between public good and commercial gain, companies with the will to act now can do the right thing for both their consumers and their bottom lines. I think that’s pretty powerful — and can be a call to action for the companies positioned to lead these changes.

Simple Solutions In the Meantime

While we await bold technological innovation in touchless interaction design, there are some simple everyday tools people can use to reduce their environmental “touchprint.”

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