A Model of the Mode and Flow of a Gesture System

This chapter explains the model and flow of a gestural system that requires the development and refinement of a language. It also demonstrates that how users can flow from one mode to another, and how to use tool to design modes and flows. The model that is elaborated enables the process and allows teams to speak with sophistication about their language. The first step is always to lead the designers to model their language using this tool—as soon as this is done, the vast majority of problems becomes immediately apparent to everyone in the room. In order to explain the model of gestures, it examines in detail the gestures of the Safari browser on the iPhone. The Safari browser accomplishes something that's actually quite impressive: It allows both “point and click” gestures and manipulation gestures to coexist on the same screen. The manipulation gestures on the device are highly refined, tweaked through significant iterative designs.