I found myself assisting a friend in selecting a new laptop for her business. One recurring question that surfaced while exploring our options was whether the laptops featured touchscreen capabilities.
Having owned and used multiple touchscreen laptops, I never actually used the touchscreen, mainly because it wasn’t as good compared to an actual tablet or smartphone.
That got me thinking, should all laptops have touchscreen capabilities in this day and age?
I mean I can see why Apple decided not to include this feature with their MacBooks!
Personally, I don’t think it’s a feature I will often find myself using, but let’s explore the advantages and disadvantages of laptops having touchscreens…
To be truthfully honest, touchscreen laptops do have potential, especially if the laptop is able to convert into a tablet, in the same way as my Samsung Galaxy Chromebook 360.
However, based on my experience these touchscreens tend to be poor quality, but we’ll get to the disadvantages a little bit later in the article.
The first advantage of your laptop having a touch screen is intuitive navigation. You no longer have to rely on that dreaded trackpad for your navigation, you can simply tap the screen wherever you need to go.
It’s a faster form of navigation that many people are used to since we all own smartphones these days. You’ll be surprised by how many people I see tapping screens thinking that they’re touch screens!
Touchscreen tend to also be easier to use compared to trackpads, which in all honesty have gotten so much better over the years, especially as they now support gesture navigation. Put it this way, I always use the trackpad on my keyboard case with my iPad!
They are great for home use, sometimes you don’t need to use a physical keyboard, for instance when you are watching videos or playing games with a controller. This is particularly true for 360° laptops.
The touchscreen can also prove to be good for creative applications, such as drawing.
I know I’ve said it before, but in most cases, the touchscreens that are included with some of these laptops are just poor. Not only is the touch not very accurate, but they feel like normal screens making them fragile. I’m talking from personal experience here!
On top of that these laptops often cost significantly more compared to versions without the touchscreen.
Since we’re talking about costs, if you want your laptop to have a decent touchscreen, not just any touchscreen, you will have to splash out even more money!
The potential for screen damage is huge, especially on the cheaper models and speaking about damage, depending on the model, they can be more difficult to repair.
Touchscreens can also have an impact on the battery life as they can consume more power than traditional displays.
Some laptop models are made thicker, this is mainly true for 360° laptops. I knew that having my Samsung Chromebook in tablet mode would make it thicker, but I didn’t realise how much thicker it would be compared to my iPad.
The last drawback I wanted to talk about is the fact that not all software is optimised for touch input which can make the user experience worse as they may find that gestures don’t work and that touch control generally performs poorly.
As an IT engineer, I’ve worked with many laptops over the years and many of these laptops were touchscreen-enabled. I’ve also worked in a tech store that sold laptops.
But in many cases, I found the touchscreens to be poor, especially if we compare them to smartphones.
A large number of these laptops, don’t even come with protective glass, so you are effectively touching the screen and all it takes is a sharp nail or a slightly stronger tap and you can potentially break the screen.
This is something I see very often with touchscreen laptops, a customer will come in for a repair because they accidentally smashed the screen.
Some of these screens can be extremely sensitive too and all it takes is a crumb or a bit of dust to trigger a touch input making navigation a nightmare!
The worst part is that in many cases people don’t realise that that could be an issue. Working in industry, not many people even realise that their laptops have a touch screen so this can truly become a nightmare!
Personally, I can fully understand 360° laptops which turn into a tablet, but I just don’t see the need for a standard laptop having a touchscreen.
I don’t know if it’s just me who feels this way, but I just find the touchscreens to cause more hassle than it’s worth.
But, here’s the thing, we live in a world where everything around us has a touch screen, even my washing machine has a form of a touch interface!
So thinking about the current market and how people interact with technology, touchscreen laptops are understandable.
But my biggest advice if you are planning to buy a touchscreen laptop is that you visit a store that sells it before buying to ensure the laptop has a protective layer of glass on it and that the touch control works correctly. It’s also worth looking at 360° laptops.
What do you think, should laptops have a touchscreen?
Making the Human Touch More Powerful
Touchscreen technologies have improved immensely over the past decade. They offer a host of benefits for businesses that require building directories and wayfinding assistance, and that want to provide information or self-service options for employees, guests, and customers.
Some of the more common places you will find touchscreens being used are:
Each of these types of businesses utilizes touchscreens for different purposes, each with its own benefits over conventional methods.
Here are 11 ways touchscreen technology can enhance business operations.
1. No more strip lobby directory signage.
In the past, to update directories, you would have to open the display and replace strips to reflect current information. If you have multiple directory signage to update, you would have to spend time updating each one.
To illustrate, you manage a large shopping mall and have new stores opening, stores relocating to new locations, and a few stores closing. You have to visit each directory display in your mall and manually update each sign with the current information.
With digital directory signage systems, you just need to electronically update the information in the data directory once. Then you can replicate and share the same update with all of the digital signs in your mall.
