Designing Gestures 101

By Scarlett Payne | March 29, 2021

DESIGN

What Are Gestures?

Gestures help us communicate with user interfaces, like phone touchscreens. Tapping and swiping are but two of the gestures that have come to dominate how we use technology.

Gestures Are Integral to UI

Gestures cross the barrier between the physical and digital realms, letting us interact with interfaces faster, easier and more naturally. As technology advances, UI designers and businesses will need to adapt.

What You Need to Know When Designing Gestures

For most gestures, there are guidelines you’ll want to follow. With an app, for example, consider which interfaces (e.g., types of phones) users will use the app on. Evaluate how you’ll take advantage of their gestures r if it’s worth adding new ones.

Follow Guidelines

For most gestures, there are guidelines you’ll want to follow. With an app, for example, consider which interfaces (e.g., types of phones) users will use the app on. Evaluate how you’ll take advantage of their gestures or if it’s worth adding new ones.

Use What Users Know

It’s good practice to stick to what users know. You can get creative, but a level of consistency among gestures and interfaces helps keep them intuitive to users, increasing product usability.

Test, Test, Test

You should test the usability, effectiveness, learning curves and user satisfaction of a new gesture before releasing it to the public. You can reuse a known gesture for a new purpose, but you should still test this strategy in advance.

Think Outside the Screen

Gestures exist in everyday scenarios, including motion-sensitive sinks, air dryers and paper towel dispensers – even self-driving cars. You can get creative with phone gestures too. Devices now use rotation and shaking as methods of interaction.

Gestures and Accessibility

Gestures should be accessible: they should be usable to all people in all contexts, including people with disabilities. It’s also worth considering how you can use gestures to improve accessibility. For example, Apple created gestures that allow blind users to use their products.

Don’t Forget UX

UX stands for user experience, and it deals with the user’s perceptions and emotions while using a product. Always consider UX when designing gestures. Gestures that are fun but unhelpful or interesting but have poor usability are a result of designers who forgot about UX.

Give Users a Choice

Always give users the option to opt out of gesture features. Not all gestures are crucial to a product’s functioning. Sometimes, gestures like these annoy users who aren’t familiar with them or repeatedly trigger the gesture on accident.

Refine User Onboarding

User onboarding is crucial for gestures because they’re hidden and easy to miss, especially if a user is unfamiliar with a gesture or context. When onboarding, be brief and teach one thing at a time. Long tutorials are boring, less interactive and get skipped.

Embrace Gestures

Gestures are used in our everyday lives, but product designers have to know gestures more intimately. Have questions or want to upgrade the UX or UI of your products?

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