Will we see the death of the touchscreen as a result of Covid-19?
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Interesting research from Foolproof that suggests four in five Brits will change the way they engage with touchscreen technology as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, just as it is becoming ubiquitous in our everyday lives.
Certainly Foolproof’s statistics suggest big implications for retailers, banks, and travel operators, who rely on millions of interactions daily with technologies such as ATMS, ticket machines, chip and pin terminals and self-service checkouts. Combined with previous third party research into the cleanliness of public touch points in retail outlets and at touch-based ordering systems such as McDonalds, the findings point towards the need for a much cleaner, touch-less future.
The research clearly indicates a change in what we think about touch technology with 72% of people having either worn gloves or wiped down a public touch surface within the last two weeks. When asked about attitudes towards the hygiene of publicly available technology, almost 50% (48%) of participants say that they will use contactless payment where the limit allows.
A quarter (25%) of respondents say they will use cash machines less, and only when absolutely necessary, and one fifth (20%) say they will do more online grocery shopping online.
Says Peter Ballard, Co-founder of Foolproof:
“This survey clearly shows that people are now more averse to touching technology in light of the current pandemic than they were before. What’s more, there are strong indications that these attitudes may become more ingrained in our post Covid-19 future. This underscores the need for changes to future product and service design, and we need to accept that people will want to touch things far less than they are required to do now.”
“For brands offering public facing technologies in the future, the exploration of other ways to reduce touch through design should be a consideration. In the immediate term, this creates unique design challenges that require unpicking. We suggest leading on intermediary changes which reduce touches to purchase such as, styluses, improved mobile payments and QR codes as a way to pay, whilst having a longer-term strategy for the trajectory towards being completely touchless.”