Best of all, you do not have to walk to a sign display to make any changes and updates! You can make changes and updates or alter what information is displayed right from your desk.
2. Create a culture to attract new clients, customers and tenants.
You can customize your digital directories with the types of content relevant to your business or industry by implementing different apps and features. For instance, along the side of a digital wayfinding display, you could feature weather, traffic, local news, or stock reports.
You could also implement marketing and advertising features on the displays. For example, mall management companies could sell digital ads to retailers and play their ads on different displays throughout the mall. Not only could this help bring in new business for your mall tenants, but it also provides you an additional revenue stream aside from the rent you collect for retail spaces.
3. Easy scalability as your business grows and needs changes.
It is easy to add more digital signage throughout your property and tailor each touchscreen directory for specific purposes or functions. For instance, in a multi-practice healthcare facility, you could have one touchscreen in the main lobby area for patients to use to locate their physician’s office.
Within each physician’s office, you could have other video displays/touchscreens on which patients could watch content or utilize various apps while they are waiting to see their doctor. Did you know people perceive wait times to be thirty to fifty percent less than they actually are when there are touchscreens and video displays in use?
You could use apps like headline news, current weather, calendar of events, traffic conditions, social media feeds, and so on to keep people entertained anywhere in your healthcare facility. You could even use a display with various apps outside your pharmacy so people could view it while they waited for their prescriptions.
4. Adds value for people that have physical disabilities and need assistance.
Touchscreens are very user-friendly, even when that person has a physical disability. For example, a person with arthritis can still easily “tap” the screen while using a wayfinding directory to locate a store, doctor’s office, or another place of business they want to visit. Screen displays can also be adjusted for those with visual impairments, so the text and images are made larger, temporarily, to accommodate this individual.
5. Can be configured to offer multiple languages.
In popular tourist cities, like New York, Orlando, and Las Vegas, not everyone knows English. You can have tourists from Japan, China, France, Germany, Mexico, Brazil, or some other place where English is not the primary language. By offering multiple languages support, your guests can select the language they want to use while using the digital directory for assistance.
6. Easy to use by people of all ages.
Most people are already familiar with how to use touchscreen technologies because their smartphones and tablet devices are touchscreens. There is only a small learning curve for someone who might not be too familiar with touchscreens. You just tap the screen while looking for the information you require. Some displays can also be configured to allow a person to search using an onscreen keyboard.
7. Takes up less space and uses less energy than conventional directories.
Touchscreens are flat-paneled devices, much like today’s televisions. They are lightweight and thin and do not take up much space to install. Even the large digital display kiosks you find in malls take up less space than those bulky square-shaped “old-school” directories. Not to mention, they tend to use less energy compared to conventional back-lit directories.
8. Provides a wealth of informational content.
In addition to wayfinding information, our touchscreen displays can provide a great deal of information that will make your business a welcoming environment for your clients and customers. Our devices are able to display headline news, current local weather, even traffic conditions. The possibilities are nearly endless.
9. More convenient than traditional directories.
With a traditional directory, people have to look line by line to find the name of the business, office, or retailer they are looking for. Then, once they find it, look at the “map” on the display and scan numerous spaces to find the one they want.
With touchscreen technologies, people are able to accomplish desired tasks by as much as 20% faster. If Search is enabled, they just enter the name of the business and know right away where it is located within the building. They could even be provided with onscreen directions to know which way is the most efficient to get there.
10. Easier to maintain than conventional directories.
Maintaining conventional directories means cleaning the front and sides of the display to remove fingerprints and smudges. If there are any light bulbs burnt out, you would have to open the display and replace those, too.
Touchscreens will also be touched a lot throughout the day. Getting rid of all those fingerprints and smudges is easy to do with an approved screen cleaner. You just spray it on and wipe with a soft cloth. This is essentially the only “housekeeping” type of maintenance they require once they are installed, other than a quick dusting on the tops and sides.
11. Can be used in outdoor locations.
Touchscreen directories can be used in both indoor and outdoor locations. For outdoor areas, however, special types of hardware may be necessary to protect the display from the elements and help ensure proper operating conditions.
Yet, you still gain all the same benefits as you do with indoor digital directory systems. You can provide directions and show weather updates or other such information that is relevant.
For example, many government parks are installing our displays in outdoor areas to provide hikers and campers with trail maps, weather updates, approved camping locations, and other important information.
As you can see, there are many benefits your business could gain by using touchscreen technologies and displays. Touchscreens come in all different sizes, from small ones you can use in elevators to huge display panels you can mount to the wall or have installed as their own stand-alone display kiosks.
With the number of apps and customizations currently available, and continuing to expand and grow, there really is no limit to how you could use touchscreen and electronic directories in your business.
Isn’t it time to upgrade to modern technologies and say goodbye to your conventional displays?
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