touch-based user interfaces

Touch-based user interfaces are used on touchscreens as found on a mobile phone, tablet and some laptops. In some cases they are identical to older mouse-based interfaces, where the finger touch is effectively doing the same job as a mouse or touchpad on a laptop or desktop machine. However, touch-based interfaces often use more expressive single and multi-finger gestures, such as swiping, which have to be learnt by users with few perceptual cues as to what is possible, reversing the long-standing focus on recognition rather than recall. For large surfaces touch-based user interfaces may allow multiple users allowing close collaboration, but also creating challenges of identifying which finger belongs to which user.