Before you invest in touch target size

Most teams know this matters. Fewer have decided who owns it. Before you spend anything on touch target size, it is worth confirming a few things are already true.

Most of it is correctness rather than charity: use the right element and much of it happens automatically. The teams that stay on top of it are the ones who put it on a calendar rather than a wish list.

Prerequisites

• You can describe the outcome you want in one sentence
• Someone owns it after the work is done
• Small targets cause mis-taps and frustration
• You have a way to tell whether it worked

Common failure modes

Around 44px square is the usual minimum. Small and consistent beats large and occasional here. It rarely shows up as a line item, which is exactly why it slips.

Spacing between targets matters as much as size. This is the sort of thing that compounds, quietly, in both directions. The failure mode is not doing it wrong, it is doing it once and assuming it stays done.

In practice

Accessibility work almost always improves the experience for people who have no impairment at all. Three things worth confirming about touch target size before you move on:

• Someone can say what the current setup is without going to look
• Around 44px square is the usual minimum — and you know whether that is true here
• There is a way to tell whether the last change to this helped

If you want a second opinion on how yours is set up, ask.