Touch target size: what to get right first

This is one of those topics that looks small until it costs you something. If you only fix one thing about touch target size this quarter, make it the first item below.

The cost of retrofitting accessibility is several times the cost of building it in. It rarely shows up as a line item, which is exactly why it slips.

Start here

Small targets cause mis-taps and frustration. Where this goes wrong is almost never a lack of knowledge. Check it against what you would want a competitor's site to get wrong.

Then this

Around 44px square is the usual minimum. There is a version of this that is over-engineered, and it is worth avoiding. Check it against what you would want a competitor's site to get wrong.

Eventually

Spacing between targets matters as much as size. It is worth being explicit about, because assumptions differ quietly. Budget a little time for it every quarter and it never becomes a project of its own.

The short version

Most of it is correctness rather than charity: use the right element and much of it happens automatically. Three things worth confirming about touch target size before you move on:

• Someone can say what the current setup is without going to look
• Spacing between targets matters as much as size — and you know whether that is true here
• There is a way to tell whether the last change to this helped

If any of that sounds like a description of your current setup, it is fixable.