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Touchscreens are unyielding and make no sound. Perhaps we could come up with a better term for pressing a button than "clicking" it? I have heard the phrase "button press" used, and "keypress" has a long history also. Is there an even better alternative?

(Eventually, someone will ask why we refer to phones as "ringing"...)

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    the click event for touch devices is "tap". – Alvaro Dec 01 '16 at 17:29
  • @Alvaro Cool. Is there a term that applies to both? –  Dec 01 '16 at 17:31
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    AFAIK browsers respond to both click and tap on touch devices. Chrome, however, is moving towards Pointer events to include them all in the same event. – Alvaro Dec 01 '16 at 17:33
  • @Alvaro OK. From now on, I will just point at buttons instead of clicking or tapping. I wonder what people using voice control would do? Shout at them? –  Dec 01 '16 at 19:04
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    It seems like a catch all might just be describing them as "interactions". Then you could break it down into spoken interactions, pointer, tap, etc... – Miles Reiter Dec 01 '16 at 20:13
  • @MilesReiter Good. So, now we interact with... buttons? Why are they called that? –  Dec 01 '16 at 20:58
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    That's an interesting question. Upon looking up the etymology, it seems that at least some, largely for butt in proto-germanic and old english, is still quite applicable even to digital non-skeumorphic buttons. It refers to stuff like "goal, mark, piece, and small piece of land". It would seem to be an example of a word still appropriately near its original contexts rather than ones that have drifted like your example of ringing or save icons still having floppy disc icons. – Miles Reiter Dec 01 '16 at 21:16
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    To clarify though, I would still go to tap or click to describe interactions with buttons before using interact as the verb, unless I was talking about two platforms at once where either could happen. I see interactions as the broad category that houses pointer events (or tapping/clicking), voice commands, and any other interaction method. – Miles Reiter Dec 01 '16 at 21:17
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    In real life, you "press" a button. – tripleee Dec 02 '16 at 05:29
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    This is definitely one of the things a good technical writer can help you with - they often have better wordsmith skills than designers. – SteveD Dec 02 '16 at 10:50
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    related: http://ux.stackexchange.com/questions/37963/what-word-can-be-used-to-mean-either-click-or-tap – DA01 Dec 02 '16 at 13:59
  • @DA01 wow, my bad, I didn't see that one. Uh, I guess we close now? Sorry. –  Dec 02 '16 at 15:08
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    @nocomprende oh, I don't know. I think it's related. Not sure I'd call it a duplicate, though. – DA01 Dec 02 '16 at 18:23
  • @tripleee "had this been an actual life, you would have been told where to press, and what to call it when it is in a computer system instead of actual life..." My point is: there are lots of ways to actuate an interaction, and so I was hoping we could create a general term that would not become outdated. People have this really strong tendency to name things according to the state of affairs right now, and then it looks silly later. Dial a phone? How would I do that with the Amazon 'Echo' thing? It is only going to get worse. –  Dec 05 '16 at 15:08

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Tap is what you should call it.

Yuliana Z.
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"Click on" is still the standard term.

It long ago lost any connection with any clicking sound that some physical buttons made, and should be understood as shorthand for "superimpose the picture of the arrowhead controlled by your pointing device on the picture of the button on the screen and briefly press the button on your pointing device".

MMacD
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