Can't tell whether a touch registered without looking

Raised by 69 people over 15 years (2012–2026), in 12 of them.

What people report

2012-11
there is no feedback to let your fingers know when you're actually touching a button and when you are not
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2020-03
dropping the customizable buttons, dropping the sunroof dial, making touchsensative (but not actually tactile) physical controls
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2022-08
The touchscreen on the Ford was a pain to use after several years.
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2024-03
The overwhelming majority of touch screens just do _not_ work with the user wearing gloves.
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2026-09
my hands get dry enough sometimes that my phone's touch interface doesn't work reliably
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Principle

Feedback (Norman)

People report that touch controls give no click or haptic response, so the only way to know a press registered is to look at the screen.

More issues about feedback and system status

A fix

Give every accepted press a haptic pulse under the finger and a short distinct sound. Confirm state changes in the instrument cluster or head-up display, close to the driver's line of sight.

Grouping, principle and fix drafted with Claude and reviewed by Justusability. Counts are people whose comment Claude labelled a usability complaint about this issue; see Method for how, and its limits. Something wrong here?

All 73 source comments