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Touch Events and Mobile Web App Usability

3 minute read Published

Why PPKs “Stick with click” may not be the best advice in all situations.

I recently heard a talk from Peter-Paul Koch of QuirksMode on the touch events in mobile at the orbitz.com office in Chicago. During his presentation PPK gave us a great sound bite to use when dealing with the 300ms delay many touch devices use for capturing double-tap (zoom) events:

Stick with click.

Peter-Paul Koch

Under stick with click devs are discouraged from hijacking ontouchstart to make click events occur without noticeable delay. And though a good rule of thumb I view it as more of a best practice than a hard-and-fast rule.

Here’s why…