Click: A generational marker

I’ve been working on a project designing for tablet devices, and I keep finding I have to correct myself, and say “touch” or “tap” when I’ve just uttered the word “click”.

…

Rather like grandparents fondly referring to the wireless, my generation are going to carry that word “click” in our vocabulary to describe interactions long after anybody last used a mouse.

In 2013 Martin Belam made an interesting point when he wrote The word “click” will become a generational marker.

Anachronistic speech patterns mark generation gaps

What an interesting idea. He is right that the term 'click' is as much of an anachronism as images of floppy discs to indicate storage or waste paper bins for files that are no longer needed.

Let's take the idea further. Now that we have touch screens, how much longer will the mouse or touchpad be considered essential computing gear?

Touch works well on phones and tablets. Most Windows machines now have touch screens. Yet, 12 years after this post was first written, Apple's Macs and MacBooks still don't have touch screens. This has not dented their popularity.

Leaving out touch screens is not a bad thing. Having to constantly lift an arm to touch a 36-inch desktop screen would be an ergonomic disaster. And it's not great for touch typists on a touch-enabled laptop.

Touching and clicking

Belam may be wrong. The mouse, or at least the touchpad, which needs a click, could be around for many years to come. Both are commonplace more than a decade after his post. In fact, there are no laptops or desktop computers that don't include one of these devices.

Touch controls have moved on with haptic feedback and more complex touch gestures such as pressing harder to get to other functions.

Desktops and laptops still come with keyboards. It is rare for anyone to buy a Microsoft Surface tablet without a keyboard. Many iPads owners have added a keyboard.

The trend away from 'click' has accelerated. We live in an age when voice recognition and speech to text technology is excellent. Many of us use voice commands with products like Siri or Alexa.

Voice commands feel more natural on a phone or smartwatch than on a laptop — it is almost the only way to control some devices like smart speakers. Perhaps 'touch' will also become a generational marker.

Beyond voice there are gesture controls. And if you enter the world of virtual reality there are other ways to control devices: grab, pinch or even 'look at'.

That's not to say the Windows, Icon, Mouse, Pointer interface is intuitive.

Speaking of generational markers… have you been around long enough to remember when people referred to the Windows, Icon, Mouse, Pointer interface as Wimp?

Thought not.