Off the top of my head, systems where a touchscreen is probably better than other input:
- Ticket machines
- Food machines
- Informational kiosks
- Border control machines
Basically whenever you have a public-facing system that's designed to be used for a short period of time, with relatively simple input.
Touchscreens are more accessible than mouse/keyboards, because many people genuinely don't use mouse and keyboards at all. Furthermore, it's a lot easier to keep a touchscreen clean than a mouse and keyboard!
I totally disagree - for simple actions there is no need for a touchscreen. Just put a button and a label. And LED to confirm the action, buzzer if sound is needed. That is all you need.
The only advantage of a touchscreen is surprisingly not the ability to touch, but the ability to reconfigure the input interface through software. When you don't need to reconfigure things, encoders, toggles, push buttons, rotary switches, etc. are far superior (with some downsides - cost, reliability).
> for simple actions there is no need for a touchscreen.
Ok, here's a simple action, that's often solved by touchscreens - Choose a destination from a ticket machine. Let's start with the button-first approach. Here's what the London Underground ticket machines used to look like:
- Ticket machines
- Food machines
- Informational kiosks
- Border control machines
Basically whenever you have a public-facing system that's designed to be used for a short period of time, with relatively simple input.
Touchscreens are more accessible than mouse/keyboards, because many people genuinely don't use mouse and keyboards at all. Furthermore, it's a lot easier to keep a touchscreen clean than a mouse and keyboard!