Why Gesture Is Next Big Thing in Design?

Since the dawn of human existence, non-verbal messages have been considered a cardinal element of communication.

Over the decades, the inclusion of body gestures has been considered analogous to spatial thinking. Like when we have to describe the orientation of an object we consciously or subconsciously use our hand gestures. However, as these signals are frequently associated with only these kinds of motions, gestures couldn’t be recognized as something universal and were marginalized.

The author of ‘Mind and Motion’, Barbara Tversky, explains the importance of spatial thinking claiming that

“time you take a shortcut or play chess or basketball or rearrange your furniture in your mind, you’ve done something remarkable: abstract thinking without words.”

Another research indicates that when we watch someone gesture, we feel as if we are watching them thinking in real-time, making the speaker’s communication easy to process and translate.

Over the past decade, humans have been enamored with voice interfaces. There are around 33 million voice-enabled devices being used on a daily basis. But there are limitations to these voice interactions- they are slow and need awkward triggers for activation. However, when the iPhone introduced a camera that could perceive 3-dimensional images and record every pixel, spatial thinking and gestures were back to the limelight.

Several projects to test the gesture interfaces were launched in past years. One of these experiments was carried out by a team of experts at Cambridge Studio which compared existing interaction modalities. They trained a neural network to recognize a small set of gestures and then use it to control Philip HUE lights and Spotify station to create an installation for the office. They discovered that gestures need to be sequential like sentences- nouns and then the action. For example, when people were asked to increase the volume through gestures, some gestured to turn an invisible knob while people under 30 lifted their palm to raise the volume showing that gestures are generation-specific as well.

The focus of modern technology is rapidly shifting to revolutionizing the experience for users. Therefore, gestures can also be used to create an impactful ad experience. They can also be used to create tactile engagement with ads to ensure a heightened and memorable brand experience. It’s up to the creativity of our mind how we use the subtlety and expressiveness of gestures to introduce a whole new category of products.