Billions of people appreciate the simplicity of touch technology, but for the industrial sector, including home white goods and consumer goods, rugged conditions have been a roadblock to integrating this technology. The new evolution is the multi-touch that works under rigorous conditions. Even though multi-touch screens are widely popular on today's consumer phones and tablets the design principles for industrial applications and demanding environments are different for those in the rather controlled consumer environment for mobile phones and tablets. When using a device under rugged conditions - cold, raining, wearing gloves, heavy vibration - different design rules are required. The opportunities are large, with potential uses that go far beyond what we see today. Great opportunity brings great challenges. We explore the requirements and the design rules for overcoming them.

Great microinteraction design requires understanding the people who use the product, what they are trying to accomplish, and the steps they need to take. it requires understanding the context of those interactions. It is essential to develop empathy with the user, to develop observational skills of users and the knowledge of how to combine different aspects of your product - perhaps the results of different programming teams or even different divisions - into a single, smooth microinteraction? Chapter 1 does a great job of introducing the principles of how to do this. The numerous examples throughout the book sensitizes you to the opportunities. After that it is up to you, to continual observation that leads to discovery of the opportunities. And it is essential not to be blocked, as Apple's developers apparently were, if the solutions require cutting across company organizational structures. After all, doing things right for the user is what great products are all about.