So it's been a few years since proper, affordable capacitive displays have been out. But every OS interface is pretty lame and boring. Especially the main contenders.
Apple has integrated "ape" gestures into the iPad. And Google... one finger zoom? Seriously, I feel neanderthalish using 4 or 5 fingers, and one finger... well it's as useful as LTE or NFC. Or a 3rd nut.
There have been 2 (two!) interesting approaches to the subject of touch interface, mainly using simple swipes. The BlackBerry Playbook (yes, seriously) and the Nokia N9.
Now Win8 has some of it (a swipe from outside mostly) but not in WP8. Just a 3rd lame touch option then.
BB10 however is pretty seriously getting into it.
But the most expected "revolutionary" and inovative will be Jolla. The creators of the N9 are building not just a new platform/operating system, but they are betting heavily on what made the N9 such a brilliant device. Simplicity and originality.
The simplicity is probably a bit hard to grasp. The new UI is full of new touch and swipe or slide gestures. Many new movements no one had ever seen or experimented. So first reaction? It's weird, it's complicated, it's not user friendly.
Well allow me to say that's where you're completely wrong. If you manage to get your hands on something like this, and actually use it and for more than some 20 seconds, your brain will quickly adapt and you'll soon find yourself using these new "moves" instinctively. And mostly, don't form an opinion just by watching a video, it is a TOUCH interface.
The future of mobile touch interfaces will lay in individual, application, general UI and icon taps/swipes/moves as demoed above. Some will be cross platform (as the "swipe in" seems to have become), other will be specific. But trust me on one thing. Your brain will memorize them faster than the freaking path (or 10) to some obscure settings menu. That is how I ended up double tapping every smartphone to wake it (obviously unsuccessfully, N9 heritage).
And the newer generation will assimilate it and use it so well, you'll look like your parents trying to use a mouse on a computer for the first time.
Of course, it won't be "awesome" until Apple implements it's vision of it, nor "cool" until Android releases it on a new Nexus. Then fragments it across some devices. One region/device/model/type/operator at a time.
But then again, this will only work with "real" multitasking and proper running memory/resources management. Guess Apple and Google respectively will have to solve those 'minor' issues first.
Go @jollamobile and BB10 !
I for one can wait to get out of the stone age of touch we're currently stuck in.
