The use of Direct Touch in music apps, what is your tolerance level?

By Victor Tsaran, 8 March, 2014

Forum
iOS and iPadOS
Hi, I am curious to know what the users of music apps think about the use of the Direct Touch feature of VoiceOver for controls other than those where it is absolutely necessary, for example, the keyboard area of Garage Band. If direct touch is applied to an element which appears in the middle of the screen, this will disrupt the swiping flow, i.e. you are no longer able to swipe from one element to the next. If the use of Direct Touch is justified on such a control, are you willing to tolerate the disruption or you'd rather use the pass-through gesture to deal with such controls? I am working with a developer on an app where we have to make such a decision and wanted to ask what the community thinks to better orient our final choice. Thanks for your help. Best, Vic

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Comments

By Khalfan Bin Dhaher on Monday, March 24, 2014 - 03:25

Thank you so much for posting this topic here at AppleVis. I love the direct touch feature in most iOS apps such as GarageBand and other gaming apps. I find this feature very handy and useful in some apps I use such as GarageBand when playing an instrument using the onscreen keyboard. This feature works great for me depending on the idea of the app.

I think you should ask the developer to only use direct touch only on the parts of the screen where it is needed and to turn it off for parts of the screen that does not need it. So in this example, you said the part that needed direct touch was in the middle. So if direct touch was on in the middle and off at the top and bottom, then we could still swipe from element to element using either the top or bottom of the screen. If that will not work and direct touch mode would have to be turnned off or on for the whole screen, maybe there could be a setting in the app to use direct touch or to not use it. Because I am sure different people would have different preferences. Hope this helps.

By Jakob Rosin on Monday, March 24, 2014 - 03:25

Hello. All depends on the app, but in most cases direct touch is used sensibly and it is very useful. We couldn't play several games, use the music apps with out it. P.s. There is no need for that setting in the app as you can toggle it from VO rotor.

By Ken Downey on Monday, March 24, 2014 - 03:25

Personally, I wish Apple would make a feature where you can turn on direct touch whether it's applied in a nap or not. A lot of apps are and accessible just because direct touch doesn't work.

By Jesse Tregarthen on Monday, March 24, 2014 - 03:25

Hello, I like the feature. It gets difficult while working with buttons on the screen but I just touch and swipe above the direct touch area as best I can. I agree with Ken. I think of SmartGlass. I downloaded it hoping it would allow me to control the x-box because I can't really because I am blind but the main issue is that you need to swipe to move through the items on the x-box. I would think this could be possible to do because of direct touch and because of the car interface on Streaming Killed the Radio Star where you can swipe to change songs. Sorry this is long winded but this is what I think so yes I think it is a good idea. Thanks by the way Jakob for letting us know about the VO rotor feature. I will check that out. Jesse

There should be a way to enable direct touch from VoiceOver rotor settings. However, I could do that in GarageBand and disable this feature by changing the rotor settings.

By Victor Tsaran on Monday, March 24, 2014 - 03:25

The Direct Touch setting is available in the rotor only when it is present in the app. I do wish the setting was present regardless of whether the app uses it or not. So, I understand that folks are OK if there is more than one direct touch area on the screen. The reason this is so important for this app is because in it you can work with several areas of the screen at the same time. Thanks for your further input on this.

A fake workaround for direct touch when not applied by dev is to temporarily turn off VO, do your swipes and taps and then turn VO back on.

By KE7ZUM on Monday, March 24, 2014 - 03:25

I would not mind so long as it's made clear that you will loose that functionality. I hope it is not too late to reply on this thread.