The user wants to activate a function requiring continuous activation for a longer period of time.

Context

The user wants to deactivate a remote door lock for some time to allow people to enter.

Forces

From a designer’s and developer’s perspective, it may be difficult to implement failure states from the remote system properly. Visual feedback of these states should be considered.

Furthermore, it should be considered that this type of control locks non-multi-touch screens while this button is pressed, therefore, it can only be used without locking the rest of the screen on multi-touch systems.

Solution

Provide a two-state command button responds when pressing it for a certain amount of time. As long as the user holds his type of button the associated function is activated. Upon release, the activation of the function ends.

Interactive Example

Press the button to see its two states.

Usability Impact

Efficiency

Usage

Has been used in railways telecommunication devices to control an intercom voice channel.