Design Explorations in Distal Haptics for Touchscreen Input and Users with Upper-Body Motor Impairments

Abstract: Haptic feedback, commonly experienced as vibrotactile cues on mobile devices, increases user performance and enhances user experience, but research addressing users with upper-body motor impairments remains scarce. In particular, variations in how touch input is performed across different motor abilities raise questions about the optimal location, on-device or on-body, for vibrotactile feedback to maximize its effectiveness. In this work, we apply design thinking to explore alternative approaches for delivering haptic feedback at locations distant from the on-screen touch point, such as the user’s hand, wrist, forearm, or even the other arm. To inform our design explorations, we leverage empirical findings from a dataset of touch gestures performed on mobile devices by users with various upper-body motor impairments. We present future research opportunities at the intersection of haptic technology, wearable devices, accessible computing, and touchscreen input.

Conference: 2025 Conference on Creativity and Cognition (C&C ’25)

Publication: Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 409–413

Link: https://doi.org/10.1145/3715336.3735691

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