Advantages and Drawbacks | Touchscreen Museum

Please let me know advantages and drawbacks of a touch screen.

OK. The advantages and drawbacks of a touch screen are summarized in the table below. Considering that various input interfaces can be created with a touch screen, we can say that touch screen is a great HMI. But, you will notice that it is not better than other HMI in every respect. Let's look at the general advantages and disadvantages of a touch screen here.

Advantages	Drawbacks
Switch and buttons are not physically required. Device makers can make and modify various input interfaces creatively by software. With multi-touch function, various operations/inputs (eg: zoom-in/zoom-out, rotation) are possible. Because a user operates an electronic device by directly touching the images on the display he is seeing, the operation will be intuitive, thus anyone can operate it from first use. The whole unit is space-saving because display and input space are integrated. There is a lot of flexibility in design. Unlike keyboard or physical switch, there will be no dirt, dust, and moisture getting into the spaces between buttons. Thus, it is easy for maintenance.	Since a display is directly touched, the display may get dirty, then become less-visible. A direct touch may also cause scratches on the screen that may cause malfunction in some cases. Unlike push-button and mouse, users will not feel "click" when a user input a touch screen, thus operation may become clumsy sometimes. However, there are certain touch screens that provide "click feeling" when touched. Touchscreen is difficult to be operated for the visually impaired. Some creative ways to let them know where to touch are needed. Sound navigation and/or physical buttons might be helpful in combination with touch screen.

Advantages

Drawbacks

Switch and buttons are not physically required. Device makers can make and modify various input interfaces creatively by software.
With multi-touch function, various operations/inputs (eg: zoom-in/zoom-out, rotation) are possible.
Because a user operates an electronic device by directly touching the images on the display he is seeing, the operation will be intuitive, thus anyone can operate it from first use.
The whole unit is space-saving because display and input space are integrated. There is a lot of flexibility in design.
Unlike keyboard or physical switch, there will be no dirt, dust, and moisture getting into the spaces between buttons. Thus, it is easy for maintenance.

Since a display is directly touched, the display may get dirty, then become less-visible. A direct touch may also cause scratches on the screen that may cause malfunction in some cases.
Unlike push-button and mouse, users will not feel "click" when a user input a touch screen, thus operation may become clumsy sometimes. However, there are certain touch screens that provide "click feeling" when touched.
Touchscreen is difficult to be operated for the visually impaired. Some creative ways to let them know where to touch are needed. Sound navigation and/or physical buttons might be helpful in combination with touch screen.