Ken,

Sorry if my posts run a little long for you, but I'd rather address the facts
fully rather than give half-answers.  My response to your post:  (quotes taken
from your post)

Ken said:
track ball.  My personal experience is that my fingers dont relate well to
pushing a button with no tactile feedback,

My reply:
Part of the job of designing touch screen exhibit software is to provide this
feedback using 3-d buttons which depress when touched, or other visual
feedback like highlighting selected options and deliberately creating a delay
before the next screen is displayed so that the visitor registers their input
was accepted.  You can also use a sound card and put an audible click or other
sound to provide tactile feedback.

Ken said:
 that cursors/pointers don't
track well with touch screens, and that because of this touch screens don't
interact well with off the shelf software.

My reply:
Cursor/pointers aren't used with a touch screen.  In off the shelf software
their purpose is to povide a reference point to let the user know where the
next click action will take place, in touch screen _exhibit_ software, you
touch the exact point you want to select.  Your finger is the pointer.  My
question would be why would a museum go to the trouble to carefully design
exhibits using the principles of design with focus on their educational
mission for interactive/static exhibits then run down to Egghead software for
exhibits using a computer.

Touch screens don't work well with off the shelf software because you need a
larger area for a finger than a mouse cursor.  Which takes me back to a point
in a previous post on the part the user interface plays in fufillling the
educational role of the exhibit.  If you use a touch screen on software that
was designed for it, it requires less concentration than using a mouse any
day.  Where do you want your visitors focusing their attention?

Ken said:
Also, it is my belief that very few people have extensive experience with a
touch screen, whereas almost every person under 35 has played a video game
that has a trackball.

My reply:
I never said that people were experienced with touch screens I said that, from
birth, people learn to point and touch.  If you ever tried to play a video
game with a mouse or trackball, you were probably frustrated because these
games are usually designed to be used with a joystick.  And just because
"almost every person under 35" has played one of these games that doesn't mean
they enjoyed the experience. Part of playing these games is learning how to
use the mouse/trackball/joystick. The design principles that apply to exhibit
software are not the design principles used for game development.  (I would
love to elaborate on that).  Also, what about the people over 35.  There are
more old people in the US than young people.

Ken said:
Finally, there is no rule that says that you can't have both.  Macintosh
computers easily support multiple input devices all working simultaneously.
You can have a touch screen as well as a trackball both plugged into the
same ADB port, thereby giving your users a choice.

My reply:
I prefer to try to simplify the visitors interaction with an exhibit
(depending on the exhibit).  I think that if you stuck both on a computer you
would confuse many people.  PC's also have no trouble handling multiple input
devices.  The systems I deliver use a touch screen for the public and have a
keyboard/trackball (not publicly accessable) for a maintenance interface.

Ken,
It seems that most of your comments reflect a bias towards using off the shelf
software in museum exhibits.  The only program you mentioned specifically was
Netscape.  If a client came to me and asked for an internet access station, I
might recommend a mouse/trackball just so that the station could run either
Netscape or Explorer as these are the standards for Web browsers and would be
able to display many of the special graphics and features that are becomming
common in many web sites.  BTW, I hope you are running Netscape in "kiosk"
mode.  FYI, there is an internet browser developed for touch screens with
oversized navigation buttons for fingers.  It is more secure than Navigator in
"kiosk" mode.

For exhibits other than Web stations... I find it difficult to see how you can
just buy an off the shelf program that really delivers the information you
want in a public-friendly manner.  Many museums/science centers have specific
regional missions and off the shelf software will not deliver this kind of
information as it is written for a mass market.  There are also many design
assumptions applied to off the shelf software that make it unsuitable for a
public-access _exhibit_ kiosk.  The functional word here is exhibit.  If you
are using this type of software in a classroom resource center, then off the
shelf software will probably work okay.


Mark C. Vang
Freya Ventures