Touchscreens Vs. Traditional Controllers in Handheld

The authors present a study which compares touchscreen-based controls and physical controls for game input using Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed: Altair's Chronicles. The study used the Apple iPhone as a representative touchscreen-based controller and the Nintendo DS for its physical control pad. Participants completed a game level four times on each platform. Level completion time and number of player deaths were recorded. Results indicate that physical buttons allowed significantly better performance than virtual buttons.