Touchscreens Vs Traditional Controllers In Handheld

Summary

The paper describes the interactive differences between Iphone games and Nintendo DS game play, focusing on hardware interaction. The paper shows test based on experience with both devices, trials on both devices, and also times of death on both devices.

Pros

  1. Shows developers should take into account the hardware on which they developing for may need a different interface than previously designed software on different hardware.

Cons

  1. Since there was only one game tested, it is hard to show that the fault is not with the developer and that the device causes the results shown. In the beginning of the article it was mentioned that game play with other games that were both offered on the mobile platform and the Nintendo DS were different. This would show that other developers have anticipated the difference between the game play environments and made necessary improvements to ensure better game play.
  2. The results show that there is a learning curve with the Iphone, but not so much with the Nintendo DS. This could have been due to the fact the controls for the Nintendo DS are based from older systems that participants could have used. This effect was not fully disclosed in the paper.